Fiji - Mana Island

Playing with the locals

As soon as we arrived at Mana I knew I was going to like it. The hostel was much better than the one on the mainland, with very friendly staff who had learnt all of our names within five minutes and a nice beachside location (it was jetting out onto the sea). We were shown to our dorm which was lovely, cool and spacious and we barely had time to put our bags down before it was dinner time. At dinner time a bell rang and we all queued for our food (which was included in the price we had paid). We sat with the Americans, Ally and Matt and enjoyed dinner with an amazing sunset over the beach. I went to have a shower and when I came out, the hostel staff had gathered everyone around the bar and were singing welcome songs and playing guitars. It was bula hour. Bula hour happened every evening. It was where King David (the entertainment manager) and his staff welcomed the new arrivals to the island and sung goodbye to the leavers. After bula hour, all drinks were half price, so we sat around with our new friends (James from Canada, Ally and Matt from the USA, two Swedish girls and a Dutch girl called Henrike) and played drinking games with King David (KD). After that, we had an early night and read our books in bed.

Sunset beach

The next morning we got up early for breakfast and then went for a walk to sunset beach which was a secluded beach with crystal clear waters and nobody else on it. It was a really hot day but there was a nice breeze from the sea and the water was so refreshing and clear. We relaxed for a bit under a palm tree and read our books and then the Americans came and joined us and we all went in the sea together. After swimming, we walked back to the hostel for lunch (pizza and chips – mmm) was a free basket weaving session on in the hostel where they showed you how to
weave the palm leaves and also how

to open a coconut.

Walking to survivor beach

In the afternoon, we found out that there was a beach a short walk from the hostel that was used as the location for survivor uk – one of my favourite TV programmes back in the day! We were also told, that if you went snorkelling at this beach we might see some sharks (the non-man-eating-variety). I was so excited about seeing the survivor set because I had watched every episode when it was on 10 years ago. We set off, with Alex, an English boy we had met and walked through the local village, up a hill through some jungle and then down hill through some jungle to get there.
 I was quite disappointed with what we saw. It was basically just the ruins of a fabricated temple covered in rubbish and weeds. Alex stood on an old rusty nail that went right through his flipflop and into his foot and it was at this point that we all decided to walk back. When we got back, Jemma and I decided to go back to sunset beach for some more swimming and sunbathing. We had just found a lovely secluded spot and Jemma went for a dip, when all of a sudden we were pounced upon by 4 little Fijian kids. They wanted to play with us and snorkeled around us until we gave them attention. I started throwing them like darts and then Jemma let one of them climb onto her shoulders and let them use her as a diving board. After that, all hell broke loose and there was a queue of Fijian kids behind her, scrambling onto her back, pulling on her bikini shouting 'Throw me next! Throw me!'. I got out at this point and settled back onto the beach and watched in amusement. We finally managed to part ourselves from the kids about 40 minutes later, and walked back to our hostel in our bikinis, across the airfield that you have to cut across. By the time we had completed the 10 minute walk back to the hostel, we were bone dry again. We got back to the hostel, had a shower and then the bell rang for tea, so we joined our new friends, Ally, Matt, Charlie and Alex for tea. The best thing about Ratikini hostel was without a doubt the people. We met such fantastic people there and the staff were so friendly. After dinner we had Bula hour again, where James, a Canadian guy (one of the most friendly people I have ever met) joined in and pretended to play the guitar. He had become a regular feature of Bula hour. After this, I had a lovely kitkat chunky from the fridge and a glass of wine and we all sat around chatting. Most people disappeared off to bed quite early and we ended up playing cards (cheat) on the floor in the dorm, before settling into bed with my book.

More photos here: Fiji

Bula and welcome to Fiji

Luggage ready for the boat

Jemma drenched

Our arrival into Fiji was tropical, but not in the way we had expected. We landed in torrential rain (not sure how the pilot managed to land – the last plane had had to be diverted because the storms were so bad.). We waited in Nadi airport for a taxi with the guy from the hostel who had come to collect us. It was pouring down with rain, flooding everywhere and there weren't any taxis because the roads were so flooded. After about an hour of waiting, a taxi finally came and drove us to the hostel. It felt like real travelling again because the car was an old banger with no seatbelts and the driver drove really dangerously. We got to our hostel, which was basically just a hut by the port and everything was damp. We decided just to go to bed and hoped we would wake up to better weather the next day. There were storms and non stop rain all through the night. Every time I woke up I could hear it outside and felt worried that it would not stop by the morning. It didn't stop. It carried on for the whole next day and it was so bad that the town was shut down due to flooding and no cars or boats could leave. This meant that we were trapped on the mainland, which isn't the prettiest of places to be trapped. We spent the whole day trapped in the hostel, eating, talking to people and trying the kava (the local drink which is disgusting and tastes like mud). At one point the rain stopped and we decided to seize the moment and go for a walk. 

