Sam and Laura

We ended up spending about 10 days in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of New Zealand. Should probably be renamed to the money spending capital of New Zealand. The card feels drained. During our time in Queenstown we met up with everyone we had met on previous buses so partying began the day we got there. Our first night out we went out in Pjs to a party which was good as no effort was needed to get ready. Sam even wore female PJs for free drinks. During our time there; we went lugeing again at the top of a mountain overlooking the town, played mini-golf twice where Laura improved considerably, Sam did two canyon swings (sorry no pix), Laura went River Surfing which was good up to an hour until the cold settled in and ... read more

We continued our journey down the coast to Franz Josef, a tiny town of about 300 people, one cash machine and about 2 roads with anything of interest on. Our driver Lauren put her foot down in order to get there so that we could do our heli-hike on the glacier, as the weather was perfect we had to grab the opportunity to get up on the glacier. franz Josef has something like 200 rain days a year so we had the luck of the English to see it in the sun. We literally arrived, paid our money and headed to the helipad where we were kitted out with ugly boots, socks and waterproof coats...unfortunately no ice axes! At 2.30 our helicopter took off, we all got in, belted up and put on our headphones. ... read more

We arrived into Nelson and just chilled out it was a cool town real quiet but a cool place to be. The real fun started when we went to Abel Tasman National Park. We had been told it was one of the most beautiful places in NZ so went for the two day trekking and kayaking trip. We arrived in Kaiteriteri EARLY in the morning and met our kayak guide Harold, a mental Maori guy with the biggest fro. We caught an aqua taxi through part of the park and were dropped of on a small beach where our trek began. We walked through native bush and over mountains which gave us some of the best views. It was pretty easy going even though we had to take the 1 hour 20 minute path instead ... read more

We arrived into Taupo mid afternoon, firstly visiting the Huka falls then going on to the Taupo airfield so that Sam could do a sky dive. It was a really sunny day which is the best for doing a sky dive and at around 4 pm the plane took off with him completely kitted out in jumpsuit, goggles and harness. Laura was too scared by the idea of throwing yourself out of a plane...crazy! Sam thought it was the best experience ever and says, 'Do one!' That night we had a big night out with everyone on the bus which was full of fun and frollocks. We started with a pub quiz, which we sucked at, finishing with distictly average mark like 24/50. Our bus driver then took us on to some cheesy night club where ... read more

Arrived in the middle of the day and spent the rest of the day walking round the city seeing as it was the most civilisation we've seen in two weeks. Went up the skytower which had nuts views of the city, Laura wasn't to happy about the height think she has contracted vertigo! It was220m up but everyone else seemed fine so it really wasn't that bad. Saw the end of Chinese New Year celebrations in Albert Park FYI Auckland is full of Chinese and Japanese people. It was a lantern festival the food was awesome and cheap and the stalls were pretty crazy. Spent the next day chillin at mission bay and went to a Mexican bar in the evening. had some mental English girls in our dorm you'll hear the stories when we get ... read more