I had a good day today, the sun was shining and although it was windy it was a perfect day to end my trip. I got up early after packing last night and headed up the road to find somewhere to have brekkie. I was going to go back to the Irish Bar that is open all day and does a nice brekkie but it was a bit weird in there this morning. I found a great little cafe off of the main street and had a delectable scrambled eggs on toast! I then headed to the Quiksilver and Billabong shops. I needed a new suitcase! After trying to pack last night I realised there wasn't enough room as I had bought loads of stuff in Auckland!

I finally settled on a massive Billabong one, it worked out at £90, but for the size of it it was cheap! My current O'Neill one cost me £90 last year in Cardiff and that is easily a third the size of my new one! I took this back to the hostel and packed all my belongings, I had to check out by 12 so I put my suitcases in one of the massive lockers.

I walked around the shops a bit more and then made my way down to the harbour. There was the biggest yacht I've ever seen at dock! It was a motor cruiser with a yacht on top! I have pictures! The weather was a little bit iffy at this point so I thought I'll have lunch whilst it passes. I treated myself to pan fried red snapper and chips at a harbour side restaurant and a glass of fine New Zealand wine! It cost about $17-18 and at the time I was like oh no too much! I look back now and laugh! It's only £7-8 for four fillets of red snapper and chips! It was one of the best meals I had in New Zealand!

I went back to the hostel after this and went online where I bumped into some people off the Kiwi Bus who were stood outside waiting for the airport bus as they were flying to Australia. We chatted for a while and I still had an hour to kill so I went online and updated the journal.

Waiting for the bus and the sun was beaming down so I was glad the bus was late as I got a much better tan!

The airport was a bit of nightmare as I got there 5 hours before the flight opens under the impression that the gates would open 3 hours before the gates closed 2 hours before the flight!? Geddit?! Well it turns out in New Zealand for international flights they open the desks 2 hours prior to take off! Agh! I was planning to spend a good few hours shopping in the duty free lounge! It also meant that a lot of the shops may be closed before I got through!

It worked out ok! I was first in the queue so I checked in and ran up to pay the $15.00 airport fee thing. This left me plenty of time to shop and call mum before I took off! The shops were really nice, I got some more bits and bobs for xmas pressies and some duty free perfume for me.

On the flight I sat next to a really nice kiwi couple from the South Island who were going to spend Xmas with some relatives in Scotland. They were about the same age as me so we got along for the whole 24 hour flight! We had a stop over in LA for 2 hours and I managed to jump the queue into the waiting area as I seriously needed the loo, I felt so guilty - NOT! The waiting area was pretty dire! They laid on free food, like Lays Crisps and fruit and drinks, but they didn't open the magazine rack so I couldn't buy any Hershey's to bring back!

It was really quick getting through arrivals at Heathrow,

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Well today wasn't anything really exciting as I just went shopping!

I went upto Parnell and wandered around for a bit, there are some lovely shops up there and lots of art shops that I looked in! They also had the company that designed and made the clothes for LOTR and Narnia so I went in to look at the elven cloaks! They had an Oscar on display for costume design from LOTR! It was really nice in there and the lady that was working there also worked for Weta when they were producing LOTR!

I then went to Newmarket and looked around but this was like any other high street!

I then made my way to Victoria Park Markets where I looked around the stores. This was a strange place as they had really nice shops like Nike and Birkenstock shops, then they also had really tacky fake designer brands shops!

I then went back to the city centre and bought myself a new suitcase as I don't have enough room in mine!

Back at the hostel I packed and then myself and my dormmate went to dinner together. Whilst looking for somewhere to eat we came across a lovely little bookshop up a back street called Unity Books. It was so sweet! Lots of books and little note cards on the shelves giving a synopsis of the book by a member of staff who had read it!

We ended up going to Wagamama's for dinner which was really nice and then we walked back down to the hostel stopping to get an ice cream on the way for dessert!

We both went on the internet when we got into the hostel and then I still had packing to do so I went back to the dorm room to finish packing before bed!

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We travelled from Taupo to Auckland today, I was running late this morning so I legged it down the stairs and the bus was waiting! Dave and Effa from my previous buses were onboard so it was cool to catch up with them!

