New Zealand - North Island

So we decided to fly rather than ferry our way to the north Island first stop to the capital Wellington, which Emma regretted slightly as the flight was so turbulent due to strong winds. The flight crew never even left their seats because it was so bad - however it was just a 40 minute flight.

Having arrived at our first 5 star Hostel (yes hostels have star ratings - and yes emma and I decide upon which hostel to stay at by looking at their star ratings) we were happy to find that all the double bedrooms in the hostel had ensuite bathrooms/wetrooms/a little room on the side with a toilet and a shower.



As we arrived in Wellington relatively late on in the afternoon we decided to just walk around and get our barings - the city itself is only 2km wide, and far less populated than the likes of Auckland further north, so it wasn't too hard to navigate. Emma managed to find a hairdresser, which gave Sam a couple of hours to chill out.



On our second day we went to the National Museum (and we weren't even lost). There were a range of different things there like an earthquake simulator and an underwater simulator taking you to one of New Zealands many underwater volcanoes. New Zealand has a fault line running right underneath it, with around around 15,000 earthquakes every year in the country, one hitting 5 on the richter scale just last week. However, every building is earthquake proof here (so we are told), so lets not panic yet parents.



Next stop was Napier. A small coastal town with one shopping street. Our hostel was above a night club which at approx 9pm was completely dead - and we weren't going to wait till midnight when it was meant to get busier. What we hadn't counted on was the noise from the club which happened to be above our room. It was so loud we could acutally hear the words from the songs - Emma got woken up a few times and in her daze attempted to look for the phone in our room (which we didn't have) to call concierge (as if!) to complain - in the end the music stopped at around 3am, when all of 6 people left the club - what a cool place!!



The next day we headed to Rotorua! This is the most popular place for tourists in NZ and we defintely saw why.

On our first evening we went to an authentic Maori village, where we learnt all about their culture, heritage and history, as well as the dance which many of you will know the NZ rugby team do before every game - with they eyes popping out and tongues wagging. We then had an amazing dinner buffet laid out for us (the main reason we went!), with every kind of meat, potato, vegetable etc.

With some others from the bus we have been travelling on, we decided to go...white water rafting (sorry dad). This was a grade 5 rafting adventure, which means it is the roughest one allowed!! With 3 waterfalls, one of which is a 7m fall (the largest waterfall you can raft over in the world!), we were so excited given the disappointment over our failure to do all the exciting stuff in the south island. Emma was pretty scared (to say the least) about the thought of landing upside down in the raft.

The waters were rough but we managed the first 2 waterfalls with relative ease. The 2 guides on our boat prepared us for the 7m fall - hang on for your life; if u fall off do not try and swim up, wrap yourself in a ball and let your life jacket do its job. Before we did it, one of our guides got a silver leaf (a Maori tradition) and asked emma to throw it in the water. If it landed silver side, we would land safely, if it went green, then prepare to get cold. It landed Silver side up!! Phew!!


The leaf lied! We went over a little too far to the left, but managed to get over the waterfall ok. However when entering the water the raft tipped upside down throwing each of us in different directions. The water was very very cold. I (sam) ended up under the raft where I held on to the rope) Emma ended up out of the raft. It was a hell of an experience where two of us lost our rowing ors, but apart from being very cold, we were fine!

From rotorua we have finally headed to our final destination in NZ - Auckland. It is the most densley populated city in NZ with a little over 1.5 million people (NZ only has 4 million pop.) We didn't hear great things about Auckland from everyone, and there is a saying known as JAFA which is used frequently in the south island - Just Another F****** Aucklander; so we didn't expect much -lucky that, as for such a 'busy' city, there is very little do actually do - apart from being dragged round Pandaro shops for an afternoon and watch your gf get her nails done (we bring a new meaning to the word backpackers).

Today we leave for FIJI! We are so excited, though a little apprehensive about what we get for our 250 pounds for an entire weeks accomodation and food.

Hope all is well back home, miss u all

Sam and Em!

xxx