New Zealand

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We left our resort at Yulara around midday on the 3rd April, taking the 6 hour shuttle by coach back to Alice Springs. Once again our driver kept us entertained by sharing his vast knowledge of the area. We also stopped to meet 'Dinky the Dingo' on the way back. My sister Emma was picked to play the piano and Dinky would jump up and 'sing' along to it. In truth the singing wasn't great, (probably more of a howling) but then neither was the piano playing. Dinky's owner went on to explain the story of Dinky and how he has become world famous for his talents with even Martin Clunes coming to pay a visit when making a TV documentary. We arrived back at our Alice Springs hostel at around sunset leaving just about enough time for a small meal and some beer before an early night in preparation for another long journey the next day.

Our flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne was due to leave at 11.05am but due to severe storms in Melbourne we were delayed by almost 30 minutes. This isn't a huge amount of time to wait but we had plans to squeeze in as much as possible for our last few days before heading to New Zealand. Eventually we arrived and what with the hour and a half time difference and after taking time to collect our luggage and rent a car we were fast approaching the end of the day once again. Our plan for the evening was to visit family who lived in Forest Hill, one of Melbourne's eastern suburbs. We finally arrived at around 6pm to be greeted by a whole host of second cousins that we hadn't expected to see. Pete and Estelle were very welcoming and cooked us dinner and made several cups of tea as we all sat around exchanging stories. We stayed the night but had to leave early in order to visit Phillip Island before heading back to the airport.

We drove the hour and a half journey to Phillip Island, leaving Pete and Estelle's at around mi-morning. We were joined by Ines who had been staying in Melbourne since leaving our road trip in Tasmania the week before. Our main reason for going to Phillip Island was for Emma to see the racetrack as she is a big Moto GP fan. The tour of the track was of no real interest to me although it was quite informative despite the tour guide clearly wanting to be somewhere else. We also wanted to see some penguins. Unfortunately, the penguin viewing was completely booked out but we got to see them for ourselves by hunting under all the walkways around the edge of the island. As we were leaving the country the next day and Emma wanted to see some Kangaroos and Wombats etc (well, you can't come all the way to Australia without seeing some wildlife) we popped in at another wildlife sanctuary to feed them and take pictures. Whilst here we also had a go at 'Australia's best mini-golf course'. I think it was probably Australia's worst mini-golf course. By now we were hungry and craving beer so we headed to our pre-booked hostel only to be pleasantly surprised to discover they'd accidently booked us into a cabin worth $150 instead of a dorm room. Good times.

A night of drinking left me extremely hungover the next morning but we were soon packed and on our way to the airport, dropping Ines back in Melbourne along the way. It was only once we were at the airport that we realised that we hadn't booked any accomodation for New Zealand and we were due to arrive in Auckland at approximately midnight local time. Still, all worked out well as firstly i got to watch 'Wall-E' (classic!) on the plane and then we found a 24 hour hostel on arrival.

Our stay here was shortlived. We finally got to bed at 2am and were up again at 6.30am to try and book a coach to Rotorua, where we planned to meet our parents. We managed to get on a coach leaving Auckalnd at 8.15am and arrived at our destination at 12.20pm. Mum and Dad were already waiting and after some quick 'Hello's' we headed straight for the lake to go for a soaking on the Jet Boat. Apparently Dad had spotted this earlier and really wanted a go. It was great fun and as well as getting us drenched also came with a quick tour of the surrounding island and some local stories from the past. Before heading back to where we were staying for the night we visited the Buried Village, which had become so during the last major eruption here in 1886. Depsite Rotorua really smelling bad due to the natural release of Hydrogen Sulphide from the ground we headed back into town for dinner at an Indian Restaurant.

Before leaving Rotorua on the 7th April we went for a short walk around 'Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland', a place that contains the largest area of surface thermal activity in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (or so the leaflet says!). Here, the 'rotten egg' smell of the area was at it's strongest. The rest of the day was spent driving South to Greytown to meet up with more family, passing through some great scenery along the way.

I've now been in Greytown for another whole day staying in a hotel above a pub (that closes at 8pm). We were taken out for a huge dinner by family the night before and tonight have been invited to eat at their home. First thing tomorrow we leave for the South Island and our last 5 days before heading home.

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