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20. New Zealand North Island
The I'm in New Zealand now, it is expensive & I guess in certain ways a little dull in comparison to South America, especially Bolivia, but to be honest so was Argentina, & it is a joy speaking English again & having normal food & therefore not feeling ill all the time.  The food is making the most difference, as soon as we got to Auckland it was brilliant.  I spent the first day wandering around looking around the city (apparently it is the second largest in the world?) visiting all the juice bars.  I had a day of complete liquid, only juice & wheatgrass shots & I felt better immediately. We met up with Ben (that we met in BA) & then met a group of five english guys on the magic bus tour that we booked onto.  It's one of those 'hop on-hop off' ones.  At the hostels I've been going to the supermarket & making salad & salmon & big prawns every day so everything feels back to normal.

I went on a heavy duty nine hour trek yesterday with all the english guys, it was really hardcore, I wasn't actually sure I was going to finish at a few points.  We climbed Mount Doom (from Lord of the Rings) it's a volcano, & it was the most physically demanding thing I've ever done.  It took two hours to get up & an hour to get down again.  The whole mountain was just scree, so with every step I fell back down half the distance, I got really stuck & bolders hit me & smashed my legs up & I cried on the way down because & was shaking from limb exaustion & hunger & I was frightened & bleeding & an Isralii guy helped me down. The rest of the walk was wonderful though & was the most beautiful place I've ever been.  I was trying to upload my photos but yahoo is playing up but I will do it soon.

We're going to the south Island tomorrow, I'm really dreading the ferry crossing, It's meant to be really rough.  

Chloe has turned into some kind of extreme sports adrenaline junky & went skydiving & is now going to do the largest bungy I think in the world.  It is cheap here for those kind of things but obviously still expensive & I'm not really interested, partly because I can't afford it but also partly just because I'm not.
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