I've been pretty lazy last week. Went up north to Paihia/ Bay of Islands for the weekend, took a backpacker bus up there - I'm not used to that many backpackers and it's way too comfortable...you get picked up at the hostel, get dropped off at the hostel, and they even have a prochure with all the hostels you can stay at and all the things you can do at your destination, you just have to tell the busdriver where you wanna stay and what you want to do and he will book it for you.....it just felt like - if you don't mind me using a german expression ( according to a british girl there's no english expression for that ) - " TWENS auf Kaffeefahrt" ...this bus is the cheapest way to get around, but I certainly have to think of a way to get off the beaten path a little, because traveling like this is not adventurous at all, I wouldn't even call it traveling as a backpacker. Anyway, I made a boat cruise over there in Paihia and saw some dolphins ( and some brave guys who jumped into the cold water to swim with them). Did some hiking aswell and saw lots of birds ( no kiwi so far ) while hiking through a mangrove forest and walked along the beautiful beach with crystal clear water. Spend the rest of the week in Auckland, when I returned to Auckland on sunday it started raining, and it rained all day on monday. Already one week gone and I'm still ( or let's say again ) in Auckland, I'm kind of stuck over here, but I'm gonna change that tomorrow and start traveling again!!!