New Zeland

Hey all sorry for the delay finally got the chance to get time and sit down to update ,its been a busy but fantastic 2 months .i arrived in NZ on the 4th Jan so im couple of months behind in my blogs but i will try keep them coming a little quicker than 2 months , i shall do my first OZ one in a few weeks time. Make sure you are sitting comfortably with a cuppa as this is my longest blog yet :)

KIA ORA ,I arrived in Auckland to yet another sunny day and although not as humid as it was in Fiji it was still warm as .I had booked accomodation before i left Fiji so i headed off to the hostel which had turned out to be a huge house converted into hotel /hostel accomodation , again it was very clean and tidy (seem to have good luck with accomodation so far ) after settling in i wandered around the city for a while and soon got bored , so i decided to get on the computer and get my NZ experience moving .I had looked at various ways of seing both islands and looked at different tours but in the end i decided to go with Stray Travel which turned out to be a good choice . I got picked up early the next morning by the big orange bus and i was the last one to be picked up , i was introduced to everyone on the bus who where all pretty much in there 20s by the driver Rob ,who drove bare footed and done pretty much everything bare footed , it would turn out that quite a few folk seem to do this, they go shopping and randomly walk around with no footwear but i suppose thats NZ for you ,still very random though. I sat down on the bus and got talking to the guy next to me , his name was Phil and he was from Manchester , it turns out his sister lives in Knightswood and his best mate was Phil Bardsley who used to play for rangers.

So all was good as we headed off to our first stop which was a place called Hahei , we arrived about mid afternoon and settled into our what was like a cabin right on the awesome Hahei beach ( see picture ),after settling me and Phil and pretty much everyone else headed for the beach , you had the chance to do various activities like kayak over to Catherdral Cove ( see picture ) but just the day before in Fiji i had been kayaking so i decided to give it a miss and do the 40min walk over to see the cove and the Hoho rock , was pretty impessive walk over the hills overlooking the Coromandel Peninsula , when we arrived we chilled out for a bit ,took a few photos and then headed back. That night we had a BBQ a few beers and got to know everyone on the bus , there was a pretty even mix of male and females and people from all over the globe , i hit it off with a few of the english guys and girls and some from brazil , later that night we headed for Hot Water Beach ( see picture )which is bacically hot springs which filter up through the sand between the high and low water tides , you have to shovel out the sand and build a wall around yourself then the water surfaces and its boiling hot , its really pretty cool but to soak in the water you have to let some of the sea water in too cool it down otherwise it will scald you ,which most people dont realise and watch them as the stick there foot in to test the temp and give out a yelp lol

The next morning we headed off to Rotorua our next stop , now this place stank like rotten eggs its was disgusting , i really dont know how people could live here , its nicknamed the Sulphur City and thats where the smell comes from ,its the sulphur coming from out of the ground and the mud pools ( see picture ) Now here is where i went and white water rafting ( see picture ) now this is something that i have always wanted to do so i jumped at the chance and i wasnt disapointed , i had a great time paddling down the rapids then hitting the water falls ,then we turned around and surfed the boat at the bottom of the water fall it was awesome and highly recommended ,The day after we headed to Waitomo and thats where the Waitomo Caves ( see picture )are and the Gloworms , me Phil and 2 of the Sweedish girls who where on the bus decided to go for the full day cave and abseiling , now this i thought would be rubbish but it was brilliant it was fast moving and exciting , it was like Indiana Jones in a washing machine ,we where underground in the caves the whole day where we had to abseil down massive underground waterfalls , rock climb ,crawl underwater to reach other caves it was pretty scary at times and the only way you where able to see was through the light attached to your helmet , but it was worth it and an unbelievable experience , Phil actually broke his hand down there when he got his hand caught in a chain when abseiling ,but fair play to him he had to soldier on as we where pretty far down under the ground .

