OJ Scott

The day after I arrived in Sydney I went for a bushwalk in the Blue Mountains, a scenic area west of Sydney. The area was huge, requiring the use of a bus to get between the starting points of the walks. The Blue Mountains are most famous for the Three Sisters, a rock formation. The scenery was nice, but repetitive. Truth be told 2 hours on the train to get there was a long time for what it was - I've definitely seen better mountains in New Zealand! Still, I saw my first wild snake here - it was only small and it slithered away in fear, but an experience nonetheless! Lovely sunny day - absolutely scorching in fact. A day in bed recovering from sunstroke taught me that for this kind of exposure to the ... read more

Well, I'm finally at the end of my trip round New Zealand, and what a truly incredible experience it's been. There truly are some amazing things to see on this side of the world - a country full of chilled, adventurous people; hair-raising activities and some beautiful landscapes. I'd recommend a visit to this country to anyone, whether it's to experience the city life and fancy hotels of Wellington; tramp through the incredible mountains of Fiordland; or to just chill and explore, this country has it all. It's a shame that Australia seems to snatch most of its visitors - New Zealand is BY FAR the most beautiful place on this side of the world. As for the Kiwi Experience, they say it's a definite love-hate relationship. You'll either cringe at the somewhat booze-oriented bustle of ... read more

After a truly wicked night out in Queenstown, 5 of us decided to rent a couple of cars and drive down to see the south coast (Dunedin, Invercargill and Te Anau) for a week. Me, James and Chris got a 10-year old Nissan Sunny (auto transmission) for an absolute bargain of $39 per day (which between the 3 of us came to just $13 each). Compare that to what you'd pay to go there with the Kiwi bus ($425 for 4 days) and there's no contest! It really was so nice to just get out there on the road and do entirely our own thing. No more 1-hour stops on the Kiwi bus at deserted roadside cafes! Dunedin is supposedly the most Scottish city outside Scotland (Dunedin is actually Gaelic for Edinburgh). However it certainly wasn't ... read more

I left Queenstown (I'll blog that place later) early one morning for a 2-hour boat cruise on the Milford Sound.... read more

Well I'm a good week or so behind writing this blog - I'm currently in Te Anau with no way to upload any photos so I'll add those later. I've skipped writing about a few places - after crossing the Cook Strait on a ferry between the two islands, we headed down the west coast of the South Island through what has been my favourite part of New Zealand so far: Franz Josef-Wanaka-Queenstown, just off the Fiordland National Park, which has some incredible scenery. We pulled into Franz Josef, a tiny resort for ice climbing and hiking on the Franz Josef glacier. It literally was tiny - the place consists of no more than about 5 buildings on one road - a lodge to book the activities, a bar, youth hostel, supermarket and a pool spa. ... read more