 About 30 minutes into the walk, the storms started again and we got absolutely soaked. It really wasn't fun. All of our stuff was wet, the beds were damp and I was so depressed because there was no prospect of getting off the mainland to visit the islands as we had intended to do. People were telling us that it was due to last another 5 days. I was horrendously depressed and had a headache. The whole hostel and the surrounding areas were flooded and there were no shops near by to buy food so we just had to buy meals from the hostel. We went to bed again that night to thunder and lightening, praying for a miracle in the morning. In the morning, a miracle happened and a small gap in the grey clouds appeared allowing us to see a tiny patch of blue which gave us hope. We managed to sit down with the guy in the hostel and plan a week of island hopping and he booked us on the next boat that afternoon. As long as it didn't start to rain again, we would be off. The rain just about held off for us and we eventually got on a boat along with two Americans we had met. We were so happy to arrive at our first Island, Mana, to a group of singing ukulele players and sunshine.  

Fiji here we come!

We have decided to move our flights forward a couple of days and leave NZ early. We will therefore be flying to Fiji on Monday! We are currently spending our last few days in Auckland relaxing and after several trial and errors have found a nice hostel. We have been shopping today for holiday clothes, all we need to decide now is which islands we will be hopping onto!

Rotarua

Zorbing - something I've always wanted to try

The day we set off to Rotarua I was so tired because I only had about 3 hours sleep in our 15 bed dorm and we had to get up at 6.00. It was a really long day too, with Buzz dragging the bus journey out and stopping at every possible photo opportunity, including a wind farm. We got to Rotarua, said bye to our two new friends from Liverpool and checked into a hostel that we had found ourselves online. It was an absolute bargain (£10 a night – the cheapest we've paid in NZ, a free large pizza from dominos and half an hours free internet!). I slept on the setee when we checked in because our beds weren’t ready, but as soon as they were I conked out on the bed for the whole afternoon. We then had to go out into town to try and book some of the activities that we had come back to Rotarua to do. The first one was white water rafting. On the way down, we had decided not to do it, but save it until the end. It is grade 5 rapids where you raft down a 7m waterfall – the world's highest commercially raftable waterfall. Both of us wanted to do it more than any other activity in NZ. Unfortunately though, when we came to book it, they told us that the river had been shut due to extreme rainfall. We were absolutely gutted! We couldn't decide then, whether to just leave it or do another, lower grade raft instead. We decided to do a grade 4 raft which was longer and we also booked to do zorbing (rolling down the hill in a giant hamster ball full of water) and to go to a Maori culture show. We were in for a busy day, so we went back to the hostel got our free pizza each (BBQ sauce pizza, mmm) and then settled down infront of the hostel telly to watch a programme about how most of the animals in NZ aren't actually native to NZ but have come from OZ – including the kiwi!. The people in our hostel were a lot nicer than the usual crowds we find in the magic selected hostels and we had a really nice night.

The next day was action packed and fantastic. We started at 9am by doing the zorb (or OGO as they call it here), and were rolled down a hill in a ball full of water. The photos and videos were cool but we decided not to buy them as we were already spending too much money. Then we went on the fishpipe for free, which I didn't enjoy – it was a big ball where you are strapped inside and they spin it round. Next we walked to the hotel across the road where I sat by the pool and read my book whilst we waited for our bus to pick us up for rafting. The bus picked us up and drove us 50 mins out of town to the rafting. We were in a boat with 4 other girls (all really friendly) and two guides. The best bit was when we went down a rapid and the boat was completely engulfed in water. After this there was a calm bit where we all jumped out and messed about on the river, pushing each other out etc. The rafting lasted about 1h30 altogether which was a lot longer than the one we did in Peru. At the end, they gave us subway sandwhiches and nachos and we played with the baby duck.

The minibus took us back to our hostel and we quickly got ready, before heading out to our Maori show at 6.30pm. The Maori show (the Tamaki show) was something we had deliberated long and hard about going to. When Buzz had first told us about it on our 2^nd day in NZ, we had thought the price was far too high and that we definitely wouldn't go. Jemma really wanted to go but I said I couldn't justify it. A load of people off our coach went and told us the next day about how great it was. We then met a fair few people on our travels through NZ who also raved about it, including one girl who was the manager of Magics girlfriend and told us it was supposed to be the best show in NZ and showed us videos. The show is basically a Maori (the natives of NZ) culture show, where they take you through their village and do a show and then you have a big feast that is cooked underground on hot stones (a hangi) and is all you can physically eat (according to the German girl, who told us she has never seen so much food in her life). The only one bad review we heard was off a girl who told us that 'the village was a fake village'. Well, duh, we didn't expect to find a real Maori village in 21^st century NZ. Anyway, after thinking about it for 4 weeks and weighing up people's reviews, we finally decided to go for it (mainly for the hangi feast more than anything else!). Also because we hadn't learnt much about the Maoris during our time in NZ and after watching the All Blacks Haka (Maori war dance) on youtube, I decided that I couldn't leave NZ without seeing the real thing.

The Chiefs being 'welcomed' into the village

So, we went to the Tamaki Village place in the centre of Rotarua where we were picked up by buses. Every guest got onto a bus with their tribe (you were assigned to a tribe) and then once in the bus, the driver/ comedian explained what would happen in the village and chose a tribal leader to represent the bus (Ryan from Yorkshire). The bus driver was the most hilarious man ever and remembered everyone's name on the bus. He went through each country doing jokes about the countries and saying things in the various languages. He told us that when we got to the village, the chief from each bus would have to stand at the entrance and face the Maori warriors who would come to frighten them and then welcome them into the village. I can't really describe this in words so I will try to put up a video. It basically involved a lot of pulling weird faces, sticking out of tongues and waving of sticks. It set one girl off our bus off crying. 

