Kia ora!! So, here we are again - reached the end of another leg of the journey and the end of a crazy old time in New Zealand! We flew from Buenos Aires into Auckland and believe it or not, got a big culture shock - everything was clean and modern, we could understand everything/be understood and they even drove on the left hand side of the road..how strange!!

We spent a few lovely days in Auckland before we started the Kiwi Experience. It turned out we were in luck because we were there for the end of the Auckland Festival so there were lots of things going on, including Polyfest - a Polynesian islands festival of song and dance. It was like a proper festival - lots of different stages (Tongan, Samoan, Maori etc), lots of food stalls and everyone sat around on the grass enjoying the nearly-sunny day! The festival was actually a huge competition between the secondary schools from the different countries, ad they were all dressed in traditional outfits. Also in Auckland we took a trip up the SkyTower to take in a few 360 degree views of the city!

We then started the Kiwi Experience, and set off in our big green bus from Auckland stopping at Mount Eden as we left. Our first big stop was in Rotarua which is well known for it's traditional Maori culture. So, that evening we went to a 'traditional Maori cultural evening', taken there by a mini bus which was actually a 'waka' (canoe) and we were in fact the oars...! After nominating our chief for the evening we had our 'welcoming ceremony' into their village for them to determine whether we came as friend or foe - it consisted of the warriors pulling very funny faces, making odd noises and threatening the chiefs with spears! Once we passed that test we were allowed into their village and have a look around before the 'gong' sounded and we went inside to watch them perform a play and various dances, including the haka. Afterwards came the best bit...the feast!! It was lovely food - all of it had been cooked underground in the 'hangi' - the sticky toffee pudding was definately a favourite! Rotarua is also home to one of the few geysers in the world that goes off constantly so we went to Te Puia geothermal park to see that, and also very excitingly saw a kiwi bird!! We also did a day trip out to Hamilton to visit some of Katie's long lost family!

Another big stop in the North Island was Taupo - and it was hard to miss the largest lake in Australasia there: lake Taupo! After a couple of good nights out here, we had to drag ourselves out of bed at 6am on the day we did the mighty Tongariro Alpine Crossing - a 19.4km hike across an active volcano!! It's rated one of the best day walks to do in the world so we thought we should give it a whirl! The mountain we were climbing was right next to Mount Ngauruhoe...apparently better known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings (having never seen or read LOTR this was all new for me!!) There was a good group of us doing it and we finished it in about 7 and a half hours. The trickiest part was the very appropriately named 'Devils Staircase' which was a constant uphill struggle lasting about an hour...but it was definately well worth it when you got a glimpse of the views from the top - the scenery was breath-taking and really not like anything I've ever seen before - I think the photos do it more justice than any description I'd be able to give so if you can..have a loook!!

The final major stop we had in the North Island was Wellington, but on the way we had a night at a place called River Valley - a beautiful spot in the middle of absolutely nowhere!! It was a nice place to 'chill' for the night, in between games of giant jenga and NZ's version of Junior Trivial Pursuit of course! The sleeping arrangements were also interesting - about 20 people in 1 bunk bed...work that one out!! We managed to pack a lot into our 1 day in Wellington; a tour of Parliament, watched a Parliament sitting in action, a trip to the botanical gardens and the a visit to the Te Papa museum - a huge interactive science/history museum! I think we could well and truly tick 'culture' off the list for that day!!

That was the North Island done and duster so we then took a ferry over the Cook Strait - more beautiful scenery as we entered the Marlborough Sounds. We worked our way down the west coast of the South Island with one of the more notable stops being at a tiny place called Lake Mahinapua. This is where we met 84 year old Les - New Zealand's oldest publican, and we stayed at his quirky little pub - The Poo Pub!! Earlier in the day we'd had an hour in a town called Greymouth to run around and try to put together a fancy dress costume which fitted with the theme "Moviestars and Superheroes" - my purchases were a red poncho and some gold crepe paper..later transformed into a Wonder-woman costume!! At the pub we had a lovely BBQ with some of Les' special venison steak, and then the fancy dress party got under way! It was a great evening and that night I shared my cabin with the likes of Pocahontas, SuperTed, Venom and Rambo!!

The next stop down the coast was at Franz Josef where I did a full day glacier hike. We got all kitted out with waterproofs etc, learnt to walk with 'crampons' attached to our feet and then had about 5 hours up on the ice! We had a really good time, squeezing through the tiniest of crevasses, crawling through 'ice holes' and we also had a go at carving some steps with an ice axe...but didn't get too far - we'll leave that one to the professionals!! We had spectacular views all day - with rainforest on either side of the glacier (only 3 in the world are like this, I'll have you know!!) We soaked our sore feet in the hostels hot tub that evening which was pretty exciting!!

The next big stop was the 'adventure capital of the southern hemisphere' Queenstown!! So it seemed fitting that the first thing we did when we got there was the highest bungy in Australasia (3rd? highest in the world)..yes, all 134m of the Nevis Highwire over the Kawarau Gorge. I'm not sure if it was the adrenalin or the high-level of excitement taking over but I wasn't as scared as I feel I should have been!! Before I knew it I was stood on a tiny ledge jutting out the side of the cable car..and it went 1..2..3..SCREEEEAAMM!!!! Oh..and JUMP!! The 8 second freefalling was over before you could start to worry and the only remaining challenge was to pull a cord that released your feet and turned you up the right way! This wasn't as easy as it looked and although I managed it, some didn't meaning they got winched back up feet first - just made their dvd all the more entertaining!! It was immense fun and we were all very excitable afterwards - the huge adrenalin rush took a couple of days to wear off!! SO, we were well and truely up for our "Big Night Out' in Queenstown that evening - we finished up in a bar called the World Bar where it was perfectly normal to be drinking cocktails out of teapots!! We had a great 4/5 days in Queenstown: a lot of partying, ate a Fergburger (it was a must-do apparently!), walked up to the top of where the cable car goes for some beautiful views out over the lake...and (as if bungy jumping wasn't enough) spent an afternoon in the park watching a bowls tournament...!!

We also did a day trip out to Milford Sounds in the wilderness of Fiordland. Some described the weather as mysterious, magical, eerie, mystical, atmospheric...others described it as raining and very cloudy!! But even though we didn't have the best weather, and all my photos look like they were taken in black and white, you could still get a sense of how beautiful it was! It also pleased us a tiny bit when we spoke to some people who had gone on clear day and they told us that they hadn't seen any of the impressive waterfalls that we did!!

Our final stop in New Zealand was Christchurch, a very 'English' city. We didn't do too much here - washing, photo-uploading, journal writing, Queenstown recovering(!) - all exciting stuff! And then our time in this beautiful country came to an end..and we flew to Nadi, Fiji where we were greeted with shell necklaces and warmth!! But that's another story...! Sorry this has been a while coming - lets hope I have slightly more motivation for this whole writing malarkey by the time I get to uni!! Fiji news will be coming soon..ish!!

Hope all things are well back at home, and thank you to everyone for all my lovely birthday messages, it was really nice to hear from you all!!

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