Blog 5, hello again.... We're now in new Zealand, whooohooo. That's Asia and Australia ticked off. Flight from cairns to sydney was interesting as due to Sydney traffic control asking every plane to have 60 extra minutes of fuel. So we had to stop in Brisbane to refuel and then flew off to sydney again. We got through passport control and collected our bags, and then looked for a bed in the airport to save $60 for a hostel as we only had 5 hours to sleep before the kiwi experience started. There were people sleeping everywhere, all over the airport, seats even mc d's seats. The flight deck was quite funny to see, due to the amount of people sleeping on the floor, seats and even under the stairs. We 1st tried to sleep on a deck of 5 seats, way to loud and uncomfy. Jo suggested we sleep in the children's section of mc Donald's play pen. which was a great idea as we had our own pen and the floor didn't look to hard. But it was a nightmare... The lights were to bright the floor was still hard and Jo and I both used my arm as a pillow!!! Jo slept and I kept waking up and trying new sleeping positions which none worked. woke up at 4am and we went for a walk to the flight deck. Tried to sleep on the floor but was again too hard and loud. Time was ready to hop on the airport bus and head to the kiwi bus stop for 7am. We had breakfast in mc D's and relaxed in the warmth for a hour. Then went across the road to join the other people waiting for the kiwi bus. Jo had the best explanation, "they all look like a bunch of 16 year old lesbians" I couldn't stop laughing for ages!!!! We were so tired that it was hard to socialise. Jo slept most of the way on the bus to our 1st stop, the bay of islands, the most northerly town on the north island. I stayed awake to hear the important information about the kiwi experience then had a little sleep to. We got to the bay of islands, which is a small town, where everyone knows each other, I think it's amazing in the sun, but rubbish in the rain. It rained for our two days, which made us miss OZ already. It's a town which boasts dolphin watching and possibly dolphin swimming. We had decided not to do it and lucky too. I spoke to a welsh guy who went out yesterday and didn't see anything let alone swim with the dolphins. We took a woody walk up to a view point which was nice. We then walked around the town, took 5 minutes lol. Had a lovely BBQ dinner and watched the dark knight film before hitting the sack, I couldn't sleep for nuns or sins!!!! I was getting so annoyed tossing and turning, driving Jo mad to. Lucky got to sleep around 2.30am. Checked out and chilled in the room until we were kicked out the following morning. Met a guy from wales called Chris, who gave us loads of info what to do on the kiwi tour and also gave us his copy of new Zealand's lonely planet!!! Sweet just saved $41..... Had a chicken noddle lunch and watched a film before the time came to jump back on the kiwi bus to Auckland. On the bus we met a bouncy young man from leeds called Willie, who had been out skinny dipping and a few locals nicked his clothes.
We arrived in Auckland at 6, checked in to a dorm with no windows to save $6 between us, that's a big mc meal!!! Went for a walk on the pier as there was Volvo's sailing boat racing ending there. Beat Johanna at raising the sail game but everything else was closed. Decided to have mc D's and couldn't believe how many homeless were in there. Mc D's had a free refills machine so people were going in the bins for cups and then helping themselves to a coke while reading their newspapers... Up early and back on kiwi bus to hot water beach. We hadn't really made many friends yet due to being so tired. After a four hour drive we got there. Went for a lovely walk to cathedral cove. A beach with a large cove. Then hot water beach, which gets its name due to natural hot water coming up through the sand, you hire a spade and dig a hole which makes a private heated pool, unique experience. Quite fun but when you hit a hot patch you need to jump around to mix it with the cold. We shared a room with two guys and a girl all from holland. Pasta for dinner and spoke to a women camping from nz, she saw our bland pasta and gave us a whole pack of beef sausages for free.. Whooohooo. We ate like Vikings. We chilled in our room chatted and joked the night away with the Dutch. Up early for a long bus ride to Waitomo. We booked a 3 hour caving and black water rafting activity, which involves caving and riding on tubes through the glow worm ridden caves... 1st extreme activity for New Zealand. (we thought about the film "the decent the whole trip lol) Black water rafting was a great adventure. We kitted up in wet suits, helmets and headed to the cave for our safety briefing. Before we went in to the cave we all had to practise a Back jump with the tube, the water was freezing!!!! But fun, kind of. We walked into the cave got to know each other quickly and headed in and around a small opening. They asked for a leader and Jo put her hand up for me, and lucas our guide selected her, Jo lead us in to the pitch dark black unknown, (on our helmets we had touches attached). Second pool we got to one of our guides showed us a massive eel... Ahhhhhh. We got on our tubes and had to lie flat in the water due to the very low celling. We hopped down a waterfall, and then back on our tubes. We stopped for a chocolate bar, where we were told to turn off our torch and look up. Above us where hundreds of glow worms. Was pretty epic... As a group we brought the pictures so they'll be appearing on Facebook. Really enjoyed the caving and survived the decent factor. Jo was extremely tired and had a sleep, we had