Wasn’t woken too badly by the rooster this morning, thank god. It did yelp a few times but not enough for me to swear at it. Time to pack up and leave Abel Tasman and our awesome tent! We were all ready and waiting for the bus pretty early as we want to secure our front seats. We’re kind of lame actually, so damn possessive of our front seats. In fact it’s seriously childish and clique-esque and I hate that kind of behaviour, but they’re OUR seats dammit.. We’ve had them since the start of the trip! So the bus arrives and we’re on like a flash.. They’re safe, sorted! Got another loooooooong journey ahead so I need to be sitting in comfort. Stupidly packed my headphones in my big rucksack under the bus so I ... read more

So getting up in the pitch black again was totally fun! I hate having to pack in the dark it’s such a ballache.. Well in my case titache. Had a rather good nights sleep actually! We were ready quick enough and checking out downstairs. So I saw some delicious looking orange juice on the table and loads of glasses so I thought I would help myself. Just as I poured 2 glasses for me and Louise, the guy on the desk was like 'OI YOU HAVE TO PAY $5 FOR BREAKFAST'.. i was like sorry what? There was a TINY none existent sign and I was like ffs you could have made it slightly more obvious than that. So I thought he might be a gentleman and be like 'oh doesn't matter have it anyway' but ... read more

Couldn’t sleep at all last night. I had Pete snoring beneath me! I even tried using my dream application on my ipod and it was still hopeless. I must have drifted off eventually though because I heard my alarm go off and wanted to cry. It’s far too early to function. Getting up at 6am is not something that I have ever had to do in my life and I was not enjoying doing it today, especially just to go on a fucking walk. I hate long walks SO much.. And I hate having to pay for them more, $30 what the HELL. To be fair it was optional but I can’t not do it and miss the experience when everyone else was. Basically this is a 8 hour ‘walk’ up a famous mountain in Taupo ... read more

Lovely morning in Raglan! Managed to pack up pretty quickly. It’s hard work this, backpacking around. I’m not used to it! I’m the dumb one that packs everything and anything as well, which means I’m carrying 23 kilos on my back.. Stupidity at it’s best! I’m just hopeless with throwing stuff out, I get attached! I did manage to chuck a load of clothes out before I came here, in fact quite a lot and it broke my heart.. But then ridiculously I ended up buying more stuff! WHY SUSIE WHY! So anyway quickly make myself some peanut butter on toast and we all piled in the bus and headed on our way towards the Waitomo caves! Today I signed up to absail down 3 underground waterfalls.. Nice huh! Gotta be done. I was absolutely ... read more

So just as I thought I was getting some decent sleep, a couple wake me up at ridiculous o clock in the morning, probably like 4am or something. Obviously they have just arrived and decide to check in at the most inconvenient time possible whilst I’m trying to deal with my trauma, and of course the fact I have to catch my bus at 8bastardam. Okay so let me explain to you what Stray is.. For those of you travellers that aren’t ignorant to the travelling world, this will probably be boring to you. Stray is a hop-on hop-off bus company around New Zealand. Basically they provide all the transport around New Zealand, but also provide you with activities and accommodation if need be. However if you want to stay in a certain place longer you ... read more