Up early again and back on the bus. We stopped in Hamilton (where I went to the rugby game) to drop a couple of people off and to get some groceries. On our way to Raglan we stopped at the 55 meter waterfall called Bridal Veil falls. Really nice falls. A girl I met on the bus named Meike (pronounced My - kay) and I decided that we were going to stay in Raglan for a few nights so we got a room to ourselves. Raglan is like a little surfing town with some really amazing waves. Our hostel was like a lodge in the middle of the forest. Our room had a view of the ocean. A few of drove back into town with the bus to look around and grab a few groceries. We ... read more

Scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast this morning. MMMM. We decided to do a horse trek this morning so we went over and helped Nathan our guide to round up the horses. We got to brush our horses. Mine was named Ziggy. He was super cute. For an hour and a half horse trek it only cost us $27 NZD!!! Cheap! It was fun being back on a horse as it’s been a long time since I last was. We got to go through some creeks, some forest bits, open fields, up hills, down hills. It was fun! We also learnt a lot about the history of the area thanks to Nathan. He told us lots of cool Maori stories too. Got back to the farm and ate our lunch and then hopped back in the ... read more

Took our time packing up and made some breakfast and then left our bags at the hostel and walked over to the car place. Signed the contract and got the keys. We get the car for $50/day with unlimited km’s and we just pay for petrol. Was then shown the car a little Nissan Bluebird. Never heard of those back home but was a cool car. Yes, luckily it was an automatic! I drove it back to the hostel which was so weird. First of all, you’re in the opposite side of the car of to drive and then you have to remember to keep left or the opposite side of the road and you have to remember to look the other way for traffic haha. But I got us there. Vera drove us over to ... read more

Vera and I hopped onto a ferry bright and early this morning to Rangitoto Island. It is Auckland’s youngest volcano and it last erupted 600 or 800 years ago, I can’t totally remember. There is nothing on the island and no permanent residence. Back in the early 1900’s people built small beach houses called Baches on the coast of the island but in 1930 it was decided that you could no longer build on the island. A few baches remain today and have stayed within families since the 1900’s and they still use the baches as vacation homes. We hiked up to the summit of the volcano which is at about 600 meters. It’s not a long hike but parts are quite steep and it’s really hot there because the trail and lots of the surroundings ... read more

Woke up to another rainy day. Went out and ran a few errands before coming back to the hostel and watching a bit of tv with Jodie, one of the south african girls. Got ready for the game and met up with everyone down in the bar for a few drinks. They also had a free "sausage sizzle" as they call it for us. Our bus left around 2:30 pm and I sat on the bus with another Canadian girl. This is only like my second canadian on this trip, strange!!! We had some fun on the bus ride down and played bus rugby which was nuts. We stopped at a grocery store in Hamilton and had some pizza that we had pre-ordered brought to us and then me and Jenna (canadian girl) shared a bottle ... read more