We stopped in Rotorua to drop people off and pick some others up and then made our way to Mt Maunganui. This is a surf town about 3 hours east of Auckland. It was raining when we arrived so I saw the beach which is obviously a really nice beach to hang out on in the sunshine, but alas - it was raining! So I started chatting to a canadian girl and we ended up walking through the shops together for the 2 hours we had there! Some people went to the saltwater pools but it didn't tempt me!

Leaving Mt Maunganui we went straight through to Auckland where the driver dropped me off a mile away from the hostel! Idiot! So I had to walk down George Street with all my luggage and try not to bang into too many xmas shoppers!

I spent the rest of the day looking in the shops, on the internet and I had dinner at the asian food court!

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So I texted Kaye to find out what she wanted to do and we agreed on wandering around the shops! This lasted around 20 minutes when it started to bucket it down and we dived into a coffee shop and stayed there for coffee and muffins!

After chatting for ages over coffee we walked down to the beach where there were some amazing black swans! They had red beaks and seemed relatively tame! Some other people were feeding them bread and they were eating out of their hands!

We walked along the beach and found loads of pumice! Because the lake was formed by a volcano the bottom of the lake is pumice rock!

After walking a fair way along the beach we split up as Kaye had to book some accommodation for Xmas and it had started to rain again! I went back to the hostel and chilled out for a few hours chatting to some of the people there.

We met again for dinner and went to Hell Pizza! I had a Mordor which consists of Venison pepperoni, chicken, bacon, green pepper and cheese! We also shared wedges which were so nice we had to get a second helping!

Breakers surf bar again! I love the fact that they do long vodkas here even though you do have to say vodka, lemonade, lime and bitters everytime you order! We played pool for a couple of hours and I potted the black straight away before any other balls! The white ball kept going in as well! Maybe the table was tilted! We actually got chucked out! Well they were closing! We walked back along the road singing xmas songs (no we weren't drunk!)

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Sarj was my driver again (I had him from Queenstown - Christchurch). There were only 7 of us on the bus and I got chatting to Kaye from Kent! She also likes LOTR and we had a good old chat about the locations and she has been lucky enough to work for Weta in Wellington so I was gleaning stuff about them from her as well! We stopped for brunch and a few of us had coffee and then back on the bus to Tongariro National Park. The weather was looking a bit dubious but as we got closer the clouds lifted and we were able to see Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngarahoe (Mt Doom)! We stopped at a layby to take photos and me and Kaye were jumping in the volcanic ash and taking silly photos of one another!

In taupo we dropped off one of the blokes skydiving and then we headed to Huka Falls! I've already been but it was nice to go back again when it wasn't raining! I noticed that the falls didn't seem as powerful as last time and found out that they control the flow of water which is why!

We then got dropped off at our hostels and said goodbye to Sarj. I'll miss Sarj as he played a full hour of Stereophonics for me on the way up!

That night I met Kaye and we went to the Fat Fish cafe for lasagna! We ended up in Breakers surf bar and played about 7 games of pool!

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I headed to the museum around midday and I spent about 4 hours there!

Firstly I went to the interactive section where I lay on a magical lilo and went floating over New Zealand! I then did a sheep shearing simulator - twice! The result was the worse you can get - twice - I shear like a townie!

I then went to one of their recent exhibitions - stamped! It's all about New Zealands postal history! It sounds really geeky but I loved it! There were some really rare stamps there including the penny black! The Queen had also donated some of the royal stamp collection to the exhibition! Some of the best parts of the exhibition were the old postcards from the war and also the original rubber stanmps they used to use when postmarking a letter!

Also on the same floor was an exhibition of B Roundhills work. This guy was an artist who used to design magazine covers and food adverts in the 1950's - really cool and very 50's ish designs!

After the museum I felt a bit funny so I got a sandwich and headed to bed again! Ugh I hate feeling ill but I didn't want to push it and make myself worse - Not with only a few days left!

