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