New Zealand

We were amazed that our taxi arrived at 5am as planned as we weren't entired convinced that reception would remember to book it!

But our flight from Wellington to Auckland and then on to the Cook Islands went without a hitch despite only an hour connection in Auckland.

Flight left Auckland at 9am Saturday 21 April and we arrived in Rarotonga, Cook Islands on 14:55pm Friday 20 April - how weird!

Went to Wellington Zoo today which kept us occupied for a couple of hours. Also tried to do a little bit more blogging but I'm still behind!

Had an early night as taxi was picking us up at 5am the next morning, I set 3 alarms as I'm always worried about oversleeping!

Arrived in Wellington early (first time for everything!) and dropped the car off - it felt weird to not be able to jump in the car to get around! It didn't help that the Carillon Motor Inn where we were booked in for 2 nights is on a very steep hill! This hotel was a little disappointing, the website makes it look quite retro and cool but in fact it was a bit tired and really, really cold! It was quite near the edge of the Cuba district though - it's only good point! Felt quite quite tempted to bail out but decided as we would be out most of the time to just stick with it!

Spent the afternoon wandering around the city centre, went on the cable car which gave you pretty amazing views from up the hill. It took us a while but we found tourist information at last to find out what else to do and see.

In the evening we went looking for somewhere near the waterfront to eat but ended up in a pizza place in a cinema complex - it's 11 years that Mark and I have been together today - I'm sure we always end up having pizza on our anniversary!

We had a pretty chilled out day today, made our way down to a seaside town not too far from Wellington (Kapitia?), and went to the cinema to see 300 and also to an internet cafe to catch up on emails/blogging etc. I am so far behind that I am likely to be back in the UK before it is all up to date but I've been writing in a diary so I don't forget what I've been doing!

Spend this morning in Wai-o-tau Thermal Wonderland, it is difficult to describe and the photos just look like pools of mud but they were amazing to see. We walked over a couple of massize steaming pools (smelt ugly - looked cool!) and saw an eruption (!) (http://www.geyserland.co.nz/)

Then in the afternoon, we decided to drive across the mountain range, it didn't look that far on the map but it took about 4-5 hrs on these single track, gravel roads that were pretty scarey when you met a truck or caught a glimpse of the drop at the side of the road. I did alot of the driving here as the winding roads made me feel travelsick when I was a passenger.

When we got through the mountains, we had to drive another 1-2 hrs to find somewhere to sleep but when we did, I was happy cause it had a spa bath! Finding places to stay that are cheap and cheerful hasn't been a problem luckily, they are usually much better than you would expect for what you are paying (which is less than you would pay in UK).

Drove down toward a town called Rotorua, where there is alot of thermal activity which creates hot springs etc. As we got closer to the town, the smell in the air got really eggy, we later found out this is caused by all the thermal activity.

By the time we had got to the town, we had missed last admission to most of the thermal places so we decided to stay overnight and go first thing in the morning. But the smell was so bad that even when we found a motel with a spa bath, movie library and xbox rental, which would be perfect under any other circumstances, we decided to look further afield! We drove toward the 'thermal wonderland' to look for somewhere close and found a quaint little motel with a natural hot spring in the garden. It wasn't warm enough to venture in though.

Drove for hours and hours and hours (well, thats what it felt like anyway!) Ended up in a twon called Thames, it has a high street straight out of a film set. We stayed in a Western style motel too, you have to see the photos to believe it (but I haven't got my camera today to upload photos - oops)

Drove all the way to Cape Reinga today - the farthest north point of New Zealand. Road turned to gravel about 30km before getting there and were getting dodgier along the way. But the views were spectacular. As it was a conservation area, it was not inhabited so we had to drive 1.5hrs back to find food and a bed. We found a quaint little lodge right on the beach and stocked up on peanuts and pretzels – sorted!

Slept late yet again, by the time we got up it was time to check out and pick up the car. Thought it was going to be a nail but it is not bad - an automatic though so it took us a while to get going!

We headed north, towards the Bay of Islands, stopping at some waterfalls on the way.

Some of the towns we drove through look like they are straight out of western films.

Ended up in Paihia in a motel which overlooked the bay and found a little Thai place for tea - couldn't ask for more!

Went to the doctors today about my manky mozzie bites as my legs are still swollen and it hurts to walk - never a good sign! I think I even grossed the doctor out! Got some anti-biotics for 10 days and some dressing and ointment which needs changing everyday so yet another trip to the pharmacy to stock up on medical supplies!

Arrived in Auckland 11am local time - both knackered! Went to the hotel and slept most of the day, only got up to eat! Managed to stay awake long enough to watch Music and Lyrics, but it wasn't really worth the effort!

Oops, I have let the blogging slide abit since leaving the Philippines. I didn't really have much of a chance in Singapore, there were a few cafes dotted about but there was alot to see aswell as catching up with Mark after not seeing him for three weeks!

I am surprised that it is so difficult to find internet cafe in New Zealand, this is only the 2nd one I have seen after being here over a week. It was so easy to find internet cafes in the Philippines and I assumed it would be that easy everywhere. I am going to catch up with all the missing entries at a later date as I forgot to bring my diary!

We have nearly finished our New Zealand exploration part of our trip, even though we only had the North Island do, it feels like we have just seen a fraction of it all. But what we have seen has been fab...