Started my Kiwi experience on Monday with Michael and Enda. Went to Whitianga to a nice beach called Cathedral Bay and played a few games with everyone from the bus. About 25 backpackers on the bus. There's beach here called Hot Water Beach where you can dig a hole in the sand and hot water rises up from below and you have your own hot tub. Lots of undersea volcanoes. Bus is great craic. Next day we headed south to Rotorua. This is where the extreme sports activities start. Kiwis are always inventing ways of throwing themselves off something, into something [View Full Entry]

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Stayed in a little town called Paihia. It's the gateway to the Bay of Islands. Supposed to be one of NZs most scenic areas. It's nice but after being in Thailand it's not too spectacular. The bay has about 150 islands and is where Captain Cook first landed. There is a village call Russel nearby where the first official governent was based and also where Britain signed an agreement with all of the Mauri tribes. Went out on a Dolphin watching expedition for 4 hours though. Lots of Dolphins in the bay doing tricks and you can go in snorkelling with [View Full Entry]

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Travelled up to the Malin Head of NZ today. Called Cape Reinga. Looks a bit like Loop Head. It's where the Pacific and the Tasman Sea meet and you can actually see a line where the waves are crashing together. The drive up was great. Weather has improved dramatically. Fantastic scenery. Incredibly green grass. Looks exactly like the Hobbit Shire. Lots of rolling hills and high tree covered mountains. It's a bit like Glendalough except its everywhere on the North.Its takes the bus ages to get up the hills. Very twisty. I'm travelling with the Kiwi Experienc [View Full Entry]

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Stepped out of the airport and froze. First port of call - Clothes shop for a jumper. Auckland is a very spacious city. Grid type streets. Not much character at all. Went to the top of the Skytower - the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. There are glass floors which are very strange to walk on considering its 188m to the ground. Good views of the extinct volcanos surrounding Auckland. Without the Skytower Auckland doesn't really have much. Any backpackers I've talked to hate Auckland, and recommend leaving asap. There's not much to see really so I'm going to go [View Full Entry]

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Flew to Hong Kong on Thursday night. Very impressive city. Tall skyscrapers, fantastic transport system and a very scenic mountainous back-drop. I visited "The Peak", i.e. the best place to view the city from the mountains. There's an old fashioned tram that takes you all the way to the top. For some of the trip its at an angle of at least 45 degrees. The view is incredible with all the skyscrapers on Hong Kong island, Victoria harbour and Kowloon city. I then took a trip on the Star Ferry across to Kowloon and went to the Space museum. It's funny [View Full Entry]

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Flew to Bangkok yesterday. Well actually it was more like, got a pick-up truck then a catamaran, a scooter, a Boeing 717 and a taxi to get here. Took a while. Stayin in one of the main tourist areas. It's a little more expensive and the Thais are really out to make money out of the Farang (foreigners). The tuk tuk drivers are the worst. They'll bring you everywhere they get commission from except where you want to go. Especially the tailors. Outside every major tourist attraction there are touts promising cheaper tickets to this and that. And also that something [View Full Entry]

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Got up this morning at 6.45 to go diving. Went on a scrambler motorbike for about 2 km to the next village where all the dive boats leave from. That was an experience in itself. The dive shop had already taken my measurements yesterday so they had all my gear waiting for me. There were about 20 others on the dive boat. Some were beginners doing courses and there were a few of us just doing pleasure dives. The boat was really big with it's own compressor and lots of tanks. Plenty of space for putting on gear.We were at the [View Full Entry]

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Arrived on Ko Tau today. It's a small island but one of the scuba diving capitals of the world. Every shop gueshouse, hotel and bar is diving related all over the island. I booked myself into asia dive resort and two dives for tomorrow morning. There seem to be more westerners here than Thais. [View Full Entry]

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Travelled on a speed boat to the next island north. Ko Pha Ngan is famous for it's all night full moon parties and is full of hippies. Not very touristy and an incredibly relaxed atmosphere. Lots of backpackers. Roads and electricity are gettin a little shakier with each island. Fantastic monsoon storms and hundreds of lightning flashes. Very very cheap too. 4 euro for a great air con beach bungalow [View Full Entry]

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Watched some Thai kickboxing. Supremely fit athletes. Quite vicious fighting but I think it's a little tame for the tourists. Packed arena and free to watch [View Full Entry]

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