Thursday 24th April - My final day in New Zealand; I got picked up by a shuttle from the Jailhouse hostel in the morning and went off to Christchurch Airport. I was due to fly Christchurch to Auckland and then Auckland to San Francisco. I spent ages in a queue with some fineky, elderly, english gentlemen trying to book my luggage through to the international connections desk so that when I arrived at Auckland the big rucksack would automatically get packed on the flight for San Francisco. Finally checked in the luggage with about 15 minutes to spare until Air New [View Full Entry]

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The Tranzalpine train journey is: 'rated one of the world’s great scenic railway journeys'. Here's some blurb from promotional material. Of course I was travelling from Greymouth heading towards Christchurch, not from Christchurch to Greymouth, so you may have to read some of this backwards ;o) The TranzAlpine scenic train journey travels between Christchurch and Greymouth, from one coast of New Zealand to the other. From your carriage you’ll see the fields of the Canterbury Plains and farmland, followed by the spectacular gorges and river valleys of the Waimakariri River. Your train then climbs into the Southern Alps before descending through [View Full Entry]

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Happy birthday to my sister-in-law Nicola this week, I hope she got the birthday card I sent and had a great time? :o) Tuesday 15th April - Leaving The Purple Cow - incidentially the only place where I've had anything stolen so far (fingers crossed). My first stay here I had a small pot of nescafe stolen from the kitchen, that's not bad in 9 weeks of travelling. I made my way to the i-site centre in Wanaka to pick up the intercity bus to Frans Josef at 9.30am and found out the bus driver was Peter again. He remembered me [View Full Entry]

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In an attempt to maybe, just maybe, get onto the featured travel blogs on this website, seeing as I don't have much longer left travelling, I've stopped putting the photos chronologically and have pulled some of the better ones to the front for this entry. Some of the bloggers have such fantastic photos and writing skills though, so it's a long shot but...you just never know! So I hope you enjoy the ones of Mount Cook National Park and then the photostory actually starts properly with the 'Blue Cod' fish and chip sign! Tuesday 8th April - Newton The Search Continues [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 30th March, I got up after hardly any sleep at all, the bar downstairs had music going on all night! Got a taxi to the airport at 7.30am, unfortunately didn't have time to meet Mary for breakfast cause 'Sweet Mother's' cafe that I had been going to all week didn't open until 8am. The Air New Zealand flight to Queenstown, leaving at 9.45am, was the best flight I have had so far this trip! The two stewards on board were really funny and as well as handing out lollies to the kids, gave one to this guy from I think, [View Full Entry]

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Monday 24th March, I arrived in Wellington on the bus about 45 minutes late, got caught up in Holiday Traffic. Arrived at the station at platform 9, to find that platform 9 3/4 was only next door! I checked into the Cambridge Hotel and Backpackers in the city centre, near all the cafes and decided to spend two nights in the hotel part, as I had a job interview the next day, and so needed a decent night's sleep, then would spend the rest of the week in the cheaper backpacker's bit, until my flight from Wellington to Queenstown on Sunday. [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 20th March, I got an early bus to Auckland - left around 9.30am and arrived about 2pm - shattered! This I think is going to be my last back-packing trip, all hotels and taxis from now on! It's pretty hard going on and off buses and then lugging the bags to the final destination. Still at least I might get fit! ;o) I stayed at The Brown Kiwi backpackers, small but friendly, in the suburb of Ponsonby. Walked into the city after a VERY long shower to try and wake up! Had pasta with olives, that I was craving, $7 [View Full Entry]

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Monday 17th March, Todd and his colleague, dropped me off at a town on their way to work, where I had an early breakfast and got to the Tourist info place when it opened. Lonely Planet is right, those people in there are SO helpful. Anyway, I got a backpacker lodge recommendation for Paihia in the Bay of Islands (have been wanting to go there since I last visited NZ 10 years ago and didn't make it that far north before) http://www.saltwaterlodge.co.nz - and I purchased a bus pass for 30 hours busing around NZ to get myself started. The bus [View Full Entry]

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Saturday 15th March, I did a much needed clothes wash, kept fingers crossed that the weekend tomato pickers in Rae and Gray's tomato crop, didn't make off with my Top Shop favourites and headed into Hamilton for a bit of shopping and lunch with Todd and Tina. Nice dinner in the evening at Rae and Gray's. Sunday 16th March, we drove about an hour west to the coastal town of Raglan for shopping, strolling and lunch with Rebecca and Liam. Gorgeous shops, I treated myself to a Kia Ora tee-shirt (NZ for hello) and silver/shell koru shapped earrings, the swirly pattern, [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday 12th March, I got the train to Sydney airport early (Tom dropped me off at Richmond at around 8am - thanks again Tom)- ready for the 11.30am flight to Auckland. The Air New Zealand flight was half an hour delayed and they obviously had a big team on board, because I've never heard so much chit-chat to the passengers, on and off for a large part of the 3 hour flight. There was a not very enjoyable film, Suburban Girl starring Sarah Michelle Geller and Alec Baldwin (yuck). Guess Singapore Airlines has spoiled me for life! I arrived in Auckland [View Full Entry]

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