Bonjour The first thing that you notice upon arrival in Rotorua is the smell: it has loads of thermal activity with "bubbling mud pools, gurgling hot springs and gushing geysers" (Lonely Planet) which gives the whole area a horrible eggy smell. Maybe it should be called Rottingrua eh?! Ha Ha Ha- sorry again about the Sprigsy styled puns. Our hostel, Hot Rock Backpackers, was quality: we had our own private bathroom and balcony and there was a heated pool. On our first full day in the place we took a Cable Car ride up a huge hill that overlooked the city: [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey, We visited Napier after Wellington, it is apparently the Art Deco Capital of the World. An Earthquake destroyed most of the place in 1931 and it was rebuilt with the help of some of the best contemporary architects of the period: basically they "pimped up" the place incorporating a lot of styles from Art Deco. On our first night we went to the Hot Spas in the city, everywhere in New Zealnd seems to have these outdoor hot pools and they are cheap as chips to use. The next day we done a self guided tour of the place stopping [View Full Entry]

---

---

Kia Ora Our Ferry trip from the South to the North Island took just over three hours, so by the time we arived in our hostel in Wellington it was getting pretty late aka early night! The next day we wandered aimlessly around New Zealand's Capital City before heading to the Botanical Gardens. The city's population is about 4 times smaller than Auckland but it boasts quite a large city centre. There are coffee shops everywhere, and it certainly has a bohemian feel to it (So says the Book of lies anyway!) We stumbled across the Parliamentary buildings, which looked rather [View Full Entry]

---

---

After leaving Dunedin another textbook long drive awaited us: we were heading to Mount Cook, the highest Mountain in Australasia. The drive was very scenic, we realised we were getting close to our destination as the greenery started making way for the Snowy White hills. We stayed in Mount Cook Village at the YHA, which looked like a huge wooden cabin from the outside. The first afternoon and night consisted of us watching films and sitting by the log fire: they had a sauna but I only lasted about 5 minutes before getting too hot, Sweaty Freddy lasted much longer trying [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hiya! After Queenstown we bombed onto Milford Sound, a place in which Jonny's sister described as "the most beautiful place she's been to ever": so expectations were high. The drive was as scenic as we've come to expect in this country, at one stage we were held up by a hurd of sheep- over a hundred of them walking down the middle of the road! "Get a photo, Get a photo!" Will screamed, so we did. As the crow flies Milford doesn't look that far from Queenstown, but we had to take a big loop to get to it: the drive [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey Hey, Arrived in Queenstown from Lake Hawea and it's been pretty hectic since then. New Zealand is the home of the Bungy Jump, made popular by A.J Hackett after he jumped from the top of the Eiffel Tower in 1988. On the car journey to Queenstown we stopped off at Kawarau Bridge to watch some people Bungy Jump: the Kawarau Bridge Bungy is the oldest Bungy site in the World with a drop of just over 40 metres . http://www.ajhackett.com/index.php/ps_pagename/queenstown Watching the jumps certainly wetted my appetite to do one myself so as soon as we arrived in Queenstown Me, [View Full Entry]

---

---

After leaving Punakaiki we bombed on to Glacier country. On the West Coast of New Zealand there are two huge glaciers: Franz Joseph and Fox. Compared to other glaciers in the world these ones really motor, they can move upto six metres a day which is a collosal amount in glacier terms (so i've heard), indeed there have been days when the Cookmeister would struggle to move 6 metres in a day! The drive from Punakaiki was absolutely amazing for scenery (just like everywhere in New Zealand we've seen). It seems that Aslan is on the move because we saw hundreds [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey, we arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand on Monday 3rd July and stayed for three days. Our hostel was right beside the main square in which there was Christchurch Cathedral: the centrepiece of the town. Christchurch was founded in the nineteenth century, apparently the immigrants wanted to live in a place that reminded them of jolly old England- it seems that they achieved this, especially as far as the weather is concerned. Every steet in the town is named after a Cathedral town in England. It was pretty cold when we arrived so everyone's first mission upon arrival was to buy [View Full Entry]

---

---

Howdy Quite a lot has happened since the Neighbours Night: some of it I could control, but alas some of it I couldn't. Me, Wilson and Bully went for a tour of the Rod Laver Arena, the place where the Australian Tennis Open is held in January every year. Outside the stadium there are a few statues of Australia's greatest ever players including unsuprisingly Rod Laver, who done a grand slam of the Grand Slams twice in his career (Aka The Aussie Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open in the same calendar year!) I'd thought Rod Laver was dead until Bull [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's official: World Cup fever is in full flow down under. We arrived in the Sports Capital of Australia (Melbournians would suggest the World) on 20th June and a lot of our time has been spent watching the beautiful game at crazy o'clock in the morning. Our first day involved a lot of sleeping due to the fact we'd been on a night bus from Canberra and were absolutely knackered Me, Bully and will managed to catch the free tourist bus around the city though which takes in a lot of the main sites and gives advice on what to do [View Full Entry]

---

---