Dec 16: Arrived in Auckland really tired because of the night flight and time changes meaning I only had about 2 hours sleep so after checking into my hostel I had a nap. When I woke up I went for a walk around the city and had my first New Zealand pie which didn't disappoint. By this time it was getting dark so time to find a bar, the Globe Bar in fact. This would become my hang out for the next few nights. I met an English guy called Higgy and we ruled the pool table together and impressed some Swedish girls with our skills!

17: After waking up it was time to find the supermarket for some groceries. I got some microwaveable baked bean toasties which were totally gross and also had my first yoghurt in ages. There was a park right behind my hostel so I decided to go in there and read some stuff and having still not properly caught up on my sleep I ended up falling asleep in the sun on the grass... but the sun didn't last long and I was abruptly woken up by the rain! I ran back to the hostel for some dinner and headed out to the bar again. Turning up at 7pm on a Sunday wasn't a great idea (empty) but at least Higgy was there and there was free punch! We stayed all night, meeting other interesting people including a really weird English guy and a big American guy who had won $40 million on the US lottery. He was buying shots by the dozen. Actually 5 dozen at a time! When the bar closed we went in search for a Chinese and ended up eating burgers and hot dogs from the biggest takeaway van I've ever seen lit up with fairy lights. We also met some German's who were going for a picnic (it was 4am) - very odd.

18: Another disturbed morning with the whole room being awake and out and about by 9am (I only met one of them, despite it being a full 12 bed room) meant I was up by that time too. So I went round the city, seeing the Sky Tower (tallest in the Southern Hemisphere) and other sights of which there weren't many. It was however the last day of the current Ashes test so I met up with Higgy and co. We were watching in one pub and left when we were 8 men down. By the time we got to the next pub we were already 9 men down and it quickly went to lunch. As play continued someone said "I'm gonna get another pint" to which someone else responded "I'd just get a half if I were you!" to which the England cricket team responded by having their last man bowled out and us losing the Ashes. So off we went to the Globe Bar. We stayed till it closed again and this time decided to check out the 24 hour bars we'd heard of. We found an Irish one which was in fact full of Irish people and stayed there until 6.30am when it closed. I was catching a bus at 8am so decided there was no point going to bed so went and used the internet till my bus was there!

19: The bus first drove to the top of a volcano on the outskirts of the city to take a look around by which time I was already fast asleep spread across the back seat! Then we made our way to Hot Water Beach which was as the name suggests. It takes a bit of work though, having to dig a hole big enough for everyone to sit in. And you have to dig in the right spot (which we struggled to find) to hit hot water, but when you do it really it boiling, often too hot to touch. We were staying in a quite nice converted house style hostel where I played lots of games with my new pal Anthony. These included pool, darts, boules, that game where you hit a ball around a pole (and I hit the ball too hard so that it went through the bat and the broken piece of bat hit and cut me in the face!) and yahtzee. Oh yeah!

20: My second early morning, activity filled day on the Kiwi bus began with a visit to a massive quarry, just because it was on the way and interesting to see. Soon after this we stopped off again for a tramp through the bush, as the Kiwi's would put it. The path followed an old mining railway track and went through some really small and some really long tunnels through the mountains which was pretty cool. We also got to go over, and shake, some old swing bridges high above the river. We made one more stop this day for a quick photo opportunity in the town of Hobbiton, where much of the Lord of the Rings was filmed - of no interest to me havign never read any of the books or seen and of the films but I got my picture anyway in case I do some day. We finally arrived in Rotorua and after checking in heading straight back out on the bus just outside of town to go zorbing. That's rolling down a big hill in a big inflated ball filled with water for those who didn't know. Our bus driver had never done it, despite the fact he gets all activities for free, so I convinced him to join me and a friend in our ball. Three people in one of these balls turned out to be madness and we all left with a few bruises and absolutely soaked and shaken up, well worth it! My evening was spent in the bar at the hostel where I made friends with someone who worked there but was on their day off cueing free drinks and I also ruled the pool table!

21: On our way out of Rotorua we visited 'Te Puia' - a site of geysers and mudpools. It was good to see, especially the largest of the geysers which shot steaming water out of the ground about 20m into the air. But it was a bit of a rip off and stank of eggy farts from the sulphur being released! Our walk of the day today was into some caves in Waitomo in preparation for our caving the next day. The walking track went round in a circle and once we'd completed it the driver told the people at the front to carry on walking and made his way to the back to see if they had been paying attention to where we had gone. Me and two others caught on but the rest of the group continued walking; meanwhile we got back on the coach and drove off leaving them walking the same track! There was nothing in Waitomo so we played a drinking game in the (really nice) hostel called beer pong. It was great fun as anyone who knows it will know, if not maybe we'll play one day!