the worst condensed soup for dinner. We had a beer and a few games of pool in the famous curly's bar, famous due to the fact that it's the only bar in town lol. Pub was rubbish though. Lovely sleep then long drive to Rotorua, which is famous due to its thermal hot pools and geothermal activity. We checked in to a cheaper hostel to save some money which we then spent on mc D's for lunch, free wifi though! Had a walk around town and watched the Japanese go crazy with their cameras over a group of seagulls. Checked out a few very smelly eggy thermal pools. In the evening all of us had paid for a maori cultural experience. We needed a chief for our group, our driver selected me after having helped her handing out tickets to the group. I said let the tribe decided, without knowing the bus driver had already selected me, everyone shouted out George George George, so George was selected. The evening was fantastic, it started with a war dance and us as a tribe being accepted to enter the village. Then I learnt the haka which was awesome as that was a tick on my travel bucket list and to be taught by a Maori tribe was even better. There were other huts where you could learn to ball and string dance, wood carving and tradition Maori tattooing which all would of been great to see but we had no time, big shame as I'm a massive fan of tribal tattoos. We went into a traditional house for a dance show which was very impressive, we then watched a DVD on maori people in the beginning of there time, a bit of propaganda regarding the introduction to Christianity, but the "white man" did use it to try and wipe out the Maori traditions. We had a amazing buffet dinner which the meats where all cooked in a traditional hungi, a large underground oven. The meats were amazing and such a change to pasta, noddles and soup lol. We ate until it hurt, that's not a joke, it really hurt :-).... Rolled back to the bus, sang lots of weird songs keeping ourselves entertained, the bus driver was a legend, apparently no licence and made us sing the wheels on the bus as she went around a small round about 4 times. We then went for a few drinks in the base bar, the lads and i entered a tournament of killer pool and I came a respectable 5 1st out of 15 people. Jo and i slept extremely well at the blarney stone hostel. I've decided to grow a travellers beard so check it out in the photos (you'll be able to see it in a few months)... On the way out of Rotoura, we went to the largest geothermal park in new Zealand, which had exploding hot mud pools, a pool hot enough to boil some eggs for us and a 15 meter high natural water fountain, which apparently used to be 40 metres high before the town tapped into the spring. The pools were impressive but the best part of the tour was to see a real kiwi (another tick off my travel bucket list), they had two kiwi birds in a dark room in a glassed off area. One of their keepers was telling us all about the kiwi, we leant so much. Our guide came back in to hurry us up and as we were leaving the kiwi started to call out. The keeper got extremely excited and called us back in, we watched and heard around 5 calls. When the female kiwi stopped, the keeper told us with a enormous smile how rare of an experience we had just witnessed, I thought she was pulling our leg until we asked a few locals that live on New Zealand and they told us they've never heard the call, which made it so amazing. We drove to Taupo the north islands adrenaline capital, which is where Dan and Nick had sky dived. They jumped from 12,000 ft and along with getting the video and photos they got the tshirts... They said it was amazing, great weather and so exciting... We went for a walk to a hot spring point which runs in to a river with Pete and Jess a English couple from Highgate. On the way we stopped and watched a few people bungy jump from 43 meters which looked so high, but yet the Nevis bungy we want to do its 134 metres ahhhhh. The spring was so hot and the river was so cold, sitting just under the hot waterfall hitting the cold water was amazing, our very own natural heated swimming pool and my favourite price free :-). We treated ourself to a KFC dinner, chicken was so nice... But as we were seating eating, a cockroach fell from the lamp and landed on our table. I wanted to put it in our food and complain, but Jo wouldn't let me lol. Got ready and had a few glasses of goon in our room, we headed to the hostel bar, which had a wet T-shirt competition on, I said to Jo during the day she should enter... I played pool with a guy called Michael from Canada and Jo had a drink with his sister Danielle and friend Erin and they all decided to play beer pong. After the girls finished playing A irish guy called Michael challenged me to a game of beer pong. Jo and i beat the two Michaels. The clip board came around, the guy wanted Jo to take part as there was only 2 other girls on the list. Jo said buy me some drinks and maybe... Within ten minutes and a few shots later Jos name was on the list, also two other girls from our kiwi crew. We had made friends with a large group off people that had all made friends on the kiwi bus, three lovely ladies and one guy from scotland, Lisa, Cheryl, shorty and Iain, the three Canadians, Michael, Danielle and Erin, one Irish Michael, and loads from all around the Uk, Dav, Dan, Willie, Liam, Caitlin, Jennifer, Laura, Chris and Ruby. We had caught up with Nick and Dan and were on the same bus which was nice, they had also made a group of friends. Danielle Stapleton heard that Jo was taking part and also signed up. The competition rules were two girls on stage for a song and the winner out each two would go in to the final. Jo