Day 194: Friday 9th January - Bumping into familiar faces in Byron Bay part I The greyhound bus arrives in Byron Bay at 8:30am. Unexpectedly there is a mini-van waiting in the car park to pick me up. It’s only a 5 minute walk to the hostel but feeling groggy after a long bus journey I’m not going to pass up a free lift. On the way to the hostel the driver gives me a tour of Byron’s main sights, the main beach, the 23 hour bakery, the main street and Cheeky Monkey’s. I can’t check in until 1pm so I put my bag in storage and spend the morning on my laptop updating my blog. As I’m sat in the common area in the hostel I bump into Danielle and Sam who were on the ... read more

Day 191: Tuesday 6th January - The Blue Mountains at Katoomba After spending most of the last two weeks in cities it’s good to be getting out up into the mountains. I’ve loved both Melbourne and Sydney - two great cities - but I’m generally not a city person and will certainly enjoy not having to battle my way through Sydney’s congested roads. I make the hour long journey from the Northern beaches to the centre of Sydney for the last time to catch a 10am train up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. The journey takes two hours, which I spend updating my blog which is now weeks behind. On arrival in Katoomba I get a surprise with how hot it is. We’re at around 3000 feet so it should be a good 5 degrees ... read more

Day 177: Tuesday 23rd December - Staying with an old friend in Melbourne The thing that has been driving me on from place to place for the last six months is my arrangement to stay with my friend Danielle in Melbourne for Christmas. Every time I thought about staying longer somewhere or following a fellow traveller’s recommendation about a place I didn’t know about I always knew I’d have to sacrifice something later on in my trip before getting to Australia. I simply couldn’t miss the chance to spend Christmas with friends. I can’t remember her address on the plane when filling out the immigration forms so I end up having to make something up! Australian customs prove to be much easier to negotiate than their Kiwi equivalents so I have a relatively smooth exit from ... read more

Day 172: Thursday 18th December - A final Kiwi Experience party in Queenstown It’s only an hour’s drive from Wanaka to Queenstown, New Zealand’s party capital and quite probably the world’s extreme adventure sport capital. Before we head to the centre of Queenstown we stop at Kawarau Gorge. The ‘K’ gorge is the site of the first commercial bungy operation, started by AJ Hackett in 1988. After watching a video on the history of bungy jumping, a number of people on the bus opt to jump the 40 metres from the bridge. It’s a beautiful spot to do your first bungy jump, but I’m still sticking to jumping from the Nevis highwire, Queenstown’s highest jump at 134 metres. After the disappointment of the cancelled skydive and being high on adrenaline still, I try to change either ... read more

Day 169: Monday 15th December - Chilling at Franz Josef The bus arrives at Franz Josef in the early afternoon. Its raining when we arrive - rain that doesn't abate for the full two days we stay here. I guess its hardly surprising given that Franz Josef gets over 5 metres of rain a year (7 times wetter than the UK!!). Our first port of call before we get to the hostel is to book our glacier tours. I book on a full day tour, parting with $140NZ for the pleasure. Its a lot given that I've been on a glacier before but I'm really looking forward to doing fun stuff on a glacier like walking through tight crevasses and into ice caves. Having booked on to the tour I drop my gear at the hostel ... read more