Neil Banks

I checked out of my hostel (Base Christchurch) and headed to the airport on friday (10th July). Unfortunately there was a problem refueling the plane which meant we were sat on the ground for 2 hours, before setting off over the amazing Southern Alps of New Zealand. The delay meant that I missed my connecting flight from Sydney to Singapore, I was rushed through Sydney airport by the nice lady from Qantas (felt like a VIP) and put on a plane to Brisbane. When I arrived in Brisbane the pilot informed us that the train between the domestic and international terminals stoped at 8pm, we arrived at 8.03pm. Luckily I met a really nice couple on the plane who lived in Brisbane and they kindly gave me a lift between the terminals, saving me about $25 ... read more

On the Sunday (still in Queenstown) we headed up Coronet Mountain to watch the finals of the Winter Festival for skiing and snowboarding which had been taking place in Queenstown over the last 10 days. However, when we got up there we saw one guy come down the mountain (and fall off) then they announced it had finished! Turns out we got there a bit late... so that was a waste of money but hey first time I'm been on a ski resort. The next day we did the Milford Sound day trip, a full 12hr trip from Queenstown into a picturesque fjord. We were really lucky with the weather and got some awesome views. We stoped to take pics at the mirror lakes and glacial valley on the way before doing a 2 hour boat ... read more

Hello, so I'm now down in Queenstown where I will be for the next few days before heading up to Christchurch to catch my flight out of NZ. Didn't do much on our last day in Wellington, just went to the museum for a bit then went to watch "The Hangover" at the cinema in the evening (which was an appropiate film at the time...). Got the ferry down to the south island on the 27th of June, where about 15 of us who did the north island joined the south island bus to make a total of about 50, so we had a full bus all the way down the west coast. First stop was Nelson for the night where we had a bit of free beer tasting of local beers then watched the All ... read more

So we arrived in Waitomo around lunch time and then in the afternoon went black water rafting, apparently one of the only places in the world where you can do it. It's called rafting but there isn't much rafting involved. First we absailed into the caves, about 40m down or around a 10 storey building, which is a fair long way, they neglected to tell us how far down it was before we did it! You go down in the pitch black aswell, with only your head lamp on. After a bit of caving we got to what's known as the flying fox, basically it's a zip line through the cave which again you do in pitch black, all you can see is the glow worms lighting up the roof of the cave. It was really ... read more

Kia Ora, I successfully made it to New Zealand! And it is COLD. But hey it's been really good so far. I'm doing Kiwi Experience, which is basically a hop off hop on bus like I did in OZ, but this one is way better. Here you pretty much stay with the same people on the bus the whole way round and each day is packed with stuff to do. We usually get on the bus at around 8 in the morning, then stop off at various places to do activities and stuff before getting to our destination around 6 in the evening. We also stay at certain places of interest for an extra day if need be. So arrived in Auckland a while back now. It's ok but it's pretty much just another city, went ... read more

G' day, We're up in Carins now, the last stop in oz before flying to New Zealand this Friday. So from where we left off, from 1770 we moved on up to a cattle ranch at Kroombit, a compulsory overnight stop with Oz Experience. It's like a proper outback working farm which has branched out into tourism to make a bit more money. We got to herd a few goats and ride a mechanical bull but the best bit was getting to use a shotgun on the clay pigeon range, i got 2 out of 5, not bad! Then it was up to Airlie Beach from which we did the Whitsunday islands. It was a 3 day trip to the islands, which are on the Great Barrier Reef, where you stay on the boat for the ... read more

Hello! So after spending about 6 days in Byron (a little too long) we headed up to Surfer's Paradise in our group of 15, stayed in a really nice hostel spent a few days chilling out on the beach then upto Brisbane. Spent just 2 nights in Brisbane, nice city but not much to do and we needed to get a move on and get up the coast, it's a hell of a long way! Me and Sam left the others in Brisbane as they are all staying there for a while to find work. Spent a couple of nights in Noosa from which we did Australia (Steve Irwin) Zoo. Was pretty cool, saw lots of crocs, kangeroos and koalas amongst others. Shame he wasn't there to do his crocodile show tho, i always thoght he ... read more

Arrived in Byron Bay a couple of days ago, after our 5 day surf trip. Staying here for another couple of nights, then head up the coast to Surfer's Paridise on Saturday. The surf trip was awesome, stoped at some amazing beaches up the way and I have definitely caught the surfing bug! We had all our food provided, a few bbqs on the beach and camped out on the last night with the kangeroos. On the second day we got to see dolphins aswell, they were pretty close to where we were surfing, unnervingly so at one point! Fortunately didn't see any sharks, altho on one day a few of us were quite far out and it was getting dark (they feed at dusk and dawn) and Deano (our instructor) came over and to us ... read more

Hello, Arrived safe and sound in Oz and have had an awesome first week with Oz intro in Sydney. Staying here for a few days more before we start heading up the coast on Thursday. There was about 30 of us in total doing the oz intro week, split into two groups. Pretty much planned what i will be doing in oz, still not sure what the plan is after that but hey. The guys at Oz intro have been really helpful. Trent, our guide, is possibly the coolest guy in the world (and has possibly the best job in the world). Anyway this is pretty much what i have been upto for the last week: Day 1 (monday) City tour and jet boating round Sydney harbour and bridge. Was pretty jet lagged but was a ... read more

Hello, Back in Bangkok now for our last night in Thailand before flying off to oz tommorrow. Our last week in Thailand has been spent on Koh Samet, one of the island's about 50 mins off the coast. Really beatiful place, spent most of the time chilling out on the beach and going out at night. It's not been without incident tho, mainly the moped crash... we hired moped's to explore the island on thursday which was really good fun, altho they really should give you some sort of lesson before letting you hire them. We went all the way to the bottom of the island, which is mostly dirt track, then on the way back Helen and Emma (on the same bike) skided off round a corner down a steep hill. Me and Laurent were ... read more