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I went into the cinema and requested a platinum seat but they had sold out! I ended up near the back! It was fine though as I was looking down on the screen which is better than looking up! The cinema is beautiful, really gorgeous features like a chandelier, curving staircases, stained glass windows, ornate woodwork!

The cinema was packed but luckily no one was sat in front of me so I could put my feet up!

King Kong was awesome! I really enjoyed it! One of the best things was that the crowd in the cinema kept clapping at certain parts as if it was a show!

At the end - oh so sad! The audience clapped and a lot of people waited for the credits where a lot of claps were given as many people worked on the film! I waited until people left and then went to look at the name plaques on the seats! I found Orlando Blooms seat! I had some people take some photos of me in the seat and I took photos of the plaques! So excited!

I went back to the hostel with a massive smile on my face! It was a really long film so it was well late when I had dinner and then I spent an hour on the internet and went to bed!

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We headed up to Picton ferry terminal this morning very late again as people who had been dolpin swimming had left things at the hostel so we were driving back and forth to pick them all up. It turns out that we left Kaikoura at nearly 10.00! Also I had been told that we were leaving at 8.30 so I was up at 7.30 and then got told at 8.00 that the leaving time was now 9.00! Bloody Kiwi Experience drivers!

On the ferry I legged it into the Club Lounge and nabbed a sofa - ah luxury! I pretty much stayed there the whole time! Some of the people from the bus were also sat near me so I had somebody to watch my seat when I went to stretch my legs.

I didn't get sea sick at all this time! I had taken some ginger travel tablets though! The crossing was fine and I slept or read for most of it!

In Wellington we got stuck in traffic when we left the ferry terminal and the bus was really hot!

I was very glad to be back at Base Wellington as it is a really nice hostel! The staff remembered me from last time so they had me checked in within 2 seconds!

I was sharing a room with the same girls from last night which was nice!

I headed out straight away and as they had just had the King Kong Premiere there were posters everywhere! My hostel is pretty much opposite the Embassy Theatre Cinema where it was premiered and also LOTR was premiered! I went and got the film times as I want to see it here!

I walked down to Starbucks got a drink and then headed to the supermarket and got the obilgatory bread, butter, milk and fruit for the next few days!

I then bumped into some of the people from the bus who told me that Dominos do a special deal on pizza for Base Backpackers!

Pizza for dinner, a bit of movie in the TV room and then early to bed as I hate travelling all day long!

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Finally everyone arrived and we picked up from all the other hostels and we were only an hour late leaving Christchurch!

On the way upto kaikoura the weather improved and it was looking good for whale watching that afternoon. Barber called the whale watch at the toilet stop and was told that they were all on hold as they had quite a lot of fog over Kaikoura.

Kaikoura means 'to eat Crayfish' in Maori. So as you can guess the crayfish (lobster) is pretty popular in Kaikoura!

We headed into Kaikoura and the fog was pretty bad but it looked as if it was shifting so our hopes were high!

We stopped at a seal reserve but we didn't see any close up as they were playing in the sea. We heard them and saw them dipping in and out of the sea which was quite cool!

We headed to the hostel after this with the whale watch still on hold so I checked in and dumped my luggage and went to the whale watch station!

NO it's been cancelled! However they did book me on to the 5.00 pm service. I had a fair few hours to kill! I went and had crayfish for my lunch! It was ok but it was cold and I had to use my teeth to crack the shell! I dipped it in Sweet Chilli Sauce and yum that was nice!

I headed back to the hostel and hung out in the garden with PA (Piss Ass) the temporary manager and one of the girls from my dorm. We sat on the terrace for a fair while and then I went on the internet and afterwards I walked back down to the Whale Watch Station for my 5.00 pm whale watch! As I was walking along I bumped into a couple from the bus and they told me that the whale watch had been cancelled as the weather was too rough!

I went and had a chat with the whale watch people and the only other option was that I was to go on the 6.30 watch tomorrow morning, it didn't get back until 9.30 am though and my bus left at 8.30!

Back at the hostel I chilled out in the back garden, tried a gree lipped mussel off the bbq - yuck and then headed to my room. Sabine a german girl was in there in bed so we ended up having a chat and I stayed in my room for the rest of the night chatting with Sabine.

