The British Defender and New Zeland

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Hi Everybody,

So this has been my longest without writing a blog, my excuses are that Mum and Dad have been away on holiday and I have been really realy busy, having the best time ever. So I am in New Zeland, I never thought it could be as good as Australia but Its amazing, I literally can't explain to you all how good a time I am having, how many amazing and great mates I have met and just having a fantastic time...!

So picking up where I let off last time, we set sail on the British Defender sailing yacht around the Whitsunday Islands. It was totally totally amazing. The boat was a round the acht and was a real sailing boat. The weather was very high wind when we were there so we got some really good sailing in. Our crewe were well sound aswell, Liam the deckhand, James in the kitchen and Tanay the Skipper. Met some lly good mates on theboat, an Irish girl called Emily who I travelled with for a few dys after, 2 lads Mt and Jay and a ge girl called Alice. ybody else on the boat was well sound aswel, 28 people in total. The sailing was well good, the boat was tipping right over and the wind was really high. We spent the evenings drinking and playing games and also did some snorkling, the sea was pretty cold though. We went to Hamilton Beach which was beautiful, google it and see pics of it. The sand was white and amazing...! Altogether the sailing trip was wicked, so much fun and we got some amazing sailing...!


When we got back off of the boat in Airlie beach we were really tired. We all went for some lunch and had a tea and then spent the afternoon sunbathing by the lagoon in Airlie beach. It was so nice, there is an outside pool, grass verges right by the sea, and so was very very relaxing. That evening we had an after party in the bar in my hostel organised for us, where we got a few free drinks. It was good to be on land again and we all had an excellent evening out and said our goodbyes. The next day pretty much the whole boat had left early in the morning and only Emily and I were left. We spent the day sat by the lagoon again, chatting and chilling. I met up with Bret again when he got off his boat and he chilled with us as well. Was quite good in Airlie beach as all the boys from the Australia east coast were there; Dom, Tom and Dan as well as Brett. It was good to see them all again and we had a beer and a chat before me and Emily left for our bus to Cairns that evening. We were getting the night bus and arrived in Cairns at 6am…!

When we arrived we spent an hour walking around trying to find a hostel. We were going to stay in the famous Gilligan’s hostel but we could not check in until 2pm, so we went to Nomads, got a room and fell straight to sleep. We woke up around lunchtime and had a wander around, bought some food for dinner and spent the afternoon by the lagoon in Cairns. We saw some Dutch guys we knew off the boat and had a chat with them. That evening was pretty quiet, as I was up at 4:30am for my flight to Brisbane.

Coley picked me up from Brisbane airport at 8am and dropped me at his place. Was so tired from the flight, so had a power nap and did all of my washing. When I woke up I got the train into Brisbane and went to the library to use the free Internet. Got back to Coley’s place around 7pm and he cooked a bbq for me, his girlfriend Alex and his friend Carly. It was well tasty food, but the Aussie girls were not too convinced with an English bbq…! Was sad saying goodbye to Coley when he dropped me at the airport in the morning for my flight to New Zealand, he proper looked after me both time I was in Brisbane with lifts, food, beers e.t.c, legend…!

I arrived in Christchurch at around 3pm in the afternoon. I was a little nervous actually because of the earthquakes and checked into the YHA hostel near the CBD. I had done some research and the whole of the CBD in the city was closed, but I was not expecting what I saw on arrival to the city centre. It was like a ghost town, the whole of the city centre was closed and it was really eerie. There was not a lot of things open as lots had been destroyed by the quake and it was so so sad seeing it all. I had a relaxing day and went for a run; my asthma was awful as the coley’s flatmates cats had screwed me over…! Chest was real bad that night, not good! The next day I did nothing, sat and read and walked around and took some pictures. Went to get my Kiwi Experience bus at 3pm and we had to wait for ages for a pick up as the bus had broken down! Eventually we got picked up and we drove to a place called Kairakora for the evening. There were some sound people on the bus and we got our head down when we arrived at the hostel. The coastline in New Zealand was beautiful and I knew the country was going to be amazing…We got to Picton and pretty much my whole bus got off to get the ferry over to the north Island, and the bus filled up with a group coming down from the north Island. Our driver was called Poncy, the most amazing week in New Zealand was about to start. New Zealand had started quite slowly for me, but it turned out to be amazing from here on in…

Out first stop was a place called Nelson. It was quite a big town and I went for a walk up the hill overlooking the town, was really good views from the top. I sat on the top for a bit and chilled out, was really nice! The centre of New Zealand was also at the top off the hill and also the field where the first game of rugby was played in New Zealand was at the foot of the hill. Funnily now it’s a football pitch, haha. That evening I cooked some dinner and chatted to a few of the people off of the bus…

The next day we set off for Westport. On most of the days in New Zealand we stopped at lots of lovely places to have short walks and see the scenery…Our driver Poncy was always on the microphone telling us various pieces of information and cracking jokes and such like. We stopped at the most beautiful lake, was amazing and took some pictures and had lunch. Me and a lad called Chris got dared to jump in the lake by loads of the girls off the bus; we stripped off and jumped in off the pier. Oh my god, freezing is not the word! We picked up 3 lads at a countryside carpark after another half an hour, who proceeded to become my 3 best mates in New Zealand, John, Charlie and Mitch. We got to Westport and checked into a gorgeous little hostel and I then went for a run along the beach, as my asthma had calmed down, eventually…! That night we had a killer pool competition and Pizzas in a bar in the town, was good fun and got to know the lads really well and everybody else off the bus! I didn’t win the killer pool, or get to the final 3, which I could not believe, haha…!

