Alia's best friend from when she was a kid, Rachel, came in yesterday with her boyfriend, Simon aka Dave Spoon. They were in Auckland as part of a music tour of Australia and New Zealand that Simon was playing at. It turns out he's a really well known and talented DJ and does this type of thing all over Europe. After meeting Mike and Alison for ...

Picked up our hire car on the 27th then headed up to the Bay of Islands, staying in Pahia at a place called Pipi Patch Lodge. Weather has been good so far, no where near as hot as Fiji, a bit like our summer. Spent first day here wandering around the town & beach. next day we went to Haruru Falls. Yesterday (28th) we drove to Ninety Mile Bea...

Paihia has wonderful weather and beautiful surroundings. And a cat in the car park who i am spoiling with ham lol. Apparently she lives there poor thing but the manager 'looks after her' hmmmm. Anyways there isnt that much to do here but its a nice place.

I'm in sunny Bay of Islands north of Auckland! Have a few hours til we shoot back to the hustle and bustle. Got here courtesy of Crazy Rob the Stray driver, and I've met some really nice girlies on my bus. One of whom will actually be on my flight to Fiji! First day was spent driving pretty much, petted a cute lil Kiwi! Second day was such a goo...

The Magic bus picked us up today outside and antiques shop at 8am, so it was gonna be a pretty long day ahead for us. first we crossed the harbour bridge on the road out of Auckland and stopped to have tea at a village on the about two hours away. Then we headed to the Kauri forest where the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand is. Tane Mahuta is 2...

Booked onto the 'Mack Attack' this morning, the fastest jet boat in the area for a tour of the bay and the islands of the Bay of Islands. The boat trip was real good reaching 100kph in places and the sea just rough enough for us to be bouncing around nicely!! The tour lasted around 2 hours and took in the 'Hole in the Rock', no real explanation ...

I arrived in Paihia yesterday after a 4 hour journey up from Auckland. I had woken to terrible weather and got thoroughly soaked en route to the bus station! Luckily the weather cleared as I headed north and although still a little cloudy, Paihia was a lot brighter. Paihia is a very idyllic little beach resort reminiscent of Lanzarote, and I pla...