Travel Diary: New Zealand

25 March

The 2 hour 20 flight from Sydney to Christchurch went by very quickly and we were gobsmacked by the gorgeous views of New Zealand on arrival. The country looks so green and lush with rolling hills and mountains, just gorgeous. A very swift passport control, even though they did examine by bleach blonde passport picture and ask for our onward flight ticket, and we exchanged all our Ozzy dollars, Malaysian dollars, Vietnamese Dong and Thai Baht for over NZ$5,000 which isn’t so bad.

Very easily, we jumped on the airport shuttle and he took us to The Old Countryhouse Hostel in Christchurch which we had booked online the previous day for $89. The traffic was pretty insane as they have cordoned off the CBD so all traffic has to go around the City. Even driving around the outskirting suburbs of Christchurch we could still see the full impact of the brutal earthquake. We had completely underestimated the damage that had been done so it completely shocked us! The driver said that they had an aftershock on Sunday registering a 5.4 which they didn’t really flinch at as all the damage has already been done.

As there is nothing to do and no where to go in Christchurch we walked as far as the supermarket in the freezing cold and stayed in and watched a film in the evening. It is so amazing to have our own lovely room with a double bed and our own bathroom with a FLUSHING toilet and HOT water! Never take these things for granted again!!! It actually feels like Christmas being in the cold for the first time this year.

26 March

We have been told that we cannot get on the Stray bus (which is going to take us around New Zealand) until tomorrow so we have to stay another night. We got up early to pack our bags to move rooms which turned out to be a useless task since we moved into the room opposite which is the same room but without a bathroom attached for $80.

In the morning we got dressed up in our jeans and jackets and headed off for the long walk to the Botanical Gardens on the other side of the CBD. The walk in was an eye opener on just how much the city has been affected by the recent earthquake. It’s like something out of Resident Evil where the whole city has been evacuated. The entire CBD (Central Business District) has been closed off and every street is secured by an armed guard 24 hours to ensure 1. No buildings fall on anyone and 2. People don’t go looting in the city! Loads of houses and businesses have fallen to the ground and even the church in the suburbs around the city. One third of the buildings in the CBD have to come down and the rest will have to be repaired so The Broken City will remain out of action for some time.

A good hour or so later we made it to the botanical gardens in a sweat as the sun had come out and we were now dressed for winter!! We ate lunch at the Botanical Garden Cafe and then walked through the gardens to the Westfield shopping centre! The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping buying some well needed new clothes as ours are now looking very much 6 months old!!! The prices here are very reasonable too compared to Australia too.

A confusing couple of buses later we were back at our amazing hostel which is converted cottages which really has a homely, cottagey feel. We made a simple curry, had a few beers and had an early one ahead of the impending bus trip tomorrow.

27 March

Early this morning we checked out of our amazing room at the Old Countryhouse Hostel after yet another amazing nights’ sleep in a REAL bed. We can’t decide though whether the bed is actually good or it’s just because we have slept on a solid bed in a tiny van for the past 3 months! The airport shuttle bus came to pick us up and take us to the Antarctic Centre where the Stray bus will be picking us up to start our journey. At 10am the bus turned up and a heap of people offloaded and a heap of newbies jumped on. Unfortunately, there was only double seats left at the back of the bus, and as we suspected it ended up being a very bumpy ride! Our bus driver, Curry, who describes herself as hot and spicy, is really cool and enthusiastic and full of info about the land and the culture as we drive. After a few hours of the most incredible scenery rolling through the hills and mountains we approached the Kaikaura Coastline. Kaikoura, in Mouri, means Kai = Food and Koura = Crayfish and that’s what it’s famous for. It was originally a whaling station back in the day and it still remains to be a very nice little sleepy fishing village. We have only seen just a fraction of New Zealand at the moment but we already loving this place it’s gorgeous.

An activity sheet was passed around and they ranged from whale watching, seal and dophin swimming and fishing to sky diving. Our driver also arranged our accommodation for us so this should be a very relaxing, activity filled month on the bus! We decided to do fishing for 2 hours as 1. It would provide our tea and 2. The chances are we would probably see dolphins and seals anyway – we were not let down! We checked into our room at The Adalphi, we managed to get a double room with shared bathroom for only $49 for the two of us which is a bargain – we thought! However, our room turned out to be a pink 1950’s hotel room with the smell to match. One of the girls had said this is the worst hostel they have stayed at yet so it can only get better from here! We left our lovely room and 5 of us, including our driver, got picked up by the lovely Gerry to go fishing. Me, Shaun, Curry, Emma (a 34 year old police woman from Wiltshire) and Serena (a bouncer from Holland “isn’t that weird”) jumped onboard with 2 fisherman. One of the guys had a fake leg and no fingers which for a fisherman really surprised us – turns out he had been swimming near Brisbane in Australia and a shark and bitten his leg off and his fingers whilst he was trying to escape over 20 years ago – pretty horrific but the crazy nutter still loves sharks.