A couple of nights later we travelled to Makatu which was a traditional Maori Cultural night ,you stay in a Marae which is basically a large hall /room ( see picture ), you have the Hangi there the traditional Maori meal. The evening was filled with information about Maori history, and everyone was happy to answer any questions we might have, allowing us all to get a real idea of the maori life, both in history, and how most live today.We got to see a show of the Haka and the poi and some warrior dances, songs and displays with the old style weapons. Then we also got to participate with in learning the haka( see pictures ) and the girls learning the poi ,it was good fun doing the old Haka to scare your opponent ,that night everyone on the bus slept in the main hall of the marae we where given matresses and pillows and all slept on the floor, Everything was relaxed and laid back and uncle boy the guy that ran the place was always there to chat to, or ask questions, or just listen to as he told stories, either of tradition history, or just general life.

We then headed to Taupo for a few nights where most people done thier skydive but i declined as i wanted to wait and do it in OZ so myself and a few others just took it easy for a few days as it we where travelling pretty much everyday and needed a wee rest ,later in the week we headed to the Tongariro National Park to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing(see pictures) which is voted one of the best day treks in the world , its around 18.5km long and its over snow capped mountains even if its the middle of summer here there is still snow on the mountain , along the way we stopped off to see some of the places where they shot parts of Lord Of The Rings pretty remote water falls in the middle of nowhere and bloody freezing may i add but still got burned with the sun all the same ,that night we stayed in lodges and they where luxury lodges with on site swimming pool and spas ,me and phil bunked up with 2 german girls who could hardly speak english and was pretty fun trying to understand each other ( menage quattro anyone ), it was a nice change from staying in hostels even though the hostels where we where staying at where of good quality.

Next up was the Capital City of Wellington and this was to be looked forward to all week as it was the night of the beach party , now the City its self is nice just its just another City i suppose but on the nightlife front it was pretty crazy , they had organised a beach party for us and after one too many drinks ( see pictures ) i dont remeber too much and cant really say too much but it was a enjoyable night had by all lol.

Unfortunately was up at 6am the next morning and with very little sleep and hungover we all headed to catch the ferry to Picton on the South Island , now why organise a massive night out and then expect everyone to get up at 6am is beyond me, but i made it , a few people had to be dragged out of bed , once on the boat everyone was dreading the crossing as it has been said to be extremley rough, as it was a rather large ferry they had cabins so pretty much everyone grabbed a cabin and went to sleep for the journey ,now on waking up halfway through i was almost horizontal as the boat was being thrown about , i felt even more Moby Dick ( sick ) than i did before but managed to get back to sleep and woke up just as we got into Picton . As we waited in Picton for our new bus to arrive me and Phil wandered around the town and found a Scottish Pub , result they sold rolls and square sausage and bacon with hp sauce , that soon cured my hangover and i was ready to go , so on we hopped the new bus well not exactly new,and it and lasted a whole 10min before the thing broke down and we where stranded in the middle of nowhere for 3 hours before a replacment bus arrived , that night we headed for Marahau which is in the Abel Tasman National Park , now this place is absolutely stunning with amazing beaches and clear waters , we were staying at a place called Old Mcdonalds Farm , now this place was a proper up and running farm with all kinds of weird animals lol but on the plus side it was right by the beach, now here there was some other people joining our bus as some people had stayed behind at Wellington , there was an English girl and a very pretty Israeli girl called Karina( see pictures )who was very loud and a major pain in the ass i thought as i was trying to cook my barby in peace ,now my first impressions have never been the best and it would turn out she was actually a very nice girl as she seem to take a liking to me lol lesson learned never go on first impressions ! Now as we were here for a few days and and the next day was scorching myself and Phil decided to hire bikes and cycle to the next town, it turned out to be around 20km away , on this ride there were the steepest hills i have ever come across in my life and we actually walked most of it as it was just too hard to cycle , we finally got the the other town and it was again lovely little place with golden sands and blue waters , we headed back over the hills after an hour or so and when we finally reached the last hill we free wheeled down , easy peasy i thought but nope , as i got to the bottom i got a puncture and we were still about 10km away Phil headed on and i walked the rest of the way , arriving back some time later i was not impressed so i got my money back and headed to get some beers , just chilled out that night and had some drinks and a party as it was the Israeli girl Karina's birthday . Was up at the crack of dawn the next morning for my much anticipated acrobatic stunt plane flight ( see video ), now this was me actually flying the plane and just the instructor telling me what to do , it was by far the most amazing and craziest thing i thing i have ever experienced, i took control of the plane just after we took off and needless to say at first i was crapping myself but the adrenalin soon took over and i was having the most unbelievable experience we where doing loop the loops ,spins ,nose dives ,and then the instructor took back over and we went vertical to put the plane engine into a stall and then the plane stopped in mid air turned around and started spinning towards the beach it was incredible ,then thankfully he switched the engine back on and pulled us back up , now thankfully i got a dvd of all this which i have been trying to add to the blog but its been taking hours to upload so will keep trying to get it on, after doing that you couldnt get the smile off my face the whole day as we travelled on to Barrytown which was hardly a town you couldnt even get a phone reception and had nothing but the place we were staying ,now the driver had said to us before arriving that what happens in Barrytown stays in Barrytown ,as the bar wouldnt open until everyone was dressed up and tonight it was pimps and hoes night , so as it was and equal match on the bus male and female i got paired up with Karina so she was to dressed me and i dressed her , now i would tell you more but what happens in Barrytown stays in Barytown ( see pictures )

