For, um, the second time in a year, as we arrived at the end of March last year! I am attached to the place by a bungy chord! Oh lord, you know, I don’t miss home one little bit. I wish I did. It shouldn’t be this way, I should at least be a little homesick. I still have weeks and weeks of this trip to go, but already I am dreading getting back. Who knows, I may even find a way to extend the trip. I was thinking I could maybe travel onto Japan from China, but we’ll see. I [View Full Entry]

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I cannot believe that our time in New Zealand is almost over. The time has gone in a flash. I hate that, at home the weeks just drag by! We have had anabsolute blast, I love it here. The past couple of days we have been in Christchurch. 16 days and about 10,000 kms later we have come full circle. We were supposed to be staying at a campsite that is really central to the city, but, I did a really stupid thing and decided to drive all the way here from Picton on Monday afternoon (its about a 6 hour [View Full Entry]

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Well, we finally bumped into a nazi organic eating mother, and Buddy managed to show me up in a spectacular fashion. We went into the campsite kitchen last night, and there she was, chopping up a vast array of root vegetables and oven cooking a chicken (holiday? Life’s too short, yeah?) Surrounded by a gaggle of rosy cheeked but incredibly miserable looking children (god, don’t their kids always look miserable?). So, she clocks me and starts going on about how hard it is to find organic veg in this particular town, and I nod, pretending that, you know, I have tried, [View Full Entry]

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If you feed a child chocolate spread and diet coke in a forest, and no nazi organic food only mother is around to see it, are you still wrong? Backpacking round the world on a budget is kiddie food heaven. Chocolate spread sandwiches (‘cos no fridge, so can’t take along butter), cereal bars and a variety of meals in tins and pasta and tuna. He’s loving it! Well, yesterday was a big day for driving. We drove all the way through from Queenstown to Fox Glacier, stopping along the way every so often for the sights. With stops, the drive was [View Full Entry]

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Hey, I know, another entry. But, believe me, Milford Sound deserves its own blog. We had to get up at 5.45 am! Ugh! But….. I swear to God, this was one of the best days of my life ever. The coach Jouney to Milford Sound from Queenstown was really long, about 5 hours, but every second of it was stunning. We had a great driver though, who put in quite a few stops. As soon as we left Te Anu, the scenery jus kept getting more and more spectacular, and the weather today was just perfect. Blue skies and not a [View Full Entry]

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Can I be really fickle and change my mind about my favourite place in the world? Can I change it to Queenstown please, because, Oh my God, LOVE. It’s amazingly beautiful. Water, lovely little town, fantastic mountains (can anyone say ‘why did you move to East Anglia’?). The drive down here was amazing. I met a couple of people at the campsite in Wanaka who advised me to travel to Queenstown via the mountain route to get the stunning scenery, and I am so glad I did. We travelled through the most amazing mountain pass, and the weather was just [View Full Entry]

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Want to live here....want to live here.......plus, the name appeals to my childish nature. I know, it seems to be a theme with all the countries I go to, apart from the rancid hell hole that was Italy. I guess I must be really unhappy in England. But, I REALLY want to live in New Zealand. It is wonderful. We are in Wanaka at the moment, and I have fallen head over heals in love with the place. It's a gorgeous little town, on a lake at the feet of mountains, pure heaven. The lake is wonderful, and it was warm [View Full Entry]

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Ok, ok. Two entries in the same day. But, I need to get internet as as when I can, seeing as mobile phone signals are hard to come by in this part of the world. So, we drove the 3 and a half hours from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo. Driving in New Zealand is fabulous, very much like driving in Suffolk, not many cars around. The landscape that we have seen so far is a cross between Suffolk and Iceland. The spaceship drives brilliantly so I am chuffed to bits with that. We found a campsite and made up the bed, [View Full Entry]

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Just to let everyone know that we have arrived in Christchurch safley. I am never going to read a blog which starts off by saying 'after an uneventful flight' without giving a bitter laugh ever again. The flight was horrendous. London to Hong Kong was fine, but Hong Kong to Auckland was as close to hell as I would ever like to be. About four hours into the flight we hit a tropical storm over the Phillapines, and for the next six hours solid we were tossed through the black clouds like a people salad. Lets just say, I need to [View Full Entry]

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So, two weeks today until we set off on the latest adventure. Buddy and I will be setting off for New Zealand on the 24th, flying into Auckland from London with New Zealand air, then hopping on a connecting flight to Christchurch. I cannot wait to be off again! We have been kicking our heels at home for far too long. So, first off we will be travelling the south island of NZ for two and a bit weeks. We are hiring a conveted people carrier from Spaceships, and making our way round the island in a huge oval, staring and [View Full Entry]

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