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The last post for New Zealand :( Its going to be sad to leave such a beautiful country but I have had a brilliant last few days and they have definitely left me wanting more!

When I was planning our time in the North Island I realised we were going to have too many days in Auckland so decided to look for something a bit different and came up with Karamu Trail Trek. This farm based accomodation is about 15 minutes west of Hamilton and is a perfect location to recharge the batteries before hitting Auckland. When we first arrived, I opened the car door and was instantly greeted by a gorgeous black labrador, who I have since discovered is more of an attention seeker than Tiggy! After checking in and popping into town to get the next few nights dinners, Dave spent the afternoon shooting down a large plastic sheet covered in water and washing up liquid with the other backpackers! I took on role of photographer as I was scared of getting a bruised bottom but the others seemed to have lots of very grassy fun! After this childish activity, Dave Smith the farm owner came and collected 3 of us (and Molly the dog) on his quad bike and took us through the farm to bring the cows in!

As well as being an attention seeker, Molly is also an excellent farm dog and herded up the cows while we sat back and watched! We then followed them all to the milking shed and I watched the lengthy process of 150 cows being milked!

The next morning I went for a stroll around the farm, marvelling at how much land Dave S. owned and then at 1pm we drove down to the stables for our 2 hour horse trek. This is now my 3rd horse ride in New Zealand and I have to say that Karamu Trail Trek is by far the best! It also happens to be the cheapest at an amazing $30 for 2 hours and even Dave W. a complete beginner enjoyed it. The ride was certainly the most challenging I have done too and at times the path was so steep I started to think I would be ending up in a pile on the floor, but my trusty steed, Magic, rose to the challenge and didn't slip once! He also put up with me jumping on and off many times as we were on a mission to clear the fields of ragwort, a plant which unfortunately you can not reach from on top of a horse!

As there were only 3 other backpackers staying at the farm, it meant that we all became pretty friendly with each other very quickly, an experience not often found in hostels, so after our ride, 3 of us and a ten yr old girl also staying at the farm all went down to the lake to have a splash about and a ride in the canoes! It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon and I certainly slept well that evening!

The next morning we left early for one of our longest drives yet, from Karamu to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. It took us 5 and a half hours but that included a stop for lunch and luckily Dave managed all the driving. Paihia is a small coastal town but feels more like a national park than the beach towns in England due to the fact that there were no shops selling sticks of rock or late night kebabs!
The next day I booked to go on a day trip round the Bay of Islands with a bbq lunch and dolphin spotting. while Dave spent all day in a sofa at the hostel. The trip was pretty enjoyable and the weather was perfect but I still don't think I have quiet conquered sea sickness which always leaves me feeling a little groggy!

We have now left Paihia and are in Auckland which is a bit of a shock after so much time in the countryside! Even more of a shock was meeting Jo and Ed from Kangaroo Island as we were checking in! It was lovely to see them and have a catch up and they are also off to Fiji in the next few days.

Tomorrow I have booked on to do a FREE city tour with Stray, one of the hop-on hop-off buses, which will hopefully provided me with the opportunity to flog my map and Lonely planet to someone having just arrived in NZ. It is then on to Fiji for 10 days of sunbathing and swimming, where hopefully I can get a bit of a tan on my still very pale legs and then a VERY VERY long flight back home to England!

I look forward to seeing you all again and will have many photos for anyone interested!

Lots of love,

Katie xxx

P.S for anyone who has knowledge of New Zealand, you will realise I have missed a blog entry! Yep, sorry I got a bit lazy. Since Franz Josef I have been to: Greymouth, Nelson, Wellington, Napier, Taupo, Rotorua and Waitomo. Daves blog provides more information of what we did here but not much was very exciting! Rotorua smells really bad but had a 7m water fall which I rafted down and Waitomo has some pretty cool glow worms!

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