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This meant I had to get up early! I got a free shuttle to the railway station and checked in. I had been allocated seats and they turned out to be nice ones as well!

On the outward journey I sat at a table opposite a german dude who is travelling to Greymouth and then down to the glaciers. He moaned quite alot though about hostels and travelling in general so I put my Ipod on and ignored him as much as possible!

The journey started off really grey and misty but it soon cleared up as we headed towards the mountains. I went to the viewing carriage to get some photos but there was no space and people weren't budging! I just went back to my seat and enjoyed the views from the windows! No photos though as the glass windows create a reflection on my camera!

The weather got alot better as we headed towards Greymouth and when we stopped at Arthurs Pass it had cleared up quite alot. We stopped at Arthurs Pass for 10 minutes which gave us enough time to alight and take some photos. The mountains along here were gorgeous and there was a lot of native bush. This was quite different from the landscape when leaving Christchurch over the Canterbury Plains - Very flat and boring, used mainly for agriculture.

Towards Greymouth the scenery was much more scenic with mountains, rivers and lotsof shrub and bush forests.

Greymouth is as the name suggests - very boring. i had already come through Greymouth with Kiwi Experience so I knew that it was pretty pathetic! I just had a quick spin around the shops and got a sandwich for lunch! I only had an hour before I got on the train again so it was short but sweet!

Back on the train I was on a different carriage and it was all airline style so I had the 2 seats to myself! Across the aisle was a bloke from the UK who had just come up from Queenstown and was heading to Christchurch and onto Kaikoura and Wellington. We chatted for quite a bit - about our travels mainly! The weather turned pretty ugly on the way back and at some points you couldn't see much for the rain. It did give a different perspective on the landscape though!

It was a long day but definitely worth it! The train was 45 minutes late getting into Christchurch as we had stopped and started a hundred times for line works or coal trains!

Back at my hostel in Christchurch I got off the railway shuttle and as I was walking into the hostel I bumped into some of the guys I had left behind in Queenstown! They were finishing their trips in Christchurch so this is the last time that I'll see them! Also outside were a couple of girls from my bus yesterday and they were off to see King Kong. They asked if I wanted to go but it started in half an hour and I hadn't had dinner! One of the recwption guys was outside and reccommended a chinese takeaway so I headed off to get some dinner.

Back in the hostel room some irish girls had just arrived from Australia so we got chatting!

It was quite late so after chatting to the girls I went to bed!

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I had to meet the bus up the road at the Bungy Station, there were quite a few faces from last night looking the worse for wear stuffing McDonalds burgers!

I had bumped into my bus driver from the North Island - Kozi in Altitude last night and he was teasing me that the bus I had today had no air conditioning! Turns out he wasn't joking!

Luckily I got a seat near the front and under the top window so it wasn't too bad apart from the bloke sat next to me was always cold! Weirdo! The rest of us were sweltering!

We stopped in Cromwell for breakfast and the bottom bus was there! Rob my driver was doing the route again - poor sod he works so hard! So we chatted for a bit and also some guys that had been on my bus in the Bay of Islands when I first arrived in New Zealand - we constantly bump into one another! It'll be the last time I see thme though as they are spending christmas in Dunedin!

We headed back on the bus and towards Twizel, we dropped several people off and Sarj, our bus driver was like no one else is getting on here so I jumped into an empty seat and guess what a girl gets on! She sits next to me rather than Mr Weirdo (that's the name I've given him!) and she says that apparently the pick up had been confirmed but Sarj had no record of it! Bloody Kiwi Experience!

We headed up to Lake Pukaki and stopped at the visitor centre. From here you are supposed to be able to see Mt Cook but it was really cloudy over the mountains so we didn't see anything. It was really nice where we were though and the sunloght made the lake really blue! It's freaky how the colours are so amazingly clear here!

We then went to Lake Tekapo for lunch. We stopped here for half an hour which I didn't feel was long enough, it was so beautiful! Although we could see the Church of the Good Shepard from the picnic tables we were at it was on the other side of the river so after lunch Sarj drove us around there! It's such a tiny little church yet it appears on so much New Zealand promotional material I expected it to be bigger! Such a lovely place though!