The next day we set out pretty early and we were stopping at ‘Poo Pub’ for a fancy dress party and steak night. We stopped and did some walks and also stopped for an hour to get fancy dress outfits, the theme was bad taste and bin liners…! Me and Jon decided to go in girl’s dresses that we found, all blacks flags as skirts and the girls off the bus gave us a full make up, make over, not good! We got to the hostel which was by a beautiful lake and the beach and we checked in, had a walk and then had steak meal cooked by the 86 year old landlord and Poncy…! We then put on our fancy dress costumes and hit the bar. The night was pretty mega, bit of a no need…! There were some pretty cool costumes, Australians, Kiwi’s, garlic and many other bad taste interpretations.

The next day a very delicate Kiwi bus proceeded to Frans Joseph, which is named after the glacier right by it…Frans Joseph Glacier. The drive there was amazing, the same as the previous day the coast was absolutely stunning! On arrival we checked in for our glacier walk the next day, where we were going to walk up the glacier with crampons…! That afternoon I did very little and spent it in the hot tub, which was fairly warm, but freezing outside! The hostel was very nice, log cabins and beautiful scenery. At night we had a few drinks in the bar and got to bed. First thing in the morning we were up and then climbed the Frans Joseph Glacier. We got split into 4 groups according to our walking ability and fitness, our guide was called Rob. The glacier was amazing, walking on ice was brill. Me and the boys were in the first group and our guide was cutting steps to walk along. We saw amazing ice caves, amazing ice crevices and had a great laugh and some snowball fights. We got to a pothole that was out of bounds and our guide let me and Jon go through. It was out of bounds as somebody had got stuck in the hole a few days before. It was really really tight, but great fun and we got through fine. When we got down of the glacier we went to the hot pools, where there was 3 pools, 36, 38 and 40 oC respectively…! The boys and I stayed in there for almost 3 hours, was spot on and so relaxing…!

We set off for Wanaka in the morning, stopped at some lovely places on the coastline on the way and took loads of pictures…! We walked down to some blue pools and there were some swing bridges, that we were larking around on. Jon, myself and a welsh guy called Simon got back to the bus stop and Poncy the idiot had driven off and left us. Another Kiwi bus had caught us up at ‘poo bar’ because they did not have many on their bus and they were also at the blue pools. Everybody on both buses thought it was hilarious that he had left us, so we travelled on the other bus to the next stop off. We tried playing a joke back to Poncy by hiding on the new bus, so he would think he did actually leave us. That afternoon we arrived in Wanaka and checked into Base hostel. All the hostel we stayed in, me and the boys stayed in the same room…We went out for a night out in Wanaka and I met my good mate Pinky from uni, who had been travelling. Was good to see him and have a catch up, I will be going back to see him very soon…

We went to Puzzle world the next day and then went to the Hackett bunjy jump, over a river. I was quite tempted to do one, but me Jon and Charlie were not in a good way, haha. We watched a few of the guys on the bus do the bungy, which was fun. We arrived in queenstown the adventure capital of New Zealand at around 2pm and chilled out. That evening we had our goodbye bus party and went to a couple of bars. I am in Queenstown still at the moment, 5 days later. We are in the Nomads hostel, where I am working for accommodation. I know everybody in the hostel, it’s huge and my job is really cool, 3 hours a day. I have been ski-ing one day which was good. Had to say goodbye to Jon and Charlie 2 days ago, which was really really sad. Still loads of us from the bus are here, I have been spending a lot of time with Simon and just loads of people. It is so ridiculous how many people you meet, I have met tonnes. Would take me to long to go through them all. 1 or 2 nice girls as well here, just so many sound people…today I went snowboarding on my own, was going to go yesterday with 3 mates, but started my job in Nomads so had to postpone…! If you go on the beginner slopes, you do not need a lift pass so saves 50 quid and you just need the clothes and equipment. We also have walked up to the top of the hill overlooking Queenstown, which was really cool and got some good pics. Although my camera screen has cracked doing the potholing with Jon, not good… . Watched the Arsenal game the other day, which was very emotional, not good! What else have I done, oh had a Fern Burger, been out a bit...

The girls are all leaving tomorrow so we going out for some dinner tonight, then a few goodbye drinks. Think I am going to go boarding again in the morning, with Simon and some other boys. Then head back up towards Wanaka to see Pinky and get some ski-ing miles under my belt. £ weeks left here, then Fiji…!

Hope the 20-30 people still reading my blog are enjoying it, thanks for keeping the reading going. It’s nice to know people are still keeping up to date. This blog is almost 2500 words, haha, I’m off ski.

Love you all

Luke x x x

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