Bay of Islands, Mercury Bay, Rotorua, Taupo

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I can't believe how much I've done in a week. I started the kiwi experience early last Thursday and have enjoyed every minute so far. I started at the Bay of Islands, more specifically Paihia. We stayed in a little hostel called the Pipi Patch which was basic but had a great bar and was a short walk from the beach. I made friends with two girls called Victoria and Laura on the coach, and we spent the first afternoon together. We had a boat ride around the bay, then visited Russell which is on the mainland but a long drive away so we took the ferry accross. It was a really sweet village with a fantastic ice cream shop 😊 and a stoney beach. We spent a few hours there before returning for a barbeque at the hostel. I met so many people that evening who I'm still travelling with now - it was a very friendly bar! I went up to Cape Reinga (the tip of the country) the next day and it was totally awesome. It was a long day but very well organised; we left at 7am and visited a forrest full of gigantic trees before heading to ninety mile beach. It was a stunning beach and though not actually ninety miles (only 64!), it was very impressive and the perfect place for staged photos! We went to some sand dunes and were given body boards to whizz down on - very entertaining but clambering to the top was effort.

I spent the day sailing on Saturday with Victoria. We were taken out to a little island with pristene white sand and clear blue sea and given the oppertunity to Kayak or snorkel or swim whilst our picnic lunch was made. The weather was lovely the whole time so I really enjoyed it up there. We came back to Auckland on Sunday evening and stayed in ACB hostel which was really big and well acquiped. Early the next day we left for Mercury Bay, stopping off at a gorgeous beach for most of the day. It was St Patricks day and as one of my best friends here (Greg) is Irish we thought we'd make a night of it. The hostel provided us with spaghetti bolognaise which was so nice, then we headed out. However, it was a rather small place and they'd decided to celebrate St Patricks day on the Saturday before, so we took over a pub and made a night of it with just the people on our bus, which was actually really fun. We left Mercury Bay early the next morning for Rotorua, which was a rather smelly city because of all the sulphur in the volcanoes. We stopped of at the Karangahake gauge and went walking in the disused railway tunnels. I went white water rafting that afternoon with some of the guys. It was so much fun, but being the smallest for a change I had to go at the front and got rather squashed by the big guys (photos to follow!). The stretch we rafted down had a 7m waterfall in it which we went over - very exciting! That evening we went to a Maori cultural performance which was fantastic. It was very serious and we were treated how Maori's would treat tribes approaching their island in the past which was rather scary but an experience! On Wednesday we went to Waitomo and enjoyed some frfee time by doing our washing and sending e-mails (!) followed by a barbeque at our really good hostel. Yesterday was awesome for me; I went black water rafting in the Waitomo caves which are lit up by glow worms in the morning, then travelled to Taupo where I went sky diving! Both were awesome fun and well worth the money (I think so anyway!).

I've run ouyt of time on the internet now, so I'll come back and put photos on another time and add some more detail. Hope everyone's well xxxx

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Photos

Bar
Andy, Victoria, Bruce, Laura, Me and Greg in Pipi patch bar

90 mile beach
Good old pose on 90 mile beach

Sand Dunes
Greg at the sand dunes

Bay of Islands
Kayaking at bay of islands

Rotorua
With a Maori fella and Greg at Rotorua

Black water rafting
All kitted up to go black water rafting - i'm in the ring with Beth at the front

Skydive!!
AWESOME!!!

Craig
Craig crushing Mount doom!!