From Tekapo we drove straight to Christchurch with a stop in Geraldine for people going white water rafting.

In Christchurh the weather was pretty awful! I headed over to the information centre to get some gumph on Christchurch the I headed back to the hostel. My hostel - Base is right in Cathedral Square and it overlooks the cathedral. It's really nice with a lounge area outside my room just for the Sanctuary (the floor I'm on is girls only and called the Sanctuary).

I met up with John and Kedeesha (from the Bottom Bus) and we went searching for dinner. They ended up wanting sushi which I'm not a big fan of so I ended up at Subway!

Back in the hostel a new girl had arrived in my dorm who had just arrived from Australia so we stayed up hours chatting about what's she's planning to do here! She also has 8 weeks like I had but she's going to buy a car instead of doing the buses!

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Arrowtown is an old gold mining settlement situated along the Arrow River. After the Europeans had mined the gold they got chinese immigrants in to do some more whilst they moved on to seemingly better pickings.

The museum explains alot of this, I just read it in the Lonely Planet! Seriously though I went and walked through the chinese settlement, it's all ruins now but there are boards explaining the history and showing photos of how it once looked. Some of the buildings remain and it's surprising how tiny they are! Smaller than an average garden shed and entire families lived - slept and ate in these!

After this I walked along the river to find the part of the river where Arwen and Frodo are on horseback escaping the black riders and Arwen conjures up the tidal wave! I found it and it was very nice and you could kinda see how it was but not much! It's funny as other sites that I have seen from LOTR have been quite realistic and easy to imagine as they were in the film! The river was lovely though and is also used for gold panning still! I was going to rent a gold pan and instruction leaflet but it started spitting so I took some photos and headed back into town!

Arrowtowns main street is very nice! It has some lovely little shops along it. My favorite was the Remarkables Sweet Shop! Now I don't particularly like sweets but this shop was reminscent of the Harry Potter Sweet Shop with big jars of sweets on wall racks! The sweet shop also sold homemade fudge and I bought some cappucino flavored fudge! They also import choccies and sweets so I stocked up on polos!

I had a wee wonder through the shops and grabbed a bite to eat before I headed back!

On the bus returning to Queenstown I met Nicola from Kent. We got chatting and decided to go to -5 bar tonight.

We met a little bit later and headed to -5 bar. This bar is quite special as it is made of ice! You have to wear big coats and special shoes to go in! You get a cocktail in an ice glass as well! There are ice sculptures and possum fur on the seats! Our favorite sculpture was the sheep! The bar maid is from London so we were all having a good old chat and as I didn't like any of the cocktails on the list she made me a Sex on The Beach instead! I've renamed it Sex on The Ice! Your only allowed to stay in there for half an hour so we headed to Winnies after this and had two for one drinks! We met a couple of English lads and got chatting to them mainly about Thailand as that is where Nicola is off next and they've just come from there! After this I had free drinks vouchers for the World Bar so we ended up there but I had forgotton my ID so they wouldn't serve me! I managed to get Kedeesha one of the girls from my bus to get it for me! I felt 17 again!

We only stayed in World Bar for one as I couldn't get anymore so we headed for the Altitude bar where I got ID'd again! Luckily the bouncer let me in this time! So we stayed in Altitude for the rest of the night as both Nic and I bumped into loads of people we knew! I was planning on an early night as I have a long day going from Queenstown to Christchurch tomorrow!

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In the van we picked up two other american girls who were also paragliding. We headed out to Coronet Peak which is a ski field and where they do the paraglides from! We picked up a couple of paraglide people who would be jumping with us!

Up at the Peak we went cautiously over to the edge where we were expected to run off! It wasn't too bad! There were also some hangliders getting ready to go as well! Dan was my partner and I opted for a $20 option where I get digital pictures and some film on DVD!

I got harnessed up and Dan was explaining all the ins and outs of glidling through the air with some material holding you up! I was very nervous but Dan was really cool and said that when we were up it would be fine!

