NEW ZEALAND - North Island

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Its been a while since we landed in New Zealand and I have to say that I love the place but it is damn expensive, especially compared to South America!!

First of all, I had a great birthday and received an additional travelling buddy especially for this occasion and for the rest of my travels - Darren arrived one day after me in to Auckland which was an awesome early birthday pressie and then proceeded to ensure that I had a brill birthday along with Sal and the girls, Charlotte and Andy a guy from the hostel. Had a great day trekking the volcanic island of Rangitoto and then had a rather drunken night around at our pad, which ended in me falling asleep before the drinking ended....no change there then!?!?

Then I had to say a 'for now' farewell to my awesome travelling buddy Sal (wondered how would dealw ith being detached after 3 1/2 months of constant companionship, we only spent a maximum of one 24 hours stint apart the whole of South America!!!!) as she went north with the girls and me n Darren secured a good deal for our travelling van - Vinny!!

Auckland was a lovely place, we did the museum and looked around, great vibe but it was great to exit the city and head out in to the sticks, where we couldnt have got any more remote than Fletchers Bay on the end of Coromandel Peninsula. It was great to wake up on the beach watching the surf and sunrise with a cup of coffee mmm!! the landscape was pretty rugged and beautiful, greens all over!!

Then we headed over to Hot Water Beach which was awesome - we had our very own hot pool in the sand, which you have to dig at low tide and you uncover boiling hot water to bathe in - bit stinky but great experience, not so easy to find your way back in the dark though hee!! We also did our first free camp near here...pretty scary...incase anyone comes and tries to move you, but it was successful!!

Then we headed down to Rotorua on long windy roads, so took a while and we smelt the place before we could se it - sulphur, renowned for thermal elements also - numerous hot pools and guysers. we decided not to stay too long here due to limited time but had a great lunch in Fat Dog (aptly names) and managed to surprise Sal and the girls by popping in to the hostel they were staying at, which was awesome!!

We stayed at Tokaanu (near Lake Taupo, wanted to be away form the city again) free camping and woke up to go for a run, have squeezed ina few so far, pretty hard though as it gets colder the further south you go!! we went to some cool thermal baths and tehn went to Tangariro National Park which was beautiful to look at Mt Rahpue and other two volcanoes, we even managed a few short walks and watched an amazing sunset which changed the sky to the most amazing pink colour!!

We then did a big drive, destination Wellington and stopped over in a gorge near Otaki...yep we like to keep it rural....but wasnt too sure about this one...miles out of town, even woke up in teh night and thought someone was siphoning petrol or something - over active imagination I think......

Wellington was beautiful and impressed me, yep must be good for a city to impress me!! we went to the best muesum I have ever been to - Te Papa, it was about Mouri history and also about the land etc and was the most imaginative and interactive museum, it even had an earthquake experience!!! we squeezed in a few sneaky pints through the day and then finished it off by finally finding somewhere that serves NZ traditional food 'Hangi' without having to pay mega $$ to do a Maori experience ina restaurant called 'Kai'. The food was delicious and I would never normally say that about a dish that has lamb in it!!

I would have loved to have spent more time in the North Island but we only had one month total in New Zealand and only had 25 days to travel around in Vinny (5 of those are dedicated to skiing/boarding too) so onto the South Island it was.....caught the ferry from Wellington to Picton, pretty cool journey too!

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Comments

[mum]

coffee
Hi is Darren a bad influence you seem to be drinking a lot of coffee !!! Its lovely to see you together again a pair of happy smiling faces Keep on enjoying.......