North Island Wanderers

The stunning ferry ride to the North Island brought an array of unbelievable characters from a Nepalese speaking Aussie wearing a sari, a chuckling Indian man woken by her thrusting her blood pressure reader on his wrist, a maternal Scottish lady and our wide eyed Spanish friend teaching me German hip-hop. Life went up a gear when we reached the Bay of Islands and were lucky enough to experience swimming with a pod of wild dolphins! We sailed around the islands and on finding our playful friends, we snorkelled and flippered up and jumped in. They weaved beneath our feet, sliced the surface and squeaked happily when we dove down making bubbles. It was surreal day, continued by finding a huge film crew in the tiny seaside town on our return and a giant sting ray cruising along the shoreline.

In the past weeks we have found the magical land of Hobbiton (a French guy nearby ecstatic at the sight of 'Golooom'!), been glow worm hunting in Waitomo Caves and explored the harbour capital city of Wellington  - by the favourite city of our travels to date. We have come across the absolute best beach I have been to in my life and dug holes in the sand at low tide to create our own individual spa pool from the thermal springs underneath. Luckily for us low tide was at midnight so we got to do this under an incredibly starry sky. Yesterday I went White Water Rafting in a deep valley bouncing off rocks and careering through rapids, holding on to my paddle for life!

In Rotorua we were accepted into a traditional Maori tribe and welcomed into their village where we could learn how they made clothes, prepared weapons, performed the Haka and cooked in the heat of the volcanic ground. After feasting ourselves silly (I've never heard backpackers so silent as they are around free food!) we were taken home by an eccentric bus driver with a bizzare comedy routine of teaching us the Maori greeting 'Kia Ora' at high speed in 63 languages, flitting effortlessly between different accents and dialects. We were dropped home only after he'd driven us round a roundabout 16 times singing 'Here we go round the Mulberry bush...'!

The best thing I have done since being away was the Tongariro Crossing, waking up at 5am to do a 12 mile hike through volcanic craters and feeling like we were in a fantasy land trekking through marshes and mountains. There were emerald coloured lakes, turqoise sky and the ominous black rock of Mount Doom looming above us.

South Island starts tomorrow....

Road Tripping

We picked up our little silver car, Ariel, and hit the open road to Melbourne. If there was a competition to spot iconic Aussie wildlife we'd have won it, coming across wild Wombats, Koala's and getting close enough to a Wallaby to see that she had a Joey in her pouch! Perhaps not on the official checklist, we were lucky enough to watch the nightly arrival of the tiny 'Little Penguin' on Phillip Island. The 30cm tall birds appear in their hundreds at nightfall to waddle up to their nests on the coast.

The Great Ocean Road made us feel we were in a fancy car advert, whizzing along the winding roads of the cliff face, right alongside the most pristine coastline. In Melbourne we found a festival by the sea with live music and a World Volleyball Tournament. They have a wicked free program where a local Melburnian takes you round their city, and we were blessed with Peter, and enthusiastic computer programmer who took us to all the best places and totally made our day.

Now we have touched down in New Zealand where I have fulfilled my main dream in coming to the islands. 11th February 2012 was the first and probably last time in my life that I saw a WHALE! A great big Sperm Whale on the waters of Kaikoura, spurting out water and returning to the depths flinging his tail high in the air. Plus on the way back to shore a pod of dolphins joined us, leaping playfully alongside the boat!

I realised just how far away from home I am when I looked up at the sky on a clear night and had to double take when I saw that Orion's Belt was upside down over here.