Ollie DK

We arrived at Picton after the wine tour and had a short wait before a ferry would take us to the north island. And what an agonising journey it was! The sea was extremely rough and the boat was rising and falling so much that even I, who never suffers from sea sickness, was feeling a little iffy. It was quite fun walking down the ship while the waves took it down because it almost felt like I was falling. 4 hours later and we arrived in Wellington to be taken to the YHA hostel, which was massive! It also had a really good kitchen and we made full use of it by having a group meal with Koen, Bram and Holly, two dutch guys and a girl (who is coincidentally from Guildford!) that we met ... read more

Right now it's February 10th 2011 and my plan is to finish my travel blog that I didn't have time to finish / forgot about. It may be late, but it's definitely not forgotten! My last blog saw me bungy jumping, lugeing and blindfolded bar crawling and now we are onto day six of Queenstown which started with a nice lie in. When we finally got up Kish, Jess and I met up with Paul and Naomi to go watch Toy Story 3. Finally! I love that film and have seen it numerous times since then. It is truly an incredible trilogy that stretches right back to my childhood and still manages to excite me and make me laugh. Nice one Pixar. Once it had finished, the others headed back to the hostel but I wanted ... read more

Monday 26th and today we take a day off from doing monumental things to upload photos and catch up on counting sheep before continuing to explore New Zealand's wonders. We decide to stay in Franz Joseph for two more days among the beautiful mountains and the next day we choose to take a hike along a trail amusingly named 'Alex's Knob'. The trail winds through the rainforest outside of the town and up to the top of one of the mountains. Oh, and it takes 8 hours there and back. The path up the mountain is pretty steep and in some places requires a bit of a climb, but we continue on. 2 hours into the journey we hit a clearing with an absolutely astonishing view of the glacier through the tall trees a what really ... read more

In the afternoon of the 19th July we arrive on Kiwi soil to be greeted by sheer cold, a sharp contrast from the humid climate of tropical Cairns. We check into the Base hostel in central Christchurch to begin our Kiwi Experience the next morning and the ever so familiar time of 7.15am. The next morning we depart on our way to a small town named Kaikoura with our first driver named 'Zippy', who informs us that the Maori people, who are indigenous to New Zealand, original named the country 'the land of the long white cloud'. The Maori people also have many stories describing how the land was formed, which I will try and inculde along the way if I can remember them! Though they are completely implausible, they are much more exciting and magical ... read more

So our next stop along our so far incredible adventure through Australia was Airlie Beach which is where we would be heading out to visit the Whitsunday Islands. We had already booked ourselves onto a three day, three night trip on an 82" ex-racing yacht which was named 'Spank Me' which set out from the harbour friday afternoon which gave us some time in the morning to check out from our hostel and buy some supplies for the trip, not forgetting to buy plenty of goon for the journey. After stocking up we headed down to the marina and took a motorised inflatable boat out to the yacht. The yacht itself was very long but from the surface it didn't look at all like it could house the 30 passengers and crew that would be on ... read more