About 10 minutes out to sea we pulled up the crayfish pots revealing loads of huge crayfish for our tea later on – yum yum!! Whilst we were doing this a small pod of tiny dolphins starting swimming around the boat which was so cool!! These New Zealand dolphins are tiny but really cool all the same! Another 10 minutes later we were at our fishing spot where we all dropped our lines and immediately starting catching fish. First was Emma with 2 sea pirch then they starting raining in! I ended up catching the days only blue cod which I thought was pretty special. Along with many sea gulls were some huge albatross!!! Their size is insane they are so big! Shaun and I then started feeling a little ill an hour and a half later in the choppy water (which the fisherman thought was like a mill pond) and we headed to see the seal colony on the coast. All the seals were so chilled out sunbathing on the rocks which was awesome to see so close up.

Gerry came to pick us up and he loaded the boat onto his trailer with us still in it and drove us back to his place to cook up our food. Curry made some sushi/sashimi with the sea pirch and Gerry boiled a crayfish for us each along with some New Zealand wine they had designed which was very yummy! An awesome day and awesome dinner and host to match, well worth $70. After we got showered back at the hostel we headed out to the local pub only for it to close at 9pm so we all headed to a pub down the road in the tiny village and played some pool over a few drinks.

28 March

At 9.30 this morning we boarded the bus and started heading north around the coast. The scenery is absolutely stunning – we are falling for this place, hard, it’s just amazing! The hills and snowy mountains and winding roads and sheeps (40 million sheep to 4.4 million people in New Zealand) and deer and vineyards and amazing coastline with the seals and dolphins just off shore it’s all fantastic!! Curry, our bus driver, dropped us off just before Picton where our new driver, Hoff, picked us up where we are heading to Abel Tasman National Park. This region of New Zealand is the sunniest in New Zealand and we hear that it’s also the best place to sky dive because 1. You get to see both Islands and 2. It’s 16,000 feet which gives you about 1 minute 20 free fall which is just insane. We might drum up the courage to do it this afternoon.

Ok we decided against the sky dive as other people on the bus had told us how good some of the other ones are so we are going to do it another time. Tonight we are staying right at the entrance of the national park in a camp ground called Old MacDonalds Farm. What a let down!! After telling us it was $80 for a double room we went for a dorm for $27 only to find out they were 3 person cabins. We ended up sharing with Suzanne from San Francisco in the tiny little cabin. For dinner Hoff our bus driver (who looks like Brody Jenners twin!) cooked us up an awesome BBQ with all the trimmings. After a few bevvys we settled in for a very uncomfortable night in our cold creeky bunk bed.

29 March

Early rising this morning to begin our activities for the day. Me and Shaun decided to do half a days sailing and half a days walk in the Abel Tasman National Park. We began the 11.8km track at 8.45am and soon caught up to the other couple of girls doing the same activity – Genevieve 20 from Manchester and Prisca 30+ from Switzerland. The track was beautiful, through the rain forest and along the coast overlooking Adele Island and Fisherman Island. It took us 3 hours to walk the track taking some gorgeous photos along the way. After having lunch on Anchorage Beach the Abel Tasman Sailing Boat picked a group of us up.

Sailing along in the sun on the calm flat waters was so relaxing after our walk. The coastline and bordering islands are really stunning in the Abel Tasman National Park and we even spotted a tiny blue penguin swimming in front of the boat. We had an awesome day out all for $65 each.

In the evening Shaun and I went out for dinner to Fat Tui’s. We were very surprised when we got there to see it was actually a funky looking caravan in a car park!! It did not disappoint though the chicken burger I had was quite possibly the best one I have ever had.

30 March

After the coldest shower of my life in the horrible Old MacDonalds Farm we all loaded on the bus for a days’ journey to Barrytown. Along the way we had some photo stops along the West Coast Highway which has been voted in the top 10 best highways to drive in the World and you can see why – the scenery is so stunning! On one side are is the ocean and amazing beaches and on the other are the beautiful mountains. We also stopped for a half hour walk along a coastal path to see a fur seal colony which was pretty cool as well as the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes.

Late in the evening we arrived at Barrytown AKA Baz Vegas – a tiny little town on the West Coast infamous on the Stray bus for wild nights! It didn’t disappoint! We had a rubbish bag themed fancy dress party in the bikers club/hostel and played flippy cups and our team “Put it in me!” won (even though we lost our first game but nobody argued! Haha). After this everyone got so hammered which got very entertaining. Shaun and I are booked in to do Jade carving in the morning at 8am so we set off to our dorm at 1am.

31 March

We really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, it was so comfy and we were so tired after last nights’ shenanigans. Hamish, a local jade carving hero picked up Shaun, Silvie and myself and took us to his workshop down the road for our attempt at jade carving. We each chose a simple Mouri traditional design and Hamish cut a piece of jade stone out for us. Firstly, we had to grind down the edges to the designs shape. Next we grinded the wholes in and then worked on the shape with various grinders with the excellent guidance of Hamish. After polishing different gradients the final product was almost complete. All we had to do was apply a coat of oil and add the string to turn it into a beautiful necklace. The carving was easier then we had expected and Shaun found his natural talent! For $80 this was an absolute bargain and an amazing souvenir not only for New Zealand but for ours travels. Shaun and I both chose a fish hook design which is supposed to bring you good luck on the water.

