When we arrived back on the mainland in Surat Thani we headed to the airport as we were catching a plane back to Bangkok because the train was booked up and it didn't cost us very much. The flight only took us about an hour and we arrived 20 minutes earlier then expected, we caught a taxi from the airport to where we were staying which was called Ban Sabai Hostel. Although it was called a hostel it was more like a good hotel and our room was fantastic and because it was a member of hosteling international i could use [View Full Entry]

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After a brief sleep we headed along Silom Road which was the main road next to our hostel, we went in search of some breakfast and after not finding anything but street vendors (Which looked a little dodgy) we settled on a nice nutritional breakfast of an ice cream shake! After which we headed along the road until we reach an MRT station, the MRT was the same thing i caught when i was in Taiwan and Hong Kong and its a very efficient underground train. We caught it to the main station called Hua Lampong and it cost us an [View Full Entry]

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I mentioned in my blog on Auckland that i had to catch my shuttle to the airport at 3:30am which i did but when i arrived around 4:30am i was told that i wasn't meant to be flying out until the next day!!! Now before you start thinking how stupid i am it said on all the paper work i had on me that i was leaving Auckland on the 18th but because the company i was flying out with stopped doing flights to and from New Zealand they had arrange some alternative flights for me and they booked them for [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Auckland at midday and again i couldn't check in until 2pm so i sat in the lounge and sorted out my blog and some things for Thailand. After i checked in i went for a walk towards the only major landmark i knew about. The Sky Tower is the tallest man made structure in New Zealand and seemed very similar to ones i have seen in Sydney and Melbourne but there was one thing i did notice that was different, you could Sky Jump, which is a wired base jump where they attach a cable to you and [View Full Entry]

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After only an hours drive from Taupo i arrived in Rotorua and just a 3 minute walk down the road was my hostel. I was told that i couldn't check in and put my bags in my room as the room wouldn't be ready until 2pm and it was only 11am so i decided to go for a walk to pass the time. The first thing i noticed when getting off the coach was the over powering smell of rotten eggs!!!! The smell comes from the sulphur in the air as Rotorua is a hive of geothermal activity and is dotted [View Full Entry]

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I left Wellington at 8am and headed to Taupo, along the way i noticed that the scenery was a lot more baron in the north island and most of the landscape was farmland where as in the south island a lot of it was national park and forests. When we arrived at the outskirts of Taupo i could see 2 mountains one called Mount Ruapehu and the other Mount Ngauruhoe or Mount Doom as its also known as it was used in the Lord of the Rings movie. Other then The lord of the rings movie Taupo is famous for the [View Full Entry]

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Like i said before in my last blog it was another early start, in fact the earliest yet (At least in Nz) it took just over 5 hours to get to Picton which is at the top of the south island and is where you catch the Inter Islander ferry to get to the north island. The weather forecast wasn't very good and unlike Akaroa there weren't any miracles so it was really rough and took an hour more then it should due to the bad weather. I've discovered before (In Cairns when sailing to the Great Barrier Reef) that I'm [View Full Entry]

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After a six hour journey i arrived in Christchurch for the 2nd time, i caught a bus to Chris's house and was let in by his little brother as everyone else was at work but when they all got back they gave me a really warm welcome and we caught up on what I'd been up to and what they'd been doing. I also made plans for the next day as i wanted to go to Akaroa to swim with dolphins, i managed to convince Marie (Chris's girlfriend) to come with me if i paid for the petrol down there and [View Full Entry]

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I pre warn you all that this is going to be a very short and boring blog entry. After a bad nights sleep i woke up and rushed to get ready to get the coach at 7:30am! I made it just in time but 5 minutes after we set off i realised i had left my food back at the hostel but we couldn't turn around so i had to leave it. I was so tired that i wasn't really paying much attention to what the bus driver was saying about the things we drove by and after stopping for a [View Full Entry]

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I got on the coach at 7:45am and got myself comfy as i knew this was going to be a long journey, to get to Queenstown takes just over 8 hours but it wasn't a bad journey because our driver was giving commentary along the way like we were on a tour bus and would tell us everything including a count on the road kill he could see!!! He also stopped at various locations and let us off to take photos which was really good because most of the time you just drive by things and don't get a chance to [View Full Entry]

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