Once all the chiefs had been welcomed, we went into the village and wandered around the various huts where there were village people describing what they did in the village and demonstrating games etc that they played. After this, they took us to see our hangi feast cooking under ground (under mud) and then we went into an auditorium where they put on a show of singing and dancing which was outstanding. They then showed us a video about Maori heritage and how the Maoris had narrowly survived as a race and how New Zealand (Aeotorrea) is ensuring the survival of their culture today. It was quite touching.

Finally, we entered the buffet room, where we sat with a load of kiwis and I literally ate until my stomach was about to burst. I had chicken, lamb, fish, coleslaw, gravy, potatoes, carrots, stuffing, vegetables, desert....

It was an outstanding feast.

We then all got back onto our buses and the driver dropped everyone off at their individual hotels, giving us entertainment and jokes on the way. When each person got off, they had to do the traditional Maori hongi gesture (touching of noses). I don't normally like these kind of shows but this was without a doubt the best thing I have done in New Zealand and I would recommend it to anyone. If you go to New Zealand, you must go to Rotarua and do the Tamaki Village Maori show, it is amazing!  

Working our way back up to Auckland - Taupo

After Wellington, everywhere we were going to go would be somewhere we'd been before because the bus goes back up North along the same route. However, this was good as we had left some activities to do in these places because we knew we would be coming back.

The night before we left Wellington, the driver (our old friend Buzz, who we had for our first ever bus and really didn't like), came into the social area of the hostel and offered to take everyone up to the top of the mountain in Wellington (Mt. Victoria) to get a view over Wellington at night. That was really nice of him actually. I was ready for bed at this point, but quickly slipped on a fleece and up we went to the top of this mountain at 11pm. We had some nice new people on the bus, including two gay guys from Liverpool, one of which was wearing a goats fur vest (who takes a goats fur vest round the world with them??). Anyway, they were also in our dorm and we really got on with them. It was cool to see Wellington at night but it was very chilly as I only had my pyjamas on under my fleece. On the way back to the hostel, Buzz decided to drive us all through the tunnel under the mountain, which is extremely narrow (our bus only just squoze through) and then he tried to scare us all by turning all the lights off and nearly drove into the tunnel wall. It was scarier than some of the buses in South America. When we got out the tunnel, there was another bus about to enter from the opposite direction. If we had been in that tunnel a few seconds later with the lights off, it would have been a head on collision.

The next day we set off to Taupo and on the way we stopped at a kiwi sanctuary where we finally saw real life kiwis! There was even a lesser-spotted white one and a kiwi chick. Jemma accidentally left her flash on when the sign said not to so she got quite a good photo. After this, we continued onto Taupo where we returned to the hostel we stayed in at Christmas. I didn't enjoy the hostel at Chirstmas, but we were looking forward to going back there as Jemma's mum had sent a Christmas parcel for us that had finally arrived and the manager had found me on facebook to tell me it was there – with 40 stamps on it! We had a fantastic night unwrapping all of the treats inside, including tesco own brand chocolate! (My favourite!) and Heinz beans! Also in the box, were mince pies, which made Jemma very popular with the man behind the bar as they were his favourite food. We rang Jemma's mum on Skype to say thanks (thanks Barbara!) and then I ate two bars of chocolate before I went to bed and couldn't sleep that night at all (due to sugar overload?). It was better than actual Christmas day in Taupo.  

Kaikoura then back to the North Island

One of the seal pups

After we left Christchurch we had yet another new bus driver who was annoying and made us sit at the front so he could tell us stories (brag) about his travels. Kaikoura is the place to go whale watching and swimming with seals, but as we have no budget for such activities, we simply went for a walk on the beach, had beans on toast for tea and then watched a dvd (she's the man) in the dvd lounge with some German girls.





The hostel was quite nice and I had an early night and the best nights sleep in a while.
We were pleased to bump into our old driver, Scott, in the hostel and find out that he would be driving us to the ferry the next day.

On the Inter-islander ferry

The next day we set off to Picton, the ferry terminal. On the way we stopped at some rocks where we climbed down and got really close to loads of seals. Hundreds of seals and all about 3metres away from us! It was really nice. We continued on to the ferry but the driver had booked us on the wrong one so we would have to wait an hour in the terminal whilst everyone else got the earlier one. Luckily, whilst we were waiting, Jemma went to speak to the check in desk and they said there was free space on the earlier one and that we could get on. 