Hamish dropped us back in Barrytown to join the very hung over team who were all very jealous of our necklaces! We hit the road of headed down the amazing west coast following the coast down then in land past all the awesome lakes. Along the way we stopped to eat our lunch next to an ancient glacier melt river accessed via a rainforest track which was so amazing! We arrived at Franz Joseph at about 5.30pm and checked into our dorm. After checking with reception how much the doubles were we moved into a cute little hut for only an extra 3 dollars each a night at $60. We even have a television in our room!! We haven’t watched tele in 6 months.

1 April

So excited this morning as we are going for a glacier hike on the Franz Joseph Glacier. We checked in and got all our gear for our hike at 8.15 this morning. The advice was to wear 3-4 layers of warm upper body clothing and trousers or shorts and they provide boots, crampons, socks, raincoat, hat and gloves so we were fully kitted out only for it to be a glorious hot day and everyone had to strip off their million layers.

The hike itself was better than words can describe! Firstly, there was a 2 km walk through the rainforest track to the base of the glacier which used to be a lake just 60 years ago and is now just a stream. We split into 4 groups of about 11 and Shaun and myself went in group 3 with our Singaporean guide Kai for a more leisurely hike! The rest of our group was either Korean or Japanese who did not shut up all day which was rather annoying! The first section of the hike was criss-crossing up the fallen rock – this thankfully was the most tiring part!! When we reached the base of the ice we stripped off some layers, put on our crampons and stepped on the glacier! Having never stepped on real snow or ice or mountain or anything similar before I was amazed. New Zealand just gets better and better! We hiked through crevasses, natural caves and tunnels – so awesome!! We didn’t go quite to the top which was disappointing but we sat and ate lunch on the flat plane near the top of the glacier which was pretty cool! Then we turned and hiked back down sticking to the edge of the fallen rocks. As always, the pictures can do the talking (although New Zealand probably has the worst and most expensive internet in the World so don’t expect to see them anytime soon!).

We are absolutely in love with New Zealand it is so beautiful and there is so much to do it’s so awesome.

2 April

This morning we packed up and left this amazing place and headed past the Fox Glacier (where Gen did a sky dive – so awesome) to our accommodation in a rainforest in Makarora. We have had various walks and picture stops today and even stopped at a waterfall for lunch which was pretty awesome but sooooo cold.

The accommodation for tonight is amazing. Shaun and I got a double room for $60 (as dorms were only $24 anyway) and we had a 5 person cabin to ourselves!! There was a double bed and three singles – we’re not used to having so much space! The view from our window was spectacular over the mountains and lakes and horses in the field in front of us. I know we keep saying it but this place is so beautiful.

In the evening we had a meal deal in the lodge and Shaun settled in for a game of poker. The game lasted hours and Shaun ended up coming second.

3 April

After having to wake up Hoff as he hadn’t set his clock correctly after day light saving time had kicked in we set off towards the Adventure Capital of the World, Queenstown! Our first hint of the craziness to come was stopping off at the AJ Hackitt Bundgy Bridge where AJ himself created the bungy! This jump was only 43 meters but still looked huge. Only one guy, Nick the Canadian, from our bus did the jump and half submerged in the gorge below! It looks so much fun and we like to think that if we weren’t full of a cold we would have done it! We can’t believe that we are ill when we come to Queenstown, a highlight of the trip.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in little Queenstown which looks very much like a ski resort Shaun tells me. We checked into Nomads for $30 in an 8 person dorm (not by choice) which wasn’t the cleanest with food all over the floor! After this we went for a wonder around the town and booked to do the Shotover Jet tomorrow. Once we were back at the hostel we went upstairs to visit a certain Guern!!! We knocked on Tom’s door and it was a very ecstatic reunion! We arranged to meet Tom after our BBQ and a few drinks with the bus crew.

We set off to Revolver to meet everyone from the bus for a 3 dollar BBQ, bargain, and a session in Queenstown! After a few bevies and giggles we went and grabbed Tom from the hostel and went onto The World Bar for a few games of Tea Pot. Basically you role a dice with the bar attendant and whoever gets the highest wins. If you win you get a free tea pot full of shots and if they win you pay $17 for your tea pot which is still a bargain for all those shots! We then stumbled to Altitude for by one get one free drinks with the guys from the bus and again ended up in The World Bar! It was a really wicked night out – loving Queenstown already.

4 April

Very excited this morning as we are doing the Shotover Jet (look it up on YouTube it’s awesome), Shaun however is feeling a little fragile after several jugs of beer with Tom last night! The shuttle bus picked us up and took us to the Shotover river where the jet boat begins. They kitted us up with some lovely long raincoats and life jackets and we jumped in the boat. Shaun and I got front seats, they even have heated hand rails so your hands don’t freeze as the water temp is 5 degrees! The jet boat was so much fun it literally skims along the pebbles in as little as 10cm of water and skims the rocks by inches! The 360 spins are pretty awesome too!! We had 25 minutes out of the river and it was definitely worth $119.

