New Zealand Part 1!

hello everybody!!

I cant believe we have been in New Zealand a week tomorrow and away for nearly a month! Time is going quickly now and will speed up even more im sure!

After a few days in Auckland, which i have decided is nothing that special we have been up in the Bay of Islands for the past few days. 4 hours north of Auckland and a popular tourist destination for the kiwis. It provides stunning scenery and has good village vibes.

We have been staying in a village called Paihia and yes it does have internet, woo hoo!! We went on a dolphin cruise on our first afternoon (im afraid i cant tell you what day it is or even the date now!!) but unfortunatly did not see any dolphins - even though we found out after there was a 90% chance of seeing them!! The boat ride also included a visit to the 'hole in the rocl' which is literally just that!! The boat ride has to be one of the scariest ever, it was sooo rough - there literally was holes in the ocean when the boat just smashed! Since being away i really have felt the force of mother nature - our resort pretty much got struck by lightening in Fiji - it was the loudest bang and crack i have ever heard and was also scary!! Thats twice now, i have felt very helpless against the powers of mother nature.

We had a chill out day yesterday and it rained all day, but the sun has shone today and we have walked up to the next willage of Waitangi where the treaty was signed between the english and maori chiefs. It has been very interesting and rite up my street, although it is still hard to believe it was only in 1834.

On Monday we went up to Cape Reigna which is the furthest north you can go in NZ. It was beautiful and where the Tasmin Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. It was a really long day, we left at 6am and did not get back until 8.30pm. our bus broke down in the middle of the forest which was quite exciting!! We drove up 90 mile beach and went sand boarding, which was really good fun and the most extreme thing i have done so far!! The sand dunes were pretty massive. Have learnt loads about the maori culture over the past couple of days, everybody still speaks it up here and is very interesting to learn that it still has such a presence.

So we leave here this afternoon, about 4.30 to get back to Auckland hopefully by 8. We then leave first thing in the morning to pick up our bus tour. We have 12 days to get to Wellington and have decided to do the 'Peter pass' http://www.straytravel.com/north-island-travel.php see this link four route etc. we have decided to use this company 'Stray' to get around the northern island because hopefully we will see more off the beaten track and then when we go to the south island we are just going to use the national express buses to get around and try and save money that way!!

We have started cooking for ourselves now, so far the kitchens in the hostels have been brilliant so we are trying to remember all those classic uni recipes!!

Sorry if this is all a bit hit and miss. Trying to get everything done in an hour is proving to be quite difficult!!

Will try and upload some photos at some stage, have got them on disc but cant find a computer with a disc drive yet!!

Will post again soon. Miss you all

E xxxx