New Zealand - North Island

So we touched down in Auckland and it was cold!We went straight to EZY car hire and got a beautiful 1999 white Nissan Sunny for 2 weeks for £60 each so we could tour the North Island by ourselves.We used Pete's aunty and uncles (Mike and Janet) house just outside Taupo as our base which was perfect as everything we wanted to do was about 2 hours drive from there.We went to Rotoura for a couple of days where we did Zorbing and Luging.For Zorbing all 3 of us went in the ball and filled it with water....this was the funniest 30 seconds of my life as we couldn't stand up and were just bundling eachother with Pete on the bottom and me just throwing punches and kicking the whole way down!We did luging 5 times and on one run it got nasty and I flipped Greg in his little cart and he hit the barrier and skipped in his jeans for a few metres....it was very funny but he didn't think so for a while.We also went to the Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland which was amazing but very smelly and hot.Watched the semi-final 2nd leg in the morning (6am) when United got battered by Milan,but luckily I started drinking and don't remember much to be honest.One day we did a massive drive around the East Cape through the Bay of Plenty,Gibourne and Napier and covered about 1000km that day,it was really nice until it got dark and the wonderful scenery disappeared!

Taupo was a cool little place and the lake was stunning.Pete and Greg got addicted to playing the golf hole in one game where the raft was 108m into the lake...I don't think they even hit the raft but it was funny to watch them try and waste money.We also found the greatest pie shop in the world so we ate from there quite a few days.Me and Greg did a roadtrip minus Pete one Saturday to catch the final Super 14 rugby game at Wellington between the Hurricanes and the Waratahs.It was a rubbish game but we got smashed and it was wicked to see Tama Umaga's last game and how good rugby should be played!I spent most of my time in the stadium annoying Kiwis by shouting world champions 2003....it didn't go down well!We went out that night and we watched the Manchester derby with 2 City fans sat behind me so I got very roudy and the conversations got heated!

Did my sky dive over Taupo due to the scenery and the fact that it is the cheapest place to do it.I went for the 15000ft jump and was feeling very nervous all morning until I actually got the stuff on and then I was suddenly very relaxed.The jump was insane,over 60 seconds of freefall,of which very little I remember due to all the chemicals being released in my brain.I was on a huge high for the rest of day.Drove to Raglan the next day which is a popular little surf town in the summer.We played 9 holes of golf here...I was my usual rubbish self but I did get a par (3) on the 8th and then decided it couldn't get any better so just started Happy Gilmoring shots on the 9th trying to hit sheep (we all missed!).We then went to the Waietomo Caves where we did the glow-worm walk which was spectacular!

We left Janet and Mike's and headed down to Wellington for a few nights.1st night there we signed up for a pub crawl which started off slowly but we then picked up the pace and met a few English girls.Did a lot of boozing and ended up with me and Pete pulling 2 of the girls.Proceeded to spend the next 3 days with them and boozed even more and spent a lot of money on BRA (booze-related-activities) like going to the cinema twice in 2 days and eating a lot.Ended up in the same bar/club called Establishment for all our nights there because it was quality,cheap and short stumble home!The 2nd night I watched Pete get laid all night long in our room which was hilarious!That inspired me to hire a private room for the next night and it was all good,except for Greg walking in on me in an interesting situation!Oh,and I also got $160 stolen one night as well by some pikey sleeping our room.Apart from that,Wellington was absolutely crazy (very similar to San Diego) and it was definetly my favourite city in NZ.We then drove to Christchurch and eagerly anticipated the Kiwi Experience (or the big green fuck truck or the vagina fyler to name a couple of nicknames) around the West coast on the South Island.