YD84

The end of my journey beckons. It has been a fab trip and there are some many places yet to discover and although I'm looking forward to going home, it just makes me want to go to the next destination even more. The only downside is I have a 30 hour trip home which is going to be unbearable. Who knows where I will end up next year. South America? North America? China?... read more

Chilled out for 3 days in the National Park and did nothing. It rained for 2 days straight and I really just wanted to relax after the long journey I've been on. Basically read and watched tv. I did get up very early to watch the FA Cup semi final at 4am. Felt very disappointed and just went back to bed.... read more

Derek and I had to leave Andreas and Charlie behindd ending our travels with them as they were flying out of Christchurch, we had some good times and hopefully will see them again, but we met up with another friend who deicded to stay in Wellington to find some work (Glenn). So yeh we had some drinks with him (could be the end of my drinking expliots in New Zealand). Getting unbelievably lazy and only did a little walk around the city and to one of the lookouts, apart from that I watched tv and chilled. I did get up at a ridiculous hour of 6.45am to watch Man Utd vs Chelsea in the 2nd leg, which was definitely worth getting up for, but was ruined for the following day. Although I didn't do much Wellington ... read more

We weren't sure what to expect from Kaikoura apart from whale watching and dolphin swimming. Due to our laziness we went hardly any where apart from when the Stray bus took us to some scenic spots and to see the seals. The view over Kaikoura was amazing. You had the town byt the sea and huge snow topped mountains in the distance. The seals were alright, they were just lying around not doing much, until 2 started fighting. By the time I got my camera ready to take a picture or video they stopped. We all waited for my, but it never came, they teased us. Also managed to see a very small penguin. I think it was posing for us. The rest of my 3 night stay involved going on the internet and watching movies ... read more

As Christchurch was hit very bad we can't really go there any more so the Stray bus stopped at a place called Rangatata, which is mainly about White Water Rafting, but as I've done this in Queenstown I didn't fancy doing it again. Instead we just hung out at the hostel and started drinking early (but at my casual pace). There wasn't much to do and I think I'm starting to wind down from my travels. We did play a lot of table tennis and the classic game that is round the table which was fun. Certainly rolled back the years. Apart from that we just had a BBQ and had some drinks.... read more

On the bus ride to Mt Cook and I met up again with Charlie, Andreas and Derek as they were heading north to Mt Cook from Dunedin and I from Queenstown. It was good to catch up again and carry on our travels. We reached Mt Cook and went for a little walk as we didn't have much time before the light went dark. We should have stayed a few more days as the Scenery was spectacular and we could have gone on some walks, but we only stayed for one night. We entered the quiz and didn't do that great due to 50% of the questions being about New Zealand, but was still fun. Apart from that didn't do to much had some beers and got up early to watch the first half of the ... read more

Milford Sound was absolutely stunning, with giant rock formations carved out by the glaciers. I decided to chill there for 2 nights and get away from the drink and give my body a rest. First day I kind of spent the afternoon sleeping as I'd stayed up the night before watching Man Utd vs West Ham which finished at 3am and I had to get up for a 7am bus ride. Next day I did the boat cruise around the fiordland and was just looking and natures beauty. They say it's better when it's raining as you see millions of waterfalls, I saw it in the sun and cloud and I still thought it looked amazing. Managed to capture a rainbow across the rocks (never went to get the gold). Apart from the cruise I was ... read more

The town of parties. I had a week in Queenstown and I could easily of had more. You just kind of get stuck here going out every night. The only problem we had was that we went to the same 4 bars every day and the music was the same every single night, but it was still fun. Their was one bar we really liked and went in at nearly 5pm every day as the beer was $3 and you sometimes get free food. It was called the cowboy bar (nothing gay) just western tunes and we became regulars. It was hard trying to do anything as we were always waking up at about 12, so activities were scarce. Whitewater rafting was top of my list in Queenstown and we did the shotover which was grade ... read more

I wanted to stay in Wanaka for 3 nights, but as I wanted to catch up to some of the group I only stayed one. Wanaka is a small town and not many things to do as it's a skiing town and it is still autumn. But the views over the lake were breath taking. I do wish i stayed longer and just relaxed reading by the lake or did some walks. We did head to Puzzleworld which had a maze and some 3d illusions. The illusions didn't interest me that much as I've seen them before. The maze was fun though we decided to go in at different times and meet up at the check points which were towers. The maze had to be completed in a certain order, so was fun watching the others ... read more

Again we had a small villaged stop in a place called Makarora and yes all I did was have some drinks in the bar. They did put on Karaoke, but due to my awful singing voice I just watched and played some free pool. The other thing is that my voice has taken a battering due to the drink and I think I had a small cold at the time the drinking started so it just hasn't recovered.... read more