When we got back into Queenstown we headed to the infamous Fergburger (although we had never heard of it) and got a huge burger each to soothe the hangovers! It’s got to be said though that Fat Tui’s is better and bigger! For the rest of the afternoon I slept and Shaun watched films.

In the evening we went and ordered half a kilo of steak each for $16 across the road at Montys (I have been converted and now love steak!). It was going to be an hours wait so they took our number and offered to call us when it was ready!! In the meantime we went back to the hostel and watched a film and waited for their call!! When we went back the waitress was cracking up saying she was like our mums calling when tea was ready! The steak was amazing, what a bargain! The rest of the night we chilled out at the hostel whilst Tom went on another pub crawl – we are not that hard core, or rich.

5 April

After booking some activities for this afternoon – Shaun doing motocross in the mountains and I have gone crazy and booked a facial (I know very lame coming to the adventure capital of the World and getting a spa treatment!) we headed up the very steep gondola with stunning views of the whole of Queenstown and the surrounding lakes to do some luging. Luging was created in New Zealand and is basically go-karts with no engines which you race downhill. Shaun, Suzanne, Eric and I all did the luging whilst Silivie took in the views. Turns out Shaun’s quite the natural at this and kept overtaking everyone!! It was so much fun! We had 6 goes for $48 including the gondola up and down and the views from up here are incredible. The years’ first snowfall landed yesterday on the very peaks of the mountains so they look even more beautiful now.

My holistic facial was amazing and I learnt that I am wind and fire which is supposedly odd and Shaun can tell you about his adventure ...

We headed out in the mini bus to the middle of nowhere - all I could see was mountains and more mountains. Eventually, we stopped at a couple of large shipping containers which were full of bikes and quads (all the good stuff). We were placed into two groups - one for quads and one for bikes. Luckily for me the majority of people had opted for quads leaving me and one other guy called Mark to enjoy. I was starting to feel a little nervous while talking to Mark since he told me he does MX back in Oz and our instructor was awesome on a crosser, i thought i was going to be left behind and panicking to catch up. We had a short safety speech and off we went for a few practice laps around the track. Within a few laps and a few helpful hints from the instructor i started to get the hang of it and really enjoying it. We then headed out to have some real fun over the mountains. It was soon clear that Mark was not as top notch as he had first made out, i followed Mark for about 5 minutes while watching our instructor disappear into the horizon until i realized this bloke was just full of it and got past him. I caught up to the instructor who was waiting and sat for a good few minutes for mark to catch up, this happened throughout the afternoon. The tracks where absolutely stunning, we stopped at the point of some mountains and could see what looked like the whole of the South Island. We rode through an under pass of the famous Nevis Bungee and Canyon Swing and saw a nut job do his thing. The instructor told us that we were going to head back because the next part of the track gets very tricky, I basically begged him to let us do it but he wasn’t convinced, until Mark said he didn’t want to do it anyway and would wait until we got back, surprisingly the instructor turned to me smiled and said “lets go!” He wasn’t joking when he said it gets quite tricky, it was a path just big enough for a single bike running sideways down the Canyon. There were points in the track where we turned to go straight down the canyon leaning right over the back of the bike to not tip. Once we hit the bottom we took a breather and i changed my pants. Going up was much more fun than coming down, basically you have to take a flat run start in the canyon get the bike into third gear with high revs and pin it until you get to the top, which takes about 2 mins, which seemed like forever, i was knackered. We met Mark and headed back for the containers. I could of ridden all day it was so much fun. Once back at the containers the instructor told me we had just ridden one of the hardest tracks which he only takes experienced off road riders on.... massive buzz can’t wait to do it again.

We had planned to call it a quiet one tonight but since it is our last night in this crazy place we went out with the rest of the guys left from the bus. Turned out to be yet another awesome night out but unfortunately never bumped into Tom and thus never had the chance to say bye before we left.

6 April

Luckily there was room on the bus for us this morning after we had been on the waiting list! We loaded our bags and set off to some random place to be put onto another bus coming up from the South. We waited in the middle of nowhere for about an hour before a bus turned up which is pretty full now we are all on it! Our driver, Mud, looks about 17 and acts it too so it will be interesting to see how it goes since we will be on his bus all the way to Auckland. We had some more amazing scenery through the mountains and arrived early in the afternoon at Mount Cook in a surprisingly nice hostel (they are few and far between) which is more like a lodge. We grabbed a 4 person dorm with Gen for $28 each which even has an ensuite bathroom with a bath.

As we were so cold and tired we decided to do a short walk to the glacier instead of the half day walk up snowy Mount Cook only to find out it’s only short if you drive there and walk back so we only managed it to the end of the road before figuring out that we were never going to see Mount Cook behind the mountain in front of us so we headed back after taking a few gorgeous snaps.

We had a very chilled out evening watching films, having baths and got in bed by 8.30.

