paperwork and a visit to the cinema
Today I set about setting up my bank account, IRD tax number, phone and NZ job search membership. I finished up around 5ish and was scheduled to meet Laura at 6.30ish for a viewing of Superman Returns... I was, of course, wrong in the time that the film started so we ended up hanging around for about an hour until the flick. I personally really enjoyed it for many details which I won't go into here. Mostly a administration day but glad to get it out the way.

Russel
Anita and I had arranged to meet with the girls we played pool with the night before, Jenny and Laura, so we got in some breakfast while we waited.
We headed to the port to cruise over to Russell on the Ferry. On the way we met Anna, our German room-mate who was waiting for her bus so we convinced her to come to Russell with us. We went over and headed up Flagstaff hill to the where we got some sweet photos then headed back down so Anna could catch her ferry.
After a brief tea stop the three girls and I headed to long beach to scramble across the rocks for a while and have a bit of a laugh while doing so.
I grabbed my bus back to Auckland where I met the lovely Laura for some drink in Danny Doolans, which turned into a bit of a trek to try and find other places to drink.

Dolphins and pool
Laura and I woke up (a little muggy to say the least and hungover to say the most) and headed down to the port where we managed to board the boat within a minute before it left. Go team!
The dolphins came pretty close up and we made appropriate cooing noises and pointed lots at them. I decided to take a chance at a swim with them, so we were geared up in wesuits and masks and chucked in the cold water. It was kinda fun although they didn't really get all that close to us.
We went out to the Hole In The Rock which looks exactly like a hole in a rock. Laura tried to convince me it was made of fibreglass and was just an upscale version of the real one up by Ninety Mile Beach.
The cruise was cool and we took in views of a lot of the islands. Laura headed off around 4ish so I took a nap until I was rudely awoken by Anita, the small Irish room-mate, for beers... so i wasn't complaining. We hit a bar and challenged a couple of girls to a game of pool and got on really well with them. Anita and I even managed to win a raffle prize of a beer hat and mini rugby ball so we were well chuffed.

Kayaks and Bikes
Started the morning a little hungover as Kate and I headed to the Kayak shed to go for a paddle out in the bay. We were met by Nick, the barman from the local place we hang out and he took us on a cruise across the water to the town of Russell to get some breakfast. It was quite restful and relaxing out on the water and made Katy and I quite contemplative.
After the relaxing drift of the water we jumped on a couple of Mountain bikes and hit the road. We cruised up the road to Haruru falls and made friends with Johnny testosterone as we came hurtling down twisty, gravel-covered, slidy roads and got a buzz out of the speed. We took in Haruru falls then cycled back to town where Katy jumped on her bus.
I met up with two room-mates, Anita and Valerie, and we, once again, hit the Hot-tub... after Anita of course making lots of jokes about the conotations of jumping in a hot-tub with a guy you've JUST met.
They crashed out pretty early so Laura and I hit the bar where there was a birthday party going on. We chilled out there and maybe had a little too much to drink and I decided to join her the next morning for the Dolphin tour. Another fun night.

Cape Reinga
Took the "Awesome Adventures" tour bus up to Cape Reinga. Our bus was driven by Auto, by far the coarsest New Zealander I have ever met. He was awesomely funny.
We made a brief breakfast stop then went onto Ninety Mile Beach (which is only 64 miles long) and drove down it stopping occasionally to see the fish and shells that had been washed up... although we didn't stop too long since the sand is of a certain density that the bus would just sink if we did. We stopped briefly at an outcrop of land called the Bluff which was covered with shells.
A little way up the beach we pulled off and headed to the steep dunes to do some sandboarding. Basically you get a boogie board and throw yourself down a sand dune on it. Quite a rush.
We headed to a bay of unrememberable name where a couple of us decided to take a brief dip in the water.
Cape Reinga was next on the agenda where we took in the awesome sights and seen the meeting of the two seas.
Then it was time for fish and chips followed by a stop at a fruit stand.
Met up with Katy and my new room-mate, Laura for a quick dip in the hot-tub (becoming a bit of a trend really) and then onto the bar to watch the All blacks Vs South Africa game. Fairly got into it since the bar was pretty electric with the atmosphere.

Paihia
Took the kiwi experience bus up to Paihia today with our talkative driver, Gibbo. Paihia is a stunning coastal town in the bay of islands. I was totally taken in by it so i took a walk along the beach to get a better look out across the bay.
I headed back to my room where I met my room-mate, Katy, and we hit the hot-tub for a brief spell. Afterwards we met our Dutch room-mates, Sofia and Felina, for a BBQ and some drinks in the bar. Which turned into lots of drinks. Was a great night a cool little intro to the Bay.

From Waitomo to Auckland.
Just travelling today. Got the Newmans bus through to Auckland today and got chatting to a couple on the bus called Neil and Nadine. Was a pretty chilled day apart from having a beer inside a giant apple... don't ask.