We spent most of the 3 hour journey out on deck marvelling at the sounds – it is like something out of Jurassic park. We spent the journey with the Malaysian girl (Lisa) and two English girls who were on a rtw trip. When we got to Wellington, there was a bit of confusion as there was no Magic bus to pick us up so we all clubbed together and got a minibus to the hostel. We are staying in the same hostel as we did last time because we loved it last time but this time is a completely different experience. Last time we were in a 4 bed en suite with Yoshi and this time we are in an 8 bed dorm with dangerously high bunks that are a real challenge to climb in and out of. We were happy however, to find that we had nice room-mates, including a girl from Leeds who was doing the rtw trip the other way round to us and gave us loads of tips for Asia. Yesterday we went to the Parliament building (the Beehive) in the morning for a free tour and then in the afternoon we went shopping for beach clothes for Fiji. We then spent a Saturday night watching a Disney film (!) (princess and the frog) in the dvd lounge because we can't afford another night out. How sad are we.

Today (Sunday) we have been to the Te Papa museum again because we loved it so much last time and we also bought a fresh fish off a boat for tea (I am not loving this fiji diet!). I am currently typing this downstairs whilst Jemma watched Nani McPhee in the TV room because there is a boy in our room with the stinkiest feet I have ever known and I have been forced to evacuate the dorm because it is that bad. However, he has just come and sat next to us downstairs so I may have to move again. Ahhh, hostel life, who wouldn't love it? :)

p.s. One good thing about hostelling here is earwigging into German conversations – its difficult not to because they are by far the majority  

Christchurch

We are currently in Christchurch staying in a prison!! We weren't planning on staying in Christchurch – Magic bus doesn't have over night stops here any more since the earthquake but the other day we found out that if we wanted to stay, the bus would pick us up. So, we decided to go for it and booked in to stay in jail! It is an old prison (last operational in 1999) and not much has been changed! We are literally staying in a cell and you can still see the prisoner's graffiti on the walls and they have kept a load of the old furniture. I feel like I am living in an episode of Bad Girls! But it is really freaky – they put all the lights off at 21.00 and I was too scared to go into our cell on my own. It is silence after 21.00 and it is so eerie and freaky! Definitely a unique experience! Not sure how well I will sleep tonight though knowing that my cell used to be home to prisoners and it is right next to the isolation room!

As for Christchurch itself, we went for a walk through the town and everywhere is shut down and closed. Most places are fenced off and the buildings are left as they were before the quake hit. We saw the Cathedral which has more or less collapsed. The roof has fallen in and everywhere is fenced off. We also saw massive cracks in the road and broken windows everywhere. Its is like a ghost town. Some parts of the town centre have been reopened and the shops there are temporary ones made of corrugated iron. Its very strange. Christchurch is meant to be the 'little England' of NZ. We went for a walk in the park along the Avon river and through the botanical gardens and English rose gardens. When we got back we ate dinner in the middle of the prison with an English girl. I am currently sat writing this in the reception area because our cell is so cold, dark and scary. I can't believe we paid to stay in prison!

Photos: South Island

Dunedin & Lake Tekapo

Moeraki boulders

The journey from Queenstown to Dunedin was a quick one and we arrived it Dunedin quite early which made a pleasant change as it meant we got some time to look round the town. Dunedin is the Edinborough of the South hemisphere and is where all the Scots lived when the British came over. It is th emost British looking town I have seen yet and did have quite a Scottish feel about it. It also had token Scottish gift shops selling tartan souvenirs. We did some washing in the hostel then went to the supermarket and bought some falafel for lunch the next day. Then we went to look around the town. Apparently its a big student city and is a lot more busy outside of the Christmas holidays but when we were there it was very quiet and not much to write home about.

The next day we headed off to lake Tekapo with a bus full of new people and a new driver. The bus stopped briefly before we left Dunedin, and let us off to walk up the world's officially steepest street. The bus also stopped at the Moeraki Boulders which are a natural wonder of New Zealand – round stones that have been formed over millions of years under the sea.

Steepest street

After this we continued on, stopping only for lunch (lovely falafel pitta sandwiches) and we stopped a few times at photo opportunities around the area such as at big hydroelectric dams (NZ uses *0% renewable energy) and we also stopped at the church of the good sheppard. Then we got dropped off at our hostel which was a lovely lakeside lodge and there was only 4 of us in our room (us and 2 Germans). The driver had organised a BBQ so we all paid £5 and he went and bought a load of stuff from the supermarket. Two people volunteered to make salads and he cooked all the meat. Whilst we were waiting for it to cook, we went for a walk in the forest next to the lake and Jemma went for a swim in the freezing lake with a Malaysian girl. We then had an extremely delicious BBQ with everyone off the bus and it was a lovely bonding experience. I brought out my box of wine from Queenstown and we also had L & P (New Zealand's famous drink, only famous in NZ).

View of Mount Cook

After the BBQ I was really tired because of the wine and had a lovely early night. Jemma decided to go for a walk in the woods and look at the stars with the Malaysian girl (Lake Tekapo is one of the best places in the world to look at the stars and there was a full moon. There is an observatory you can go too with telescopes but it cost £50 to go so we gave it a miss).

