Well, we are in New Zealand now. We have been here for a little over 2 weeks now. It's been incredible. The scenery is amazing!!

We flew into Auckland at about 11:00 pm Tuesday NZ time. We hadn't booked any accomodations, but were lucky that our shuttle driver new of a place with openings. Little did we know that the biggest concert of the country was happening the week that we arrove, so all the hostels were fully booked.

We spent 3 nights in Auckland. Our first day we got organized and just walked around town. The next day we did a day trip to the Bay of Islands in the North. We took a boat cruise in the bay and got to see dolphins!!

The next day we started our trip around the Islands. We booked a tour bus that takes us to all the good places and we can jump on and off whenever we want.

Our first day took us to Raglan, the big surfer region. We didn't try surfing though, we just played in the ocean - how cool is that!!

Then we were off to the other side of the Island to Hahei, another beach hostel. We went to the hot water beach that night. It was so neat. You just dig a hole in the sand and hot water flows in making a hot water pool. The sky was clear too, so we sat there on the beach looking at the stars - amazing! We were taking a liesurely (sp?) walk on the beach in the moring and were attacked by a crazy sea gull, it almost pooped on Trevor.

Our next stop was one of the most interesting so far. The Maori's are the natives to NZ and we got to stay at a Maori's house and they fed us a traditional Maori meal and put on this incredible show for us. We even got to learn some of the dances. Trev got to do the "Haka" like the All Blacks rugby players do before a game.

We jumped off the bus in Rotorua to stay an extra night. Crappy for us it rained all night though. We went river rafting in the morning though. So much fun - we went over a 7m waterfall!! The trip only lasted 50 mins though, but well worth it.

We spent three nights in Taupo. Trev went fishing one day with 3 other guys. They got 3 fish, really tasty. We had smoked trout for dinner. Plus, we went Sky diving!!! How crazy is that?! We paid to jump out of a perfectly good plane!?! Soo cool though. We have videos of it all too. Can't wait to show it to everyone.

We did this amazing walk over the Tongariro crossing. It took us 7 hours to walk it and we walked up over volcanoes and in the craters. There were 4 small lakes up in the crater too, so weird. It was so beautiful. That's actually the area they used as Mordor in The Lord of The Rings. I was sooo sore after walking for that long, so luckily there was a spa at our hostel that night.

We made it to Wellington on the 24th, the most southern part of the North Island. Our driver took a few of us to the motorway that night. It was soo neat. I had never been to anything like it before. The race actually got pretty intense.

The next day we crossed over to the South Island. We stayed at the Abel Tasman National Park for two nights and had to sleep in tents. We went sea kayaking for half a day. It was pretty cool. The waves were huge and I got pretty wet since I was in the front. We had wanted to spend an extra day there, but it was raining when we got up, so we just jumped back on the bus.

In Barrytown the whole group on the bus went to the pub at the hostel. Except, it was a themed party. It was a cross-dressing party. Let me tell you, Trev makes a beautiful woman. Don't worry, got lots of pictures. I dressed in Trev's clothes and looked a lot like Riv.

In Franz Joseph there is a natural glacier, one of only 3 in the world in such warm climates. We got to walk on the glacier. We took another 7 hour tour over the glacier. It was the most scary thing I've done so far. Trev wasn't scared at all though. It was awesome though. The ice was so blue and we got to walk through crevasses and everything. It started raining on our way back down the galcier though, so we were pretty wet and our bus driver wouldn't let us get our bags out since they were packed way at the back, so we had to sit on the bus for 3 hours in wet clothes. Then, when we got to our hostel and wanted to change into dry clothes, I found that the beer that Trev asked me to put in my pack had exlpoded all over everything. Not a good day. However, Trev did do my laundry ( a first) and made me dinner.

Yesterday we sropped for a bit in Wanaka and did this maze thing. It was neat, but I was so lost. Trev had to help me find my way out. We are now in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world. There is so much to do here, but you will go broke doing it all. Trev is in the process of doing 3 different bungy jumps at the moment. I chickened out, I was going to go. I am booked for para-sailing this afternoon.

It's been so much fun though. We have met some incredible people. We are just having a blast. Can't believe we are still just in the beginning of the trip though. We still have so much to see and do.