Caves
Started the day in Waitomo with a brief phone conversation with my parents before I hit the caves.
Was met in the info centre by our three guides and my fellow cavers. Our guides were Hone, Scott and Stan. My fellow cavers were Macarana, a friendly chilean girl, Annalee, a smiley Swede and Johanna, a funny Austrian. Quite a good set up.
We headed out to the caves and got kitted up in our sexy wetsuits. We then were given a tour of the area surrounding the caves and shown where we would make our descent. We headed over to the abseil platform and there were trussed up in our gear. After that it was merely a case of doing the 100m abseil down into THE LOST WORLD! The view on the way down was spectacular and it was awesome looking around as we descended down. We arrived at the bottom and were served sandwiches, tea and biscuits by our guides, which just seemed insanely civilised at the bottom of a 100m ravine! Once we'd fueled up we headed to the entrance to the caves to get stuck into our 4 hour journey through the underground caverns. The caves were awesome and the rocks seemed almost alive with the flow of water that came down over them from the above landscape. We fought through the heavy currents and across the rocky terrain and made good headway even though the river seemed to be rising. It was awesome fun. We even stopped halfway through for another tea-break and a chocolate bar... 50m underground! The "WTF" factor was pretty high on that one. Afterwards we strolled through waterfalls and leap from rocks into the pools below. We got to the far end of the cave and stopped. By this point I had totally forgot that we were using artificial lights to guide us since our headlamps were pretty powerful. However we stopped in a cavern and turned off our lights and were treated to the site of the glowworms on the cave walls. It was like looking at a night of green stars or some weird underground city landscape that stretched off into the distance. We emerged from the cave after and took the brief overland walk in our wetsuits to the caving hut where Stan and Hone had started up a BBQ for us. As I said the whole thing seemed crazily civilised.
Was a completely awesome day.

Back to Waitomo
Got the bus to Waitomo and listened to the driver's interesting monologue about the history and legends about the area. Took a two hour walk around the area and was taken with the picturesque nature of the place. Not much to report until I hit the 7 hour epic caving expidition the next day.

Rafting
Ok, ok... I kinda, sorta messed up today. I was suppose to turn up for my rafting at 9am but for some reason I thought it was 11am. Needless to say I missed my slot. However, thanks to NZers being the easy-going friendly lot they are I just rearranged for the afternoon.
I came down at 12.30ish and got talking to the receptionist and a guy named Nigel until I finally realised that he was there to pick me up for rafting. He was a good guy and the banter was pretty funny.
When we got to the raft hut we were met by another member of the crew called Jimmy who was equally good for the banter. The rest of our crew were three English guys named Ryan, Tom and Mark. And our saviour from having a complete sausage-fest was the lovely Lizzie, a suffolk lass.
We shown the safety procedures and warned about the rather explicit nicknames the guys had for the rapids we were gonna go through (Example: Jenny Craig: Cause it's wide, shallow and easy) After many of them the guys had us raise paddles and chant with them: The main one being that we had to shout "TOO F*CKING EASY" after most of their lead shouts. The main one seeming to be: "WHAT IS NIGEL'S MUM?"
The ride itself was a total blast. We hit rapids and waterfalls. Then we hit the big boy: The highest commercial waterfall in the world. A 7m tall cascade of watery goodness! We were given another safety brief at the top then hit the waterfall at full speed. We ducked inside so we didn't get tilted out and the raft went vertical as we fell. We splashdowned and the boat resurfaced and for a moment it had seemed we had come through it without any mishap. Suddenly the raft lurched as a boil of water on the right side pushed up on the underside of the raft and since it hadn't quite settled from the fall it just tilted. There was a brief moment when everything just seemed to stand still as the raft suddenly did a 'millenium falcon' as the guys had called it where the raft goes vertical on it's central axis. And we were thrown into the water.
I went through a brief moment of panic as I hadn't quite caught my breath as I hit the water and the raft came down on top of our heads. But there was only one to go: up. So I kicked and surfaced. Realising I had lost my paddle I scrabbled briefly and grabbed a hold of one. The guys shouted for us to swim to the left so I kicked off that way as they struggled with the boat to right it. I seen Jimmy and Nigel hook a cable underneath then Jimmy leapt on top and hauled the rope as hard as he could and the boat flipped again righting itself. Jimmy and Nigel leapt in the boat and pulled a couple of us on board grabbing the paddles as they went. Lizzie hauled me into the boat and there was a near stillness as we all realised we were back in the boat and safe again.
Jimmy then said: "Alright guys: Tell me how that was?"
We raised our paddles and dished out our line: "TOO F*CKING EASY!!!" We whooped and screamed, laughed and all shook hands. What a rush... and to be honest... I'm glad we tipped, so much more fun.
Later, while still buzzing, the guys asked if any of us fancied doing more swimming so I raised my hand and the guys said: "Show us your best backflip then, Steve". I simply tilted out the boat and was in the water and was soon joined by Lizzie. The guys then told us we were gonna go through a rapid without a boat: "... we call this rapid, The Gullible Backpacker... HAHAHA!" Funny stuff.
After the rafting I hooked up with Lizzie for a few drinks and to watch her play an awful game of pool with me. However I did find out she was a fencer and an anime fan which meant we had more in common than I thought. Good day all in all.