View of lake Tekapo from hostel bedroom

Group BBQ

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is a must-see attraction in New Zealand. Its is located in the biggest national park of New Zealand as is thought to be one of the most spectacular sights in NZ. It is the image you see on all the post cards. It is expensive to go (you have to get a coach for 2 hours and then there's a boat trip) but we found a good deal by not booking with Magic (our bus company) but instead booking with the rival company Kiwi Experience. By doing this, we saved about £20 and got a free hot buffet lunch thrown in. The two hour journey there was very scenic and we stopped along the way to take photos of glaciers, avalanches and waterfalls. Then, when we got to Milford Sound we got on a boat that took us out into the fjords and we had a buffet and guided tour of the area. We saw seals and we went to an underwater observatory where we saw black coral which apparently is very rare and Milford Sound is the only place where you can see it at such a shallow depth. There is not much else to say about Milford Sound, the pictures speak for themselves. So here is a Facebook album full of them: Milford Sound

Queenstown!

View over Queenstown

It was really nice to chill out in Queenstown, the party capital of New Zealand for a few days because its not often that we stop more than one day in a place on this whistle stop tour. We checked into our hostel, Nomads, which was just like the one in Wellington – a big, clean, modern hostel with everything you need. We got some bottom bunks and then chilled out for a while before catching the free dinner at 6pm (Thai green curry!). After dinner, we went for a walk to watch the sunset with Yoshi and a Korean girl we met on the bus and after this we went to a nice quiet bar for a glass of wine for my pre-birthday celebrations; it was lovely.

Fergburger

The next day was my birthday and it was an excellent day. I had a lie in until 11 (first lie in in so long) and then Jemma gave me some surprise presents! The night before she had bought me two chocolate bars from the supermarket and told me those were my present and I honestly believed her! However, I had a card, two big chocolate bars, a lonely planet book for Australia, a notebook/diary, and a Margaret Thatcher book! Lol. She had bought it all in Wellington when I was lost. After the presents, I had 2 bowls of cocopops and then we decided to go up to the top of the mountain next to the lake to get a view over the city, with Jemma intending to do the luge at the top. It was too expensive to take the cable car up so we walked up the mountain which took about an hour and was very scenic (through a forest). Mountains are nothing after Huayna picchu and I even ran up some bits to burn some calories before my birthday banquet. It was a lovely sunny day and half way up we saw some people ziplining through the trees. When we got to the top the views were spectacular; you could see the whole of Queenstown, with the lakes and the mountains. You could also see people doing bungy jumps off the edge of the observatory. We looked at the luge (a little bobsleigh track at the top of the mountain) but it looked far too expensive for what it was, so Jemma had a pie and then we went back down the mountain by cable car. We went back to the hostel to have showers and then we went for tea at Fergburger – one of the places it is recommended you visit whilst in Queenstown. The burgers were huge and you got a lovely big portion of chips. After this, we went to buy some alcohol from the supermarket and then went back to the hostel to get ready. In Nomads, you are allowed to drink in the common area until 9pm so we went down there with our box of wine and beers and some of our friends came to join us (Yoshi, two German girls we had met and a Malaysian girl). The others brought snacks and we drank as much as we could before 9 and then headed out into town on a pubcrawl where we met a bunch of Aussies who we hung about with for the rest of the night.

Pre-drinks

 Yoshi and the Malaysian girl (Xena) gave me a card they had made and half way through the night, when Yoshi was really drunk, she produced a hat from her bag and gave it to me. This was special because a) Yoshi had bought this hat (with a kiwi on) in the North Island then had left it in the hostel in Wellington by accident. I found it and kept it for her thinking I would give it her back in Japan when we went. I got quite attached to it and started wearing it every day. Then, we bumped into her again a week or so later and I gave it her back and she was so happy. Then on my birthday night out, in the club, she produced it from her hand bag saying 'I asked the hat and it chose you. It wants you' Lol. I think something got a bit lost in translation – either that or she's been reading too much Harry Potter. She was very drunk at this stage and me and Jemma wonder whether she actually wanted to give me that hat or gave it to me by accident when she was drunk. After clubbing, we went and got a McDonald's and then went back to the hostel where Yoshi begrudgingly took off her fake eyelashes off for us to see what she looks like without them. Apparently she never takes them off, not even to sleep and said she was only doing it as a birthday present to me.

The next day we slept in late and then bought 24 hour internet which is such a luxury I can't tell you. For £4 you can surf the net as much as you like, which is such an exaggerated pleasure when you're used to having no internet at all. The only problem is, we only have one netbook and so have to share it in shifts. We finally emerged from the room at 3pm and went to get a pizza. I hat pizza, chips and beans with a coke and it was perfect. It was to be my last chips of the year (I have given up chips for the age of 26 :( ).

Pictures! : Birthday in Queenstown

Wanaka to Queenstown

We are now in Queenstown (party capital of NZ) after having spent a very brief night in Wanaka which is a beatuiful lake town nestled amongst mountains. On the way to Wanaka, Tony stopped the bus at some blue pools which are a tourist attraction because of how blue they are (something about refraction). In addition to this we went to lake Matheson which is a famous symbol of NZ – famous for how it mirrors the mountains in it. We also stopped at the 'Puzzling world' which is a must-see attraction in NZ – a world of curious illusions such as a room that is slanted and makes you feel disorientated (eg. You can roll a snooker ball up an upward sloping snooker table) and so forth. Also at puzzing world, was a giant maze! (Riesenlabyrinth) which is without a doubt where my old boss in Majorca got his idea for the Maze I used to work in from because it is an exact replica! It was like a trip down memory lane and I even managed to complete it faster than Jemma thanks to my 13 weeks of maze experience. I will write more when I get time. Tomorrow is my birthday and we have a lovely day of lie ins, eating, drinking and partying planned...

