BUNGEEEEEEE was pretty scary but all good fun in the end. Being the heaviest, they hooked up the livestock strength uber-bungee and made me go first, which was even scarier, but meant I got to laugh at everyone else afterwards.

I have just returned from a 3-day tour of the Northlands. This invovled a trip up the coast to the Bay of Islands, stopping for some horse riding. My mount was a greedy, independant spirited beast called Barbie, who was so annoyingly similar to me in those respects that we seemed to get on in the end. Infact, where it not for her equine species, we could of had something special... ah well

Next day we took a tour to the very top of New Zeland, Cape Regina, took in some sights, and went Dune boarding (throwing yourself down sand dunes on a boogie board). At this point our tour bus broke down, which gave us four extra hours to Dune Board in (yea) until a rescue bus could be sent out. Then end of the tour was a nighttime drive down 90 mile beach at high tide (rather than the low tide we were supposed to do it in) which made for some wave dodging and fast riding down there. All in all, a lot better than it was billed !!!

Still, we got an apology note and a free trip on the "Duck" bus/boat the next day to make up for the bits of the tour we missed. So today we headed out on the duck, drove past a golf course and then down the ramp into the bay. At this point we heard a loud cracking noise as the engine hit the base of the ramp and broke off, leaving us stranded in the water. Being much closer to home, the rescue was a much quicker affair, but needless to say the guy who owned the company was very VERY apologetic this time (we all thought it was hilarious). As they knew we were due to rejoin our tour bus back to Auckland today, they gave us half of our money back for that day trip in the end, which was fair.

Back in Auckland now - but leaving straight away to explore the rest of the North Island. Lost my camera lead, so photos are probably a couple of weeks away until I get to the next major town (Wellington).