P.S

I forgot to mention...

James had a wee next to the Prime Minister of NZ in Auckland airport. AWESOME!

A bit more of New Zealand

Hi all!

Eeek I have been lax with updating this blog. Sorry guys!

So, James and I headed up to Auckland with the idea of being there for a week. However, we got there and were both slightly unimpressed with the city so decided to run away the next day! Caught a bus up to the Whangerei so we could go diving (surprise surprise!). We stayed in a nice little caravan park in a wee cabin for two (which was only about $8 a night more than staying in a grotty dorm). The park had a jacuzzi and a pretty nice swimming pool. Lovely.

We booked two days diving at the Poor Knight's Islands. Jacques Cousteau ranked them in his top 10 sites, and they are generally regarded as the best temperate diving in the world. Naturally we were both quite excited to go diving there!

Unfortunately we had a really bad experience on the first day (hmmm diving for me has not been simple recently!). I was given a wetsuit with a 20cm ish hole in the crotch, fins that were too big and kept falling off and also a dodgy tank. I told the dive instructor but she said it wouldn't make a difference. Hmmm. James was given one small fin and one large fin so he had constant foot cramp. I was completely unable to enjoy myself as I was so cold - I oculd feel myself sliding into panic and tears were starting to come. After about 20 minutes underwater I needed to get out. During the dive I was too busy looking at my computer and checking my fins to really look around us. What was probably the most annoying thing is that the dive site itself was featured in the BBCs Blue Planet series and was a really interesting place. Gutted! So.. I wasn't going to to the 2nd dive, however they swapped my dodgy suit for a one too big. Obviously it still wasn't a good fit but it was better.

So.. we weren't going to go back the next day and called to try and cancel. The staff were really apologetic and convinced us to give it another go. When we arrived it was obvious that the skipper of our boat had given them all a real rollicking as they were treading on eggshells around us and gave us brand new kit! Suffice to say the diving was infinitely better, and we really enjoyed it. Such a shame that the first day was such a disaster, there was no need for it whatsoever.

Anyway, we've made a decision not to go diving for a while - my last 10 or so dives have all been problematic and i've been quite put off! So.. a rest is required!

We headed back to Auckland, and James felt a bit iffy, so off I went canyoning without him. Basically this was glorified gill scrambling =) A few abseils and jumps along the way. Absolutely beautiful scenery and a great place for a day like this.

And then it was the 1st of February - the arrival of Tomek! We headed to Auckland airport to pick him up. The plan was to get him and then jump straight on a bus to head up north to join our tour bus. However, the plane was over an hour late. Shouldn't have been a problem but there was a huge backlog of people trying to clear customs. After a couple of hours it was clear that we wouldn't make it, so I rearranged everything for the next day. Then people started filtering through and no Tomek. Another 30mins, still no Tomek. Eventually he appeared, but without any luggage - it had been left in Melbourne! Not easy for him after almost 40 hours of travel to try and sort this out, but he managed to get $90 out of them to buy some basics. He decided that we should just go and join the tour because otherwise he could miss a load of things waiting for it to turn up.

After a night in Auckland we were up early to head up to the Bay of Islands and on to join the Flying Kiwi bus. The first day was very relaxed and mostly spent in a swimming pool! It was nice that Tomek was able to recover from the flight like this!

We did loads of things in the following week - sandboarding, cultural show, sea kayaking around the Coromandel peninsula (beautiful!), hot springs, mud pools, Rotorua, Lake Taupo... In Taupo I noticed a familiar face when I looked out of the bus window, and jumped out to see a friend from home! Julie is travelling around with her friend for 6 weeks! I've previously been on a holiday with her to France, and she's very friendly with my Mum and with Nick and Sue. Completely bizarre to bump into her and really nice to see someone I know! Probably the only other person to have every escaped Haltwhistle too...

However, one of my favourite parts of the week was the Tongariro crossing. This was a beautiful walk through some volcanos (the setting for Mount Doom in LOTR). It was ridiculously hot though, with no cover so it was hard work!

Agh I'm running out of steam for writing. Currently we're back in Wellington waiting for my parents to arrive on Thursday. The weather is a bit grey and cloudy, but nothing to compare with you guys!

Katy xx