After a connecting flight via Sydney we finally landed in Melbourne from Christchurch. We got a taxi to Discovery Hostel as two girls from the Kiwi bus in New Zealand (Leanne and Tayla) were there and said it was much better than the other hostels they had stayed in. We checked in and popped up to say hello to the girls but it was quite late so a couple in their room asked us if we could go to our room and talk. Instead we just said goodnight as we were also tired and went and got in bed. The room was ridiculously hot and all the lights were off so I climbed up to my top bunk and dived onto the bed. It killed my arms as there was loads of stuff on my bed ... read more

We arrived in sunny Christchurch in the afternoon and checked into the YMCA hostel. We walked to the supermarket and there was still so much building work and roadworks going off even 3 years after the devastating earthquake hit. They reckon it will be another 20 years until Christchurch is fully completed which shows the type of damage an earthquake can have! Me and Freeman smashed a McDonalds whilst the girls bought supplies for dinner that evening. We rang our mate Pone who has lived in Christchurch for a year now helping with the construction works and he rocked up at our hostel pissed out his head and it was only about 6pm! Great first impression to the girls... The girls cooked dinner whilst us lads got a taxi to the liquor store to get the ... read more

In the morning it was finally time to say goodbye to Queenstown, it was a dad day for me, I could have stayed there for much longer. We said our goodbyes to the only remaining survivors Max, Billie and Zoe then jumped on the bus. There had been a sprinkling of snow overnight on the top of the mountains surrounding Queenstown which made it look even nicer. En route to Lake Tekapo we stopped off at another lake which was the nicest, brightest, I've blue coloured lake I have ever seen! We then carried on to Tekapo which is known as 'The Gateway to the Universe' because it has some of the best views of space in the whole world. As I love space and stars (it fascinated me as a youngster) me, Freeman, Vicky and ... read more

On arrival in Franz Josef we were told you could no longer walk up the glacier from the bottom after previous avalanches had killed people making it unsafe. The option they provided was to do the 'Ice Explorer' where you get a helicopter up to a safer part of the glacier and explore all of the caves and cracks etc from up there. However, it was $299 for the privilege so having already overspent we didn't do it. We chilled out that afternoon and it was the girls turn to cook so they made fajitas for us all. We again had pre drinks in the rooms and us lads were pretty smashed by the time we went down to the bar. It was a fluorescent party that night so loads of people were dressed in neon ... read more

As we cruised into the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington, our driver Bridge did a lap of the fairly small city to show us the main attractions. We checked into Base Hostel and then me, Freeman, Ali and Craig went to the museum. The first part taught us about all the fault lines and earthquakes that New Zealand has and how this shaped the mountainous landscape. We then went to the sea animals area which had huge bones of whales, the worlds largest squid body and other cool animals. Other floors taught us about the history of immigration to New Zealand and there was a lot on British history as we had a big impact on their country. We reached the viewing platform on the roof which had good views but this was ruined by ... read more

There were 54 of us on the Kiwi Experience bus which is a hop on hop off adventure bus that we were getting from Auckland to Christchurch via many other stops. Each day the driver sends around sheets for the activities you can do that day and you just sign up to the ones you want to do, which is great because you end up doing a good activity almost every day but it's not so good for your bank balance, oh well, YOLO and all that jazz. Our bus arrived at Hot Water Beach in the afternoon and the group all walked down to the beach with shovels to dig holes in the send trying to find the hot water. At first it was only cold water under the sand but once we moved into ... read more