Franz Josef Glacier

Me coming out of the tunnel

One of the most thrilling/ frightening experiences of my life!

The journey to Franz Josef was a long and tiring one but I kept myself awake on redbull leftover from nye. First we stopped at the historical town of 'Ross' ;) . This is a town that was famous for a goldrush in the mid 1800s and you can still do gold panning there today. We went to a little museum and heard the story about how the gold was first discovered by a housewife washing clothes in the river (she found gold stuck to the clothes). After Ross, we stopped several more times at beautiful spots to take pictures (see photos). We were told before we came to NZ, that every time you turn a corner its another 'wow' moment, and it really is. Its like South America all squished in to one little country with the bluest mirror lakes I have ever seen. We arrived at the alpine town of Franz Josef around 2pm, where we had about an hour to get changed before our glacier adventure began!

The company that did it lent us waterproofs, boots and crampons and we were led by a guide on a 5 hour hike onto the Franz Josef glacier. It was SPECTACULAR (again, see photos) and I am so glad I did it. When we were in Argentina, we went to Poreto Moreno glacier, which is one of the world's only remaining advancing glaciers and we had ummed and arred over whether to hike on it there or not but looked online and found that it was a lot cheaper to do it in NZ. I am so glad we waited. The guide was very professional, and pick axed her way along the sheets of ice to make a path for us. We walked slowly in crampons between massive walls of ice, and the absolute highlight came, when we got to a tunnel, that was so narrow it looked too small for a child to pass through We were all going to go through it, the guide said. Well, I am a little claustrophobic and this is definitely the most challenging thing I have ever done. The bungy and the skydive pale into insignificance compared to this! A tall boy went first, to prove that if he could do it, the rest of us could, Then a girl went, and then Jemma, who didn't even lie to me and pretend it was easy. She was lodged inside this extremely tight and cold tunnel of ice and just shouted back – yep this is tight, its very very tight.

Jemma entering the extremely tight tunnel

Oh dear. I pushed myself through after her and got wedged in the tunnel (you can't see the end of the tunnel by the way, it goes up a hill, so you have to squeeze on your belly through the first bit, poking your head through and then you have to push yourself up a narrow tunnel that goes up hill, using your crampons to grip on.). It was terrifying. I got wedged in at the first bit and felt like I couldn't breathe. I looked around at the ice and and the upward tunnel of ice in front of me and actually thought to myself, this is how I am going to die. I couldn't move, I was lodged in, but somehow I managed to take a deep breath and push myself round onto my side so that I could slide my body through. I had to force my way through the icy tunnel using my hands on the sides of the walls but they were so cold and frost bitten, I didn't want to touch the ice, but I had to if I wanted to get out of the tunnel! They kept slipping off the sides and I couldn't move. But somehow, I managed to force myself along and eventually made it out to the top, where there was a rope to pull yourself out. I was so worried there would be an earthquake (the glacier is situated on the border of 2 plates – that is how the mountain range was formed). I was terrified the ice tunnel would collapse in on me. But when it didn't and I made it out the other end, it was the best sense of achievement ever! We carried on with the hike – there was another wider tunnel where you had to climb up some ice with a rope and then we all walked back. (We saw an alpine parrot on the way, which is the only alpine parot in the world. Jemma took more photos of this than of the glacier!) 

All in all, it was an excellent experience and I would highly recommend it!

We got back to the hostel and had beans on toast for tea with Yoshi e (our Japanese friend from Wellington who had gotten back on the Magic bus again with us in Franz Josef!). We sat around chatting to a German couple and a French group, who we showed our skydive and bungy videos to using the free internet allowance we had. Then it was off to bed (another very late night), ready for another very early start.

Photos: South Island Photos

Greymouth to Franz Josef

We were picked up from Paradiso by an older driver (in his 60s) who said he was a fill-in driver because the real Magic bus driver's house had been flooded with the rain. Straight away I noticed the Brummie accent and he seemed quite offended when I guessed he was from Birmingham. He told us he had lived in NZ for 37 years and seemed to do his best to cover his Brummie with a bit of Kiwi but failed dreadfully. When I asked him why he had chosen to come and live in NZ, he said it was for the weather. So I asked again. 'So why did you choose NZ?' I think he is New Zealand's number one fan. Tony (the driver) stopped at lots of places on the way to Greymouth (our destination) for us to take photos and go on walks, meaning that a journey should have taken 5 hours actually took about 10. We stopped at the panckake rocks, which are rocks that look like stacked up pancakes, and we also stopped at a seal colony, which was actually quite interesting (and free!) to see the seals everywhere. We made friends with another Japanese boy (Tomo k) and a German girl who we shared a room with in Greymouth. Greymouth is meant to be like the Rotheram of the UK; not much to see and do. Except, we chose a hostel that had unlimited free wifi(!!!) so, after going for a walk around the town with Tomo k and Marike, we went on an internet marathon, getting to bed around 2am, which wasn't good because we had to be up at 6 for the bus the next day and we had booked ourselves in for a glacier hike. Burning the candle at both ends had commenced.