7 April

An early one this morning as the bus is heading off at 7.30am. There are no lie ins on this trip. At least we had some stunning scenery of the snowy mountains to wake us up. We drove all morning until we reached Rangitata. The bus is supposed to go to Christchurch today but since the earth quake it doesn’t go there. So we all stayed in a wilderness lodge (well not all of us – a few people including Katie and Gen had to go to another lodge 10 minutes drive away as there wasn’t enough room for all of us at one place). Shaun and I managed to get a double for $60 which was pretty nice. The shower situation was something to be desired though as it was a shared cubicle of multiple showers in a wooden shack in the freezing cold next to a snowy mountain. I went traveller style and skipped a shower at this place as it was too cold to even think about stripping off.

In the afternoon we just chilled out at the lodge and took a very short walk to the stream and back. Mud cooked us up a BBQ for dinner and nobody from our miserable bus spoke to us. They have a click going on since they have been on the same bus since the start and are so rude that they do not acknowledge anyone else! Luckily we only have a few more days with these people and the lovely Katie and Gen should keep us sane.

8 April

As always an early start as we made our way to Christchurch to do some drop offs and pick ups. There were quite a few people who jumped on so this should even the keel a little of ‘the miserable’s’. We had de ja vue for the rest of the morning as we have already driven the section up to Kaikoura only 2 weeks ago when we started. The scenery has changed a little though since we were last here since the mountains are all snow capped now. Mud drove erratically to get to Kaikoura as the activities were starting just after lunch but disappointedly the whale watching had been cancelled already when we arrived. So instead Mud took us to the peninsular to see the seal colony. The seals were dotted all along the shore and even in the grass areas just chilling out and really not bothered by everyone taking snaps right in front of their faces. 2 hours later we were dropped off back at The Adalphi (the other accommodation choice was full unfortunately so back it is to the horrible Adalphi). Shaun and I got a double room again and ended up with a ‘duo’ which is basically a double with a single bunk on top which is very odd.

In the evening we went down to get our free drink in the bar but nobody was around so we went into the bar next door where all the miserable’s were still not talking to us so got another free drink (we had a token for a coin toss for a free drink and we both won!), played a game of pool and left for bed.

9 April

We had some sort of a lie in this morning as the bus left at 9am. We headed off to Picton through the same route we have already done then went straight to the ferry. Mud had forgotten to tell us or just forgotten that the ferry’s go earlier on the weekends so it was another mad rush to get to the port. We made it just 15 minutes before the ferry was due to leave so we all quickly checked in and got the shuttle to the Commadore Clipper. The ferry journey took 4 and a half hours. The first hour was in the national park and was completely calm and serene then the next 3 hours was pretty rough with big rolling sideways waves which didn’t bother me but Shaun started to feel rather sea sick so had to stay outside the rest of the journey.

Arriving in Wellington was pretty awesome the landscape was totally different from the South Island. Wellington city itself is pretty cool too – all the skyscrapers are not so skyscraping, it looks like a miniature Sydney! After getting some alcohol we headed up to Katie and Gen’s room for a drinking session with everyone before heading out onto the town. A game of ring of fire later and we headed out to Base Bar. After one drink and a little dance Shaun and I headed home back to Nomads in preparation of our Lord of the Rings tour the next day. We made a wise decision as everyone else didn’t get back to the hostel until 4 or 5am.

10 April

This morning we took a walk around the shopping district and Shaun eventually bought his All Blacks Rugby top he has been dying to get since we got here. Our tour guide picked us up at 2pm for our Lord of the Rings Tour! It’s not as lame as it sounds, the tour was really good! First our guide took us to the forests above Wellington where they filmed a few scenes. The tour was well planned out as they showed us the clip so we could see and remember exactly what happened then he had us all act out the scene with props! After this we went to Weta Cave which is basically a shop where they have actual and imitation props ranging from 99 cent up to $27,000 for a bronze statue of Gollum! They also showed us a short film of all the films they have contributed animation and props to which was pretty impressive. Following this we took a drive around Wellington where the guide pointed out various studios, celeb houses and scene locations. The drive itself was really nice as we got to see all of Wellington in sunset.

Our lovely guide ended up giving us $10 off the tour price because the bus door broke and we had to climb out of the drivers door! Then he even dropped us off in town so we could go and find a roast dinner. We ended up at pub called the Black Swan and had a pathetic excuse of a roast dinner. Because of this we all treated ourselves to some yummy desserts.

11 April

Today has been one hell of a long day. Pick up was at 6.45 this morning. Basically we drove all morning until we got to Tongariro National Park to do pick ups even though there were only about 5 free spaces on the bus and about 12 to pick up so they had to bargain amongst themselves as to who would leave on the bus! National Park was pretty cool though as it is the home to Mount Doom out of Lord of the Rings. It also gave us a glimpse of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which is apparently the World’s best one day walk through the mountains which we will be doing in a few days. All the guys on the bus had already done it and said it was awesome, but when we come do it half the track will be in the snow.

We drove the rest of the afternoon on the horrible bus all the way to Auckland and eventually arrived at 6.30pm. What a long and boring day.

After a nice hot shower and checking into yet another skanky Nomads Hostel (8 person dorm for $29 each) we headed into the city in search of some nice food – getting sick of fighting for kitchen space in hostels. We settled on going to our very first Sushi restaurant and it was awesome. We shared a 10 piece plate of mixed sashimi for $15 (£7) and had a Japenese curry and some noodles to share. Our first experience of sushi was pretty awesome, can’t wait to do that again.