and Danielle where the last two, they danced together rather sexy which the bar very much enjoyed... And they both went through to the final. Whooohooo. There where four girls in the final.... All the girls apart from one kept there bras on... Jo and Danielle again did a paired dance along with a bit of solo bum shaking... Was amazing :-). The crowd cheered for the winner... The women who took her bra off received a loud cheer as you can imagine, the next girl received a medium volume cheer, Danielle received a loud cheer but Jos cheer nearly lifted the roof, it was immense. Jo and the 1st women shared the prize and Danielle was also given a cash prize as the referee knew Jo and Dans dance was a joint effort. A night I won't forget soon... Johanna and Danielle where buzzing on excitement. Few drinks and after a dance we headed to bed rather happy and tipsy... I can ensure you mums reading this that Jo and Danielle kept there bras on.... We woke up the next morning with a bit of a Hangover and had to rush to catch our kiwi bus. We had a new bus driver as we skipped a night in Taupo to get to Wellington for a rugby game and st paddys night celebration. Our next destination was River Valley. On our way to river valley we went for a 2 hour walk with amazing views of mount doom aka mordoor (from lord of the rings) and the tongario crossing. There was a spectacular waterfall and we took lots of photos. When we arrived at River valley the lads played football while the girls chilled out and slept. That evening i took some great photos of stars due to no light pollution and played cards. We stayed in the "Orgy room", getting its name due to having one massive long bunk bed and loads of mattresses. Woke up at 6.30am for 7am start to white water rafting whooohooo so excited as always always wanted to try it... It was amazing, Myself, Jo, Dav, Michael and a German older lady called annette (who Jo said fancies me because she got to rub his cramp) we were labelled team retard, had Derek the best / craziest guide guy. "peddle my little retards he would command us". Derek had a great sense of humour!!!!! Grade 3,4 and 5 rapids which are labelled the best in the country. Jo had to get completely soaked for a photo opportunity early on and Dav was the 1st to fall in. We all had to jump in to get used to the water incase the boat flipped on a rapid, the water was freezing but refreshing. Half way on our journey we all jumped of a 14 metre high rock which was good fun, then derek flipped the raft over near the end for a great experience. Amazing trip!!!! I really really enjoyed it, in fact everyone in our boat / group really enjoyed it. Nick and Dan were on the trip to in a boat with there friends and also really enjoyed it. It was tough work which gave a sense of achievement. Next destination headed to Wellington, checked in for one as Jo and I have been wasting money leaving one bunk bed spare every night, cheeky but hey ho were travellers. Jumped on the bus, and headed to the rugby game, brought a cheap ticket and moved to the expensive seats once in the stadium. The Wellington hurricanes lost by two points but was a good game and great to watch / soaked up the crowds atmosphere . Watched the rugby with Jo, Erin, Pete, Jen and Dav. All the other had been pre drinking in the hostel. We all met up in the ground after the game and also bumped in to Nick and Danielle and there crew as leaving the stadium. We headed to a bar to have our 1st Guinness to celebrate st patrick himself. Tried to get into one Irish bar which was heaving but had a long queue so we went back to our hostel. We had a great Night partying away at our hostels club. Cheap drinks but no Irish music bit of a shame but managed to get some Irish face paint on which Johanna enjoyed painting on the whole group. Jo and i danced the dance floor on fire was such a great evening. Went to bed late after having such a great evening dancing with Jo and friends. Everyone was hungover but we (jo, myself, Dav, Dan and Nick) decided to go to the museum which has been highly rated by everyone who had been. On the way we stopped and watched the celebrations from a team that had won a dragon boat race. We walked around the museum for a good few hours and enjoyed messing around on a interactive wall like minority reports. Couldn't take in a lot of information due to the levels of alcohol consumed the night before. Nick and Dan headed back to the hostel to rest but myself Jo and Dav went up the so called cable cart (which was a train on a large strong pullie system). We had a lovely sunny walk around the botanical gardens and took some great photos. We were all so tired so headed back and had a nice early evening after beating Will at ping pong in the social area of the kitchen. Was nice as we shared a room with Nick and Danielle the 1st time since Australia. We said goodbye to Nick and Dan as they stayed in wellington a extra night. Another early start to get the ferry from Wellington too Picton, a 2.45 hour ferry journey with cloudy weather so no amazing views or photos. Most people slept, Irish Michael and i played against each other on tiger woods on my iPhone.

That concludes the 5th blog and our 1st encounter of the lovely north island. Everyone has told us that the south island is known as the best for epic landscape so looking forward to that. Hope you enjoyed. We're a bit behind on the blog so hopefully blog 6 will only have epic and funny stories instead of what we had for dinner each night :-). Hope everyone that is reading this is well and enjoying the good weather we are reading about back at home. Love t&j x p.s I'll put some more pictures up to explain some stories. Enjoy x