South Island – Nelson

We left Wellington early in the morning and took a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal where we caught a 3 hour ferry from the North Island to the South Island. I was so tired I slept all the way but Jemma tells me the scenery was stunning. I will see it on the way back. The Magic bus was waiting for us at the other side with a new driver and new set of faces. We headed straight to Nelson ('the sunshine capital of NZ') and noticed a lot of flooding down the sides of mountains due to the heavy rain. The South Island has a lot more grand scale landscapes with big mountains covered in forests everywhere. We arrived in Nelson at Paradiso backpackers hostel. It was completely different to any of the other NZ hostels we have stayed in. It had a holiday camp/ hippy vibe to it, with an old bus outside where people could socialise, a pool, hot tub, sauna, volleyball nets and chalets that you stayed in. It was run by a bunch of chilled out Mancunians. As it was New Year, it was completely packed and there were little balconies that you could sit on and watch tv and a big kitchen/ conservatory. We were in a 4 bed dorm that we had to hop over several massive puddles to get to in the pouring rain. Everywhere was soaking wet and damp. We had a sink and bathroom in our room and there were 2 boys sharing with us who we would later meet. Once we had put our stuff down, we heard someone shouting saying that the van was leaving to take people to the supermarket, so we jumped in the packed van, with a load of French and Spanish hippies. It was a pleasant change not to be surrounded by the trendy English types, but some of these were free spirits to the extreme, having lived in the hostel several months and they all seemed to know each other. The driver came from Lancashire and couldn't seem to get the hang of driving a van, and was thus shouted at several times by other drivers. We arrived at the supermarket safely where we were given 20 minutes to get what we needed. 20 minutes! We quickly dashed round and bought a cool bag and a box of wine. W hen we got back to the hostel, we looked at the wine more closely and realised it was only 5% - no wonder it had been so cheap!

At 6pm we queued for our free vegetable soup in the kitchen which was served with crusty bread – a great backpacker novelty! After tea, we decided to drink the box of wine and play risk in the conservatory. A Japanese boy called Tenshi approached us and asked if he could play too, so he joined in, and I, the only person who had never played risk before, conquered North America and Europe and won. We went to bed about 11 but were woken around 3am by our two very rowdy kiwi room-mates who burst into the room, flashing the lights on an off, laughing and woke us up. One of them shook Jemma's hand and had a conversation with her. I lay still and pretended to be asleep until they finally piped down about an hour later.

The next day (New Years Eve) we got up noisily to get revenge and had breakfast in the conservatory. It was pouring with rain but people were still in the pool and hot tub. We then went for a wander into town to get some more alcohol. No more boxed wine, just the bottled variety. We had a burger king for tea and then went back to the hostel to get ready for a night out. I was a bit worried at this point as we hadn’t made any friends in the hostel to celebrate nye with. There seemed to be certain cliquey groups that looked hard to break into: the drugged out international hippies who had lived in the hostel for weeks (actually they lived in the tents in the back garden) and then there were just hoards of Germans. Jemma went to the dvd room to watch a film and I went to get ready and decided to turn to Janet for some help (i.e. drink some wine). Sure enough, about an hour later, there I was sat on the balcony chatting in French to two of the hippy girls and then about 2 hours after that, I was in amongst the Germans, laughing about German trivia and playing higher or lower. We had our friends, now all we needed was a party. As more and more people in the hostel started to drink and move into the kitchen, the party took off, and we all walked into town together to watch the countdown. There was a live band playing in front of a clock and people were crowded into the streets. This is when Janet really came into her own, but I will skip past the details and just say that I had one of the best New Years Eves of my life, culminating in me jumping into the pool with one of the boys from our room and being chased out by the security guard shouting 'you either leave the pool or you leave the hostel!'. It was a fantastic night and we spent most of it with the two boys from our room and their crazy Dierdre lookalike friend who was hilarious. The Kiwis, it turns out, really know how to have a good time! (They don't however, know how to do good chips, and there is definitely no vinegar. Oh and the sauce,! The sauce, you have to pay 50p for a dollop. This was a subject I made my views clear about to the woman behind the counter. The conversation can't have gone too badly though, as there are pictures of me high fiving her and her doing the peace sign).

The next day (New Years Day) was just a hangover day. We spent the morning in the pool/ hot tub, went for a subway and then had fish and chips for tea before watching Armageddon on the mezzanine of the hostel. It was a really nice sunny day - the warmest New Years day of my life! I spent most of the night trying to avoid Karl the security guard who I had ranted at the night before because he wouldn't let Diedre into our hostel. Apparently I told him I would bring the hostel down on Trip Advisor by giving terrible reviews and advising everyone not to come. I saw him the next morning when we checked out and he said not to worry and that he had found it hilarious.  

Wellington!