12 April

Finally we had a lie in this morning!! Not quite so relaxing in a dorm though since the other 6 people in the room are all moving about and packing very early.

Today we have just meandered around the city stopping off in a few shops and buying a few treats for ourselves. The city is very much like Wellington in the fact that it is so chilled out, even at lunch time there was hardly anybody about. The architecture is pretty awesome too with loads of new funky sky scrapers and some old cathedrals too.

Tonight for dinner we went into Westfields and got ourselves a huge portion of Chinese for $7 as they were just about to close for the day – we know all the cheap traveller tricks now.

13 April

Since we have been informed that there is no bus today we are leaving for the North Island loop tomorrow. This really mucks up our timing so we are going to have to miss something out along the way. Instead we shopped again and wondered around the city.

14 April

We packed up all our stuff and headed out to meet out next bus for the loop of the North Island. Our driver introduced himself as Salty and we were very dubious of him as Stray driver in the beginning being a late 30 something obese boring looking man unlike his crazy predecessors.

Our first stop was still in Auckland at Mount Eden which is an inactive volcano. The view from the top was amazing as you can see all of Auckland and the islands just off the coast. As we were heading towards Hahei Salty made us all introduce ourselves on the bus saying our name, what we did before we came travelling and a question for Salty. This turned out to be very entertaining as we had to surf our way up to the front of the bus and shout into the mic.

By lunch time we reached Hahei where we were staying in dorms in a campsite for the night. Me, Shaun and Maik unfortunately grabbed the smallest room with 2 bunk beds and less than a meter in between the two! We all set out to do the walk to Cathedral Cove which took about 45 minutes to walk around the cliffs. Cathedral Cove itself is pretty cool as it’s a big hole in the middle of the cliff edge, we took some pretty good snaps, crazy Corrina went swimming and we set off across the beach back to camp. Walking through the rainforest in New Zealand is so different to Australia as the terrain and plant life is so different and you don’t have to fear about spiders and snakes since they only have one venomous spider in New Zealand.

As we made it back to camp Salty had cooked us up a mighty New Zealand BBQ so we all sat outside and ate mussels and BBQ and had a few beers. At 9pm when low tide had hit we all jumped back on the bus to go to the Hot Beach. It was pitch black and freezing as we walked along the beach in our swim wear following Salty not knowing what we were looking for. Then we came across a family all sitting in a ‘spa’ they had dug out in the sand with boiling hot water in - and I mean boiling! Pretty much everybody burnt their feet walking around the area trying to dig our own spas. This was a really odd experience sitting in boiling hot water then a freezing cold wave would come over and collapse the spa wall! New Zealand has thermal activity all over and this one happens to be right on the beach. A really good first day with the new bus.

15 April

Yet again an early start as we made our way to Raglan well known for its surf. A couple of weeks ago it held the Rip Curl surf competition. By lunch time we made it to our lodge which was set out completely in the rainforest which was really cool. We got a 4 person dorm room which was all the way at the top of the resort. Shaun had decided to hire a surf board but I chickened out as it’s freezing! Half of the bus had an intro to surfing lecture before we all hopped on the bus and we taken down to the black sand beach. The surf was pretty good and since Shaun had a nice big foam board he looked like a pro (check out the photos). A few hours later when everybody was knackered we headed back to the lodge and a few of us were very excited about jumping in the sauna only to find out we had to turn it on. So half an hour later when it was still not warm me and Shaun bailed to go and get ready for our bangers and mash which Salty prepared and a night out in Raglan. We were totally wrong about our first impressions of Salty, he has turned out to be our best driver yet.

Since our taxi never came to collect us at 10pm Salty rounded up some local surfers to take us into town in their mini vans! We went to the one and only bar/club in town and had a couple of free shots, courtesy of Salty, had a bit of a dance and a few drinks and headed back to the lodge a few hours later. Raglan turns out not be such a lively night out.

