By the time the Stray bus arrived to pick us up at about 11:30am, we were feeling very rested and more than ready to move on! The amazing view of the volcanoes as we stood waiting just rubbed salt in our wounds! We were excited to see the bus pull round the corner as we were to be reunited with Catriona and Cathal! As they jumped off to greet us, our new driver, Chase, came running up and hugged us as well! We didn't get much of a chance to know what was going on as she dived on us both then ran off to sort the bags. We later discovered Chase is pretty crazy and quite full on but it certainly was a nice welcome!
 
The journey was scheduled to take about 7 hours but with some crazy driving from Chase and Miss P (for some reason there were 2 drivers?!) and only 1 toilet stop we made it to Auckland in under 6 hours! The journey seemed to go pretty quickly too as we were catching up with Catriona & Cathal and chatting to some of the other people on the bus including Shannon from America and Lauren from Cambridge. It felt quite strange that we were the newbies on the bus for a change. 
 
The drive up to Auckland is quite incredible really and it's hard to explain how it looks. It's very beautiful and picturesque but in a very different way to the south island. The silly way to explain it is that it looks exactly like where the hobbits live! The roads were very windy through insanely hilly terrain but everything was beautifully covered in lush green grass and trees. Some say it's a bit like parts of Scotland but we've not seen there to be able to compare.
 
 As we drove into the city, Chase pointed out a few of the landmarks, including the Sky Tower, which is New Zealand's tallest building, and the Harbour Bridge. She also explained the history of Auckland and shared some fascinating facts... A number of different tribes fought for the land that we now know as Auckland before white men came and attempted to lay claim to it making it known as Tamaki-makau-rau (the spouse sought by a hundred lovers!). The first Europeans arrived in 1820 but it wasn't until 1840 that the first British flag was hoisted after a small piece of land was bought from the Maori for the sum of £55 and some blankets!
 
Auckland is by far New Zealand's largest city, with over a third of its 4 million population living there, and is in fact the 4th largest city in the world based on landmass, we're not really sure what means but it must be something impressive! The landscape of Auckland is dominated by a series of volcanoes on the land and boats on the water. In fact, with an estimated one in ten Aucklanders owning a boat, it is known as the City of Sails.
 
With our feedback forms complete, we hopped off the Stray bus for the final time and checked in to our hostel. It didn't take long for the four of us to decide we really didn't want to spend our last couple of days in New Zealand hanging around Auckland as it isn't very different to most big cities whereas there are a few other places on the North Island that have a lot more to offer. So, over a jug of beer, we set about planning one last Kiwi adventure! By 7pm, we had put together a plan, hired cars, sorted accommodation and booked a couple of trips! After all that organising, we were pretty hungry so we freshened up then went up to the bar above the hostel to have dinner and a few more drinks. It was here we had arranged to meet up with Tom and Nienke too and we enjoyed catching up with them. Nienke had to work the next day and we had an early start to make it to the first stop on our agenda so we agreed it would be best to head to bed at a reasonable time. Of course, the idea of ending a night early doesn't sit too comfortably with Catriona and Cathal so they talked us into walking down to the harbour for 'one for the road!' Also, this was to give us at least a tiny look about as we would only get to see the airport when we come back. Amazingly, we actually did have just one so we weren't too late getting back to the hostel and the 7am alarm didn't seem too horrible a thought!