In the Northland! Had an early start as always, headed up to Auckland where our first stop was. Said goodbye to people, most of them had been with us since Christchurch. So now there aren't many of us originals left now :( Had an hour in Auckland for lunch. It was like 10.30am when we arrived which was wayyy too early for lunch! So I just had a wander around and bought some lunch to eat later on. Got back on the coach and welcomed more people on board. It's fu...

Said goodbye to the Maoris after a delicious breakfast of French toast. Was dropped off first at the rafting place as was off white water rafting! In the winter, crazy I know but why not! We were fitted with wetsuits, helmets and lifejackets before being taught what to do and the safety rules and so on before getting into the water. It was awesome! Brilliant fun. Went down a few tiny waterfalls before a big one. We were hoping not to fall off but we hit a rapi...

Time to leave the snow behind this morning! The roads were very icy so had to pull over and put snow chains on the coach. We had to learn a song in preparation for the welcome with the Maoris tonight. It was pretty easy to learn thankfully! Headed to Taupo where some people did the bungee jump. Didn't bother as that couldn't beat the one I did in Queenstown! So I just hung around and watched all the jumpers. The sun was out so it was nice and warm at least whic...

Woke up to loads of snow, obviously it must have snowed heavily last night. It's gorgeous. So glad I'm not doing the Tongariro Crossing which is an eight hour hike. I would die especially with all the snow and ice lol! Went for a walk with some others which was meant to take around two hours. It ended up being around three hours! Uta, a German woman had hurt her ankle three days ago. So I recommended her not to do the walk especially in the snow but she went an...

Spent the morning in Wellington before making our way to Whakapapa Village. Went to Weta caves where they make characters for Lord of the Rings and other films. It was wasted on me as I'm either not a fan or I haven't seen the films. Plus couldn't understand a thing when they were showing a film about how they make the characters and how the films were produced. Luckily we weren't there for too long. Went to Mount Victoria (I think that's the name, not sure!) ...