Boxing Day was already upon us and we decided that the perfect way to spend it was on the beach with cheese and biscuits! How traditional!! We enjoyed the sunshine and spent the afternoon in the very hot hot-tub before heading to the supermarket to get our dinner! We spent a fairly chilled out evening watching sky movies exhausted from all the Christmas antics! Elin even fell asleep in her clothes! Bless!!... read more

Possibly the best Christmas Eve ever we had an early start to catch the Dolphin Explorer where we were hoping we would get the chance to swim with wild dolphins!! We were a bit worried when we were told the boat had broken down but luckily this meant we had a free upgrade to the full day cruise round the islands!!! So we set off around the islands in the sunshine before a pod of 30 teenage bottle nose dolphins was spotted ahead! we all jumped into action grabbing snorkels and fins and jumped off the boat into a giant net attached to the boat! When we were finally given the signal we swam out as quickly as we could into the sea, heads down making dolphin like noises through our snorkels! Before we knew it ... read more

Today we headed back to Auckland, our final journey on the magic bus!! In the afternoon we just did some souvenir shopping and walked to the harbour in the evening where we went to see the launch of new P&O cruise liner!! The next day we managed to wangle a free day trip (supposed to be $40!!!- BARGAIN!!) to Piha - a beach resort on the West coast. We started by visiting a cultural centre before heading to an amazing waterfall which we didn't hesitate in jumping straight into!! We then chilled out on the black sand of Piha beach with great views of the lion rock and of course the NZ equivalent of the Bondi life gaurds!!!! That evening we returned to Auckland and had an early night in preparation for the Bay of Islands!! ... read more

The drive back up to Rotorua was not as stunning weather wise as the way down, and so the journey seemed especially long but when we finally arrived back into stinky town we decided to make the most of all the gift shops and the geothermal activity by relaxing in the geothermally heated pool which was 39 degrees!!! It was ever so slightly hot so we only managed a measly 15 minutes but we came out beetroot like but very soothed and ready for bed!!... read more

Becky's 22nd Birthday was unfortunately again very wet! But we were still able to enjoy another seal colony (much to Camilla's delight!!) and a stroll through the fishing town where obviously we just had to indulge in a Fish n Chip supper! The chips weren't quite up to Bert's standards but the fish (and Elin's lasagne!) was amazing!! That evening we decided to celebrate Becky's birthday in style with nothing less than Wine, Pick n Mix and of course Bridget Jones! ... read more