Wonderful Wellington is my favourite place in New Zealand so far and the first place I have really enjoyed. (The first place I haven't been jetlagged, had a headache or been surrounded by arrogant travellers). First of all, we had a lovely coach driver, who came from Wellington and was super friendly, ending each sentence with either 'sweet as' or 'not a problem'. Secondly, the sun was shining and the views around Wellington were spectacular – again some of the bluest clearest lakes I have ever seen. Wellington really reminded me of Cardiff, in that it is small enough to be cosy and easy to walk around, but big enough to have everything you need. It is also a very attractive, modern and clean city by the sea and the hostel we stayed in (Nomads) was more like a hotel than a hostel. We had booked and paid for a dorm but ended up in a 4 bed room with an en suite, sharing with a lovely Japanese girl called Yoshi who was very quiet, polite and friendly. You almost didn't notice she was there. Her English was very basic but she taught us some Japanese, and somehow we all made ourselves understood. Once we had checked in, the three of us headed to the Central museum 'Te Papa' which was free to get in and right near our hostel. It also had free wifi. We got Yoshi a Japanese headset guide for free (because it was out of date) and then we all went round the museum together. It took up the whole afternoon and was the best museum I have ever been to in my life. They had the whole history of Newzealand, from dinosaurs to present and had lots of interactive features, including an earthquake simulation like the one in London. They also had the world's biggest giant squid in a tank with a video about how they caught it and also lots of stuff about the Royal family and the British settlers. We didn't get time to see everything because it shut at 6, so we headed back to the hostel for our free meal of macaroni and cheese. As we had saved money on not having to buy food, we decided to treat ourselves to the cinema to go and see a film I have wanted to see for ages – The Iron Lady. It was brilliant – I would highly recommend it. It was also nice to see a bit of home.

The next day Yoshi went shopping and Jemma and I went back to the museum to finish it. We then walked around the town and watched people diving off into the harbour, which was remarkably clear and clean for a harbour. At 6 we met up again with Yoshi for our free meal and then went out to buy chocolate, some internet credit and then spent a few hours online and learning Japanese with Yoshi. Yoshi left early the next morning, but left a little note for us saying thank you and that we should come and visit her in Tokyo.

On our last day in Wellington, we had breakfast (Jemma had a sausage sandwich and I had cocopops) and then we went up to the top of this viewing point in Wellington's famous old tram. After this, I went clothes shopping for a NYE outfit and Jemma went back to the hostel to go online. She hadn't realised however, that I had the key to my locker with me and the netbook was locked inside so she went back to town to find me but couldn't. Meanwhile, I had finished shopping and then got lost. I wandered for an hour around town, asking various people directions before I finally found the hostel. That night, we had the free meal again, but the portion was really small so we had some beans on toast and then went for a walk into town to sample the local atmosphere before heading to bed. We are going back to Wellington on our way back up to Auckland and I can't wait. I think we might spend another day in that fantastic museum.  

Waitamo Gloworm Caves and National Park (Tongariro)

We got up at 6 on boxing day to catch the Magic bus (starting to wish we'd got a camper van with all these 6am starts). First stop was the Waitamo Glowworm caves, where a guide took us underground to see Glowworms in a cave and Stalactites. It was a bit expensive but I have never seen glowworms before so we decided to go and have a look. After the tour, the bus drove to a stream where the driver and two other men off the coach jumped in (it was freezing cold and raining, but I have found that this does not deter New Zealanders from enjoying their summer).

After this, we went to the National Park where we stayed in our second YHA (Youth Hostel International). I don't think we'll stay in another one. The good thing about the YHAs in NZ is you can be sure there will be no Urban retreat types (backpackers who do nothing but drink, pull and brag about how adventurous they are to have travelled down the east coast of Australia). However, most of the YHAs are bleak looking hospital-like buildings where 30 women are forced to share one mirror in the campsite-style bathrooms. I don't know what's worse, a hostel like the YHA with no character and massive communal bathrooms or the modern hostels you get in the cities that are lovely and clean like hotels but attract the most superficial, unfriendly people who really congratulate themselves for having been adventurous in travelling all the way to New Zealand. Its all a game of luck with the hostels here in NZ and I am finding that it is really swaying my opinion on certain places. There wasn't much to do in the National Park if you weren't doing the Tongararo crossing (which we weren't) so we went for a small walk and then Jemma went to the pub with the bus driver and I went on the internet.

Taupo for Christmas

The merry gravy chuggers 

I've not written in a while because its been a busy 2 weeks and we haven't had internet so there is quite a lot to catch up on. Christmas day came and went, and I was actually glad to see the back of it. It didn't feel like Christmas at all, I really didn't like the hostel and I had a headache non stop for 4 days. For me, Christmas is about family and relaxing, but in Urban Retreat hostel, it was about 24 hour drinking, wet t-shirt games and gravy-chugging contests. We had a Christmas dinner, which wasn't too bad, but the rowdy English lads and half naked Swedish girls barged in front of us in the queue (which was about 50 people long) so we unfortunately got no parsnips or sweet potato with our dinner. The weather was nice (for New Zealand). When I say nice, the sky is very blue and the sun is shining but its not warm. New Zealand is surprisingly cold in summer – certainly not warm enough for shorts and T shirts, but the locals seem to ignore this and walk around in shorts and barefoot anyway. The best thing about Christmas for me was watching the sunset over the lake and imagining that it would soon be rising in the UK. What a relief it was to move onto boxing day and away from the Urban retreat hostel.

Photos: North Island photos