After Barrytown we headed to Franz Josef for a few night to see the glaciers and again the accomodation was top notch ,now this wasnt something i had on my to do list as it was pretty expensive to do and it was again a long day walking across moutain terrain but i thought im here now so might as well just do it ,and it was pretty impressive ( see pictures ) that night we had a drinking competition against 5 other tours who where also staying at the same place as us and since ive drank pretty much every night since i left home i was one of the chosen 4 to compete for our bus , but some silly irish girl couldnt finish her smirnoff ice and we lost out on a $100 bar tab , wasnt impressed .

We then headed off on to Makarora in the rain which had started the previos day and hadnt let up , we arrived here and it was in the middle of nowhere again , i was starting to get pissed off at this as you can either sleep or hit the bar again ,so before hitting the bar some of us went on the power boat ride along the river through the mountains which was pretty cool , but the only down side was it was still raining and if you have ever travelled at speed out in the open , the rain feels like needles hitting off your face , so as well as it being fun it was also pretty painful . In the evening they had a Karaoke competition and the winner would win a Bungee jump the next day , i wasnt interested until i tried my first jaeger bomb then a few stellas later i was up singing Grease , the Bohemian Rapsody and finished off with summer of 69 , i had the place rocking and was sure to have won as everyone said i was the best :) but it would turn out it was drawn out a hat ( what a travesty ) and some German who was shit won it, ze bloody germans , he then said to me do you vont to buy it from me as i dont want it !!! i told him where to go and headed off to bed .

The next stop was Queenstown the so called adrenalin capital of NZ and my last stop with the group as i had to head to Christchurch the next to catch my flight to OZ , but as i was leaving the next day and all the activities where the next day i couldnt do anything , but not too worry i can do it all in OZ , we all went out and celebrated my birthday that night and said my goodbyes to some of the most amazing people that i had spent the last 3 weeks with ,it was a great night and another hangover followed . It was again tough to leave people who you had spent all your time with and got close to over the weeks but thats what happens i suppose when you do these things and again i will see them again at some point , i have already met some of them in Melbourne and will see more of them when i head up the East coast .I headed to Christchurch the next day in torrential rain and it didnt let up until i left the next day .

My summary of NZ

An amazing counrty , i prefered the North Island to the South Island but only because the weather was better but they were both equally beautiful ,i didnt get to see the whole of NZ and i now wish that i had stayed a few weeks more i missed out the very top of the north island and the bottom of the south , although i may still go back , there is nothing that you cant do there and ive had some life changing experiences there and now have some incredible friends from all over the world.

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