22: This morning we took exploring the caves in the area to the next level by the form of black water rafting. This involves climbing own into them, through parts of them and for the rest of the time floating along in a rubber tube or jumping off waterfalls in the tube. We had lights on our helmets to see but in parts we turned all the lights off so that it was pitch black and we coul see hundreds and hundreds of glow worms on the ceilings. The pitch black also provided the perfect opportunity for tipping each other! On our return we were given free soup and bagels which was a very welcoming meal helping recovery from the freezing cold water. Round the corner we went to see a rabbit being sheared which was a bit weird, the rabbits are strapped into what looks like a torturing machine for the process! Then we made our way own to Taupo in the afternoon, stopping at the Huka Falls which were pretty impressively strong an illegal to go down, despite the fact that some people still do, not always living to tell the tale. Continuing the activity filled day, upon our arrival at the hostel I decided in a spur of the moment decision to do a skydive! I was going to either o it in the south island or on my way back north, but it was a nice clear day and all my friends were doing it so I decided it was time. We arrived and signed our lives away and instead of going for the cheap 12,000 ft dive with no vieo or photos I went for the 15,000 ft ive with video and photos. I'm really glad I did though, it was a brilliant experience despite my parachute getting caught! We edged our way to the edge of the plane and I hung myself off, dangling in the rushing wind. I think the guy strapped to my back said something to me but I wouldn't have a clue what because I didn't want to wait for the moment we began our fall another second. You can see this in the video from the massive smile on my face! Then I felt a push and leant back slightly putting us into a backflip. Once we leveled out he pulled a cord letting out a line to keep us level. He then put us into a spin for several revolutions before balancing us out again, when it was time to pose for the cameras whilst trying to take in the views - something very difficult to do when the wind is passing through the gaps in your goggles at 200 kmph! Before I knew it I felt ourselves heaved back up into the sky as the parachute was opened, an then spinning again as the parachute tangled. The guy said to me "I'm just gonna try and sort out this tangled parachute so that we don't have any problems... how are you?" to which I responded "Never mind me, I'm fine, how's the bloody parachute?!" It turned out okay though and I was ale to take off my goggles and properly take in the views as we fell at a much more casual pace. But even the 5 minute descent went past like lightening and after a couple of spirals and turns getting us to the landing area we landed smoothly on our feet and I walked away unscathed. It had been an amazing experience and all that was left to do was jump in joy for the camera!

23: I changed buses today, skipping ahead a day so that I would be arriving in Wellington on Christmas eve and not Christmas day. We stopped at lunchtime near Mount Doom for a tramp through the bush and along the rivers to a waterfall. Then we travelled some very windy roads down through the mountains to a place called River Valley. Believe it or not, there was a river and it was in a valley and it was a really beautiful place. Across the river was a cool little platform on a zip wire, you were able to jump off in the middle or travel all the way to the other side and jump off the rocks there. Once in the water it was a case of swimming as past as possible back to the side to get out, absolutely freezing! Me and Anthony invented a game called benchy, a version of curby in stead involving benches. We also played a game of seeing who could hammer a nail into a log quickest with one swing at a time.

24: Today I got my first decent lie in in nearly a week, till 10am. We didn't leave until 1 after some lunch, stopping in a small town called Bulls where they had comedy signs on all the public facilities and some shop names such as 'NON RETURN-A-BULL' at the post office and 'RELIEV-A-BULL' at the toilets. I jumped off the bus an hour before arriving in Wellington in a town called paraparaumu aka Pram, where I was picked up by my friend Tracey from my days back in 'Nam. We went back to her house where I met her family who I would be spending Christmas and the next week with and they were all really welcoming :-) After settling in to my new home and enjoying the previously unappreciated delights of carpet and baths among other things we went to her brothers house which was in the centre of Wellington to go out for Christmas Eve. We drank for a while at his house with his housemates and then made our way into town in one of his friends vans which had the number plate 'PIE ETA' - how cool! Town wasn't very good though, only one bar was open so we stayed and played some pool then went back to her brothers house where we stayed the night.

Sorry for bad updating but I've been really busy and not around internet much and when I have been it's really expensive! This is all I have time for now but will crack onto getting up to date ASAP :-)