16 April

This morning we headed for Waitomo Caves where we had planned to go caving. We first had to do all paperwork saying how if we were injured in any way it was not the company’s fault, the usual really. It was a 20 minute off road drive through the mountains to the base where we got kitted up in 8 millimetre wetsuits including socks and gloves, hard hat helmets with torches and a pair of steel toe cap wellys; we looked very sexy indeed. It was then a 15 minute walk to the entrance of the cave which is a collapsed sink hole. The entrance itself was very tight with me and Jodie just about squeezing through, this gave me a slight feeling of chlosteraphobia straight away and worried how bad it will actually get. Once in the main cave entrance underground it was pretty spacious but very cold and dark. We climbed through what would be the biggest part of the cave looking at stromatolites and stromatotites. The caves then began to get very tight and forced us to squeeze through on our hands and knees. It was pitch black and could hardly see anything with our torches on, which was not a lot of the time since our guides kept telling us to turn them off to get the full experience. We then entered the water which to our surprise was not as cold as we had thought, well the water wasn’t really inside the wet suit since it was 8 millimetre thick. We waded through the water until we all in utter awe of the sight up in front of us, thousands of glow worms all hanging from the ceilings of the cave looking like stars. It was at this point we all linked arms in a big circle and dunked ourselves with our wetsuits open to get a real feel for how cold the water really was, it was absolutely freezing (not in the scientific term, but you know what I mean). We waded in the chest high freezing cold water for about a hundred metres trying to get warm. We headed into another part of the cave where we were to start tubing. The instructor gave us brief demonstration on how we were to enter the water with our tubes. He climbed about 3 metres up the cave wall with his tube, held the tube to his bum and jumped off backwards trying not to hit his head on the cave ceiling in the process and landed hard in the water. We all did this and all surprisingly landed in our rings. We then all connected together in single file by wrapping our feet around the person in front. We turned our torches off and were pulled through cave in complete darkness and silence taking in the beautiful, mesmerising, surreal sight of the thousands of glow worms only feet away from our faces. The glow worms themselves are not actually worms at all; they are in fact cannibalistic maggots with glowing poo! About an hour later we came out the other side with only a small climb out. In this small climb our guide decided to show us what kind of insects we had just been swimming and climbing with. He shined his hand torch to a crack in the ceiling where there was about four giant centipedes about ten inches long, very glad we didn’t see them at the start, an awesome experience.

That afternoon we drove to New Zealand’s’ most cultural town Maketu where we were to spend a night at the local Mouri meeting house and learn various indigenous traditions. Once we arrived we were greeted by an 80 year old Mouri chief called Uncle Boy, who would be our host for the night. After we were served up some great traditional food we all had to get prepared to meet the tribe. The meeting ceremony is very important in their culture and if our chief, who was Phil the oldest, messed it up then it would cause offence or even attack. We had all geared ourselves up and then went into the main hall where we all had to stand behind our chief. Chief then had to accept a gift from the tribe chief (who turned out to be a 10 year old boy, a little disappointing after we had psyched ourselves up so much for a big scary chief). The gift was a leaf he had placed on the floor in which Phil had to pick up without breaking eye contact with tribal chief. Thankfully this all went well and we all had to meet each other by shaking hands and touching nose to nose (which is very strange to be in such close contact, almost kissing, people you don’t know). The tribe then put on a traditional show for us including the haka, the poi, demonstrating how to use their weapons and various songs. After this the guys were all taken into the room next door to learn the haka (which Shaun has been so excited about since we got here) and all the girls learnt the poi (which is basically spinning balls on strings). It was pretty simple to learn so after half an hour the guys came back in and performed the haka which was brilliant because they were so fierce and all of them had red and blood blistered thighs and chests where they had been smacking them so hard! The girls then performed the poi. The evening was brilliant and everybody really got involved so it was really good. After a beer each we all grabbed a mattress and some covers and set them all in the hall where our whole bus would be sleeping for the night. What a brilliant day.

17 April

Action packed day today.  We left Maketu bright and early after saying goodbye to the lovely Uncle Boy. Staying in a room with the whole bus was really nice last night.

We headed straight for the activity centre to sign up for either white water rafting where you get to raft down a 7 meter waterfall or go river sledging. Me, Shaun, Maik (our roomie from Germany) and Hein (like Heineken from Germany as well) decided upon river sledging having done rafting before and never hearing of river sledging before, and we are glad we did. River sledging is basically going head first down some river rapids holding on to a big plastic body board type thing. We got kitted up in some heavy duty wet suits, life vests and helmets and were carted off to the starting point on the river. We were also joined by an English girl who had only one hand, she did better than most of us even though it’s all about holding on and not letting go. Anyway after being given a demonstration of how to turn and do certain roles, we jumped over the barrier and jumped into the fast flowing river where we then had to demonstrate the rolls ourselves which is pretty scary when you’re heading for a rapid. After a few rapids it became clear that they bigged up the danger factor a little too much. There was really no way you could injure yourself and the rapids were a little pathetic even though it was graded a 3-5. Shaun breezed through the rapids whilst I was getting a bit tired from trying to kick against the current to get into edge of the river where we had to stop all the time for the 3 guides to explain the next rapid. There were about 5 rapids all together which took about 20 minutes to go through. It was pretty cool but we were glad we didn’t choose the rafting option which goes down the same section on river. It had nothing on the Thailand rafting.

On route to Taupo we stopped off for a quick dip in the ‘hot and cold pools’ which is basically where a boiling hot river meets a freezing cold one due to thermal activity. After most of us were already in Shaun read out the sign at the top explaining the risk of getting meningitis and other diseases if you submerge your head!! Salty forgot to explain that part and also the part about taking off any jewellery as it reacts and I ended up with brown rings instead of silver, great.

