NZ - Sweet as Bro!

Us and our new travelling buddy - the car!
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Alison: So with our first continent under our belt we arrived in New Zealand bracing ourselves for the sudden drop in temperature and looking forward to visiting a country where everyone (in theory) spoke our language.

Auckland was our first stop and we spent the first 5 days acclimatising, shopping (a totally justifiable past time when all your clothes are designed for 30 degrees and humidity not 12-15 degrees!) and sampling Auckland's nightlife.  We met up with Fliss, a friend of mine from home, and decided to be touristy and go up the Sky Tower together.  This meant that both Gemma and Fliss had to brave various glass floors at 200 feet and a lift that was right out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  The views from the Sky Tower were truly amazing as day turned into night and it also gave us our first proper glimpse of the spectacular countryside outside of the city confines.

Us at the end of the world! (Well maybe just New Zealand)
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Once we had sorted our hire car - a beautiful green Toyota Echo which we still remains un-named - suggestions anyone?  Gemma and I put on our Thelma and Louise personas and headed up north to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga in an attempt to catch the last of the warm weather. Cue a series of beautiful drives through windy roads, passing secluded coves, stunning rolling country side and being chased by rainbows. Needless to say we have now taken a zillion photos and were forced to constantly pull over just to get that one perfect photo of our surroundings.

Sun set over the Tasman Sea/Pacific Ocean - if you look closely you can see the line, honest!
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We stayed briefly in a place called Paihia and learnt a lot about how the Maoris and the British signed a treaty in 1840 that ensured mutual protection and respect - a treaty that still stands today.  We also headed across to one of the islands called Russell which used to be known as 'The Hell Hole of the Pacific' due to lots of drunken and whoring sailors stopping there but is now a picture postcard kind of place with a little harbour full of boats.

Once we left Paihia we set ourselves the task of visiting 90 Mile Beach and driving right up to the top of New Zealand in one day - a feat that we were assured would be easy by a Danish sailor called Anders but after we had driven for 5 hours we realised he last did it in the summer with significantly more daylight time than us.  So in the end it was a race against the sun along a 20km dirt track to ensure we reached what felt like the end of the world before the sun set.  It has to be said the long journey was worth it and we were ecstatic to watch the sun set over the point where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean met - definitely another moment to treasure.

After a very long drive back we are now in Auckland for the weekend just so we can get a good night out (the north of NZ is beautiful but very remote especially in the off season) and tomorrow we are off to explore the rest of the North Island and all its adrenaline activities. We'll keep you posted.