Moving on from here we went and saw some mud pool geysers which is egg smelling boiling hot mud bubbling up and then we walked off to see a river. When we were returning to the bus after our walk there was the limousine waiting for us to take us SKYDIVING! Me, Shaun, Corrina, Gwyneth and Alana all decided to take the plunge first with a group going after us. We arrived at Taupo skydive centre and signed up for the package we wanted. Me, Shaun and Corrina all went for the full 15,000 feet!!! The other option being 12,000 feet but you might as well go all the way if you’re going to do it. The package we chose also included photos and a custom made video with music we chose – all for $500 (£250), BARGAIN! We all got an instructor, got kitted up, had a pre-dive interview – Shaun’s is good and I had no idea what to say, and were all loaded into the pink plane, pretty scary stuff! My instructor, Mick, was a tiny Scouser, of all the places in the world he had to be from Liverpool! Shaun’s instructor was a crazy Hungarian. I was so nervous but since Grandpa was a paratrouper in the war I was thinking it must be in my blood so I should enjoy it!  We flew up to 4,500-5,000 feet where we had a second interview. I thought we were nearly there let alone only a third of the way! What was worse was that Shaun’s instructor completely took the mick, winding us up in any way he could telling us the equipment was faulty and that he had only done a few jumps before and generally trying to scare the s**t out of us! At 12,000 ft they opened up the hatch and Gwyneth and Alana got chucked out. This set our pulses racing! Another few minutes climbing altitude and we hit 15,000 ft. We got buckled to our instructor, me and Shaun had one last kiss then were scooted along for me to go first ... me and Mick sat on the edge of open door then that was it we were falling head first, 200 km/h towards the earth!! Nothing can prepare you for that and your heart jumps right into your mouth. All of a sudden we flipped over going backwards which was a complete shock (you can tell on my video) and then rolled back over, he gave me a tap to stretch out my arms and we were falling at terminal velocity. Shaun came out swiftly after me and absolutely shit himself (there is no other way to describe it) and the first few seconds of his video are hilarious!!! After that he relaxed into it and we both really enjoyed the 60 second plus free fall! Plummeting to earth that fast is like nothing we can describe you just have to do it yourself, it’s amazing! After the 60 seconds when we reached 5,000 ft our instructors pulled the parachute which is another big shock when you’re suddenly yanked upwards! And then it all goes quiet and peaceful for 5 minutes until you land. The 5 minutes seemed really long taking in the amazing views of the enormous Lake Taupo and Shaun even got to control his parachute. Shaun landed first somehow and landed on their feet before falling backwards into a big heap! I landed a few seconds later landing on our feet too! It then kicks in how awesome that really was we were ecstatic and wanted to go again straight away. We had another quick interview when we hit the ground where I couldn’t do much but swear I didn’t know what else to say! Unfortunately, not all of us had such great landings. Gwyneth got jolted up by a gust of wind just before landing and got dropped right on her backside. Later in the evening she went up to A&E and found out she broke her coccyx! Hopefully Glenn will load our videos onto facebook soon so you can have a look. We were all buzzing and cheered on the second group to go up.

They announced in the evening that the Tongariro Crossing is cancelled for tomorrow so we get a lie in and we can have a wild night in Taupo. This actually works out quite good for me and Shaun because we messed up on our timings so we are a day late so wouldn’t have been able to do the crossing and now it is cancelled anyway so we are not missing out.

After some chille con carne for tea and a few drinks in the hostel bar a load of us from the bus headed out for a night out in Taupo. Even Gwyneth came out in heels of all things pumped up on codeine! We only went to one bar all night but the drinks were cheap and we had an awesome night.

18 April

As the Tongariro Crossing is cancelled today we didn’t have to leave until 10am this morning which was definitely needed after last nights’ session on the tiles.

We were considering going all out on the crazy activity scene but since it was raining and our heads rather delicate we decided against doing the Taupo 54 meter bungy. A bit too extreme in these conditions. Instead we had a lie in and set off for Tongariro National Park. As the walk is cancelled because of the weather conditions Salty said we could have a snow fight instead as all the other shorter walks are under snow too. Unfortunately, Shaun and I have to get straight off Salty’s bus and on to another to head back up to Auckland since there is no bus tomorrow and we fly out the day after. When we arrived at the National Park we realised just how bad the weather was with snow falling even at the cabin! Pretty gutted to be missing out on a real snow fight and the best accommodation on the circuit.

A driver called Nacho, who had his mum on the bus, picked us up straight away and we were crammed onto his tiny, packed bus and on our 4 hour journey back to Auckland. The weather conditions in New Zealand are so weird. It’s very true what they say that you can have all 4 seasons in a day. By time we reached Auckland at 6.30pm the weather was warm and dry, a complete contrast to 4 hours ago in National Park. On our bus was Cirple the yoga teacher who was on our second bus with Hoff who we lost in Queenstown so it was nice to catch up with her again so we all got a room together as well as Alana the lovely American and crazy Corrina from Germany (who is so wild). 2 other girls from the UK later joined the clan in the room who had just flown in from Brazil and had also been to Argentina so we got some well needed advice from them.

19 April

Another pretty chilled out day today walking around the city and checking out what’s to come in America and South America. New Zealand has definitely been our best country so far and we doubt that anything can beat it. It is the most beautiful country with everything you want and there is so much to do.  Looking forward to seeing my parents in a few days in LA and our road trip to Vegas.

A la perchoine, Jodie & Shaun