And then it was time! I started to walk forward and the parachute pulled me back as the wind caught it! I managed to keep walking and within 2 steps we were up! I didn't really need to go near the edge at all and there was no running involved! It was so easy!

Up in the air I was laughing like a lunatic, it was brilliant! I also took my camera up so I was snapping away and Dan was doing some photos with a telescopic pole! It was so amazing just sat there in the air. It was so comfortable as well. Just like being sat in an armchair! Dan let me do some steering holding onto the levers and then at the end we did some twists and turns which were really fun!

Landing we came in on our bottoms and it was funny cos I ended up all curled up in the harness! I helped Dan out putting the parachute away and he showed me the photos on his camera!

When we drove back into town I decided that I'd better not spend too much more money so I went to the internet cafe for a bit, called mum to tell her about my amazing flight! I then went and sat in the lounge at the hostel. It's a really nice lounge as it has a window wall that looks out over the lake! Whilst I was in there a lad and his family came in. They had a portable DVD player and he had just been paragliding from the gondola so he was looking at his photos. They let me look at mine as well! It was so funny seeing them larger on the telly! You can really tell that I was loving it!

That afternoon I went for a walk around town and got a Subway for dinner!

I spent the evening in my dorm with my dorm mates watching Bandits on the telly!

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I headed to Info and Track where I booked onto the Earnslaw a steamship that does cruises of the lake and I also booked myself onto a paraglide tomorrow!

So after a very nice subway sandwich I headed down to the wharf and boarded the steamship. It's really nice, you can look down from the main deck into the engine room and see the engines working. They let you walk through as well! They have a small museum about the history of the boat at the front of the boat. I sat up the front outside on the deck out to the Walter Peak farm. There was a commentary provided by the captain and many people got off at the farm but this cost extra so my ticket was only for the cruise!

On the way back they had a bloke doing a sing along on the piano at the back of the boat so I went and joined in! It was really good fun and they give you little song books as well! I asked for the song Loch Lomond which was really nice and at the end we sang Jingle Bells!

That evening I was doing my washing when I met two irish girls who had juat arrived from Fiji. We got chatting and ended up going to Fergburger for dinner! After this we went for a walk on the beach and went and looked in this lovely kids clothing shop (one of their mates has just had a baby) and I ended up buying a door sign for myself!

I had booked a ticket for the cinema earlier for Narnia. I left the girls and went to queue. Before I got to the cinema I walked past Winnies and they were giving away free pizza slices!

I really enjoyed Narnia, a lot of people have said to me since that they didn't rate it much, but hey I liked it!

On the way back from the cinema there was a little band playing outside near the beach and people dancing! I watched for a bit but it started spitting with rain so I headed back to the hostel!

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We had to walk down to the cafe where the bus would meet us, I got there nice and early and bought myself breakfast - scrambled egg on toast - yum and such a treat!

The bus arrived and it was fairly empty so we all got seats to ourselves which was good as it was at least 6-7 hours sat on the bus today!

Q our driver was really neat he stopped all the time for photos! The road to Milford Sound was just as amazing as Milford Sound itself! At this time of the year all of the lupins are out (I mentioned them in my other entry) and they are everywhere! It was so beautiful. The mountains were all lush green and there was still snow on the mountain caps! This area is called Fiordland National Park! I was astounded by the sheer sides of the mountains, they were literally vertical! And most surprisingly many of them have trees growing out of them! The Milford Road is one of the most dangerous roads in the world. In winter avalanches are common and can shut the road down for 4-5 days stranding people in Te Anau! Rain causes tree avalanches because the trees are hanging on by small roots!

The homer tunnel is freaky! It goes through the middle of the mountain and is seriously dark! Q started playing this song which went; 'hello, is anyone there' over and over again! We were all going ooohhh as we went through as well! On the other side as on the previous side the mountains were sheer cliffs! Explorers actually use these cliffs for practice when preparing to climb Everest and K2!

We were heading down from this point to the sound. It is a fiord as you can guess from the name of the national park. It was first spotted by Captain Cook (again) and he thought it was a bay! Then a welsh sealing captain came upon it one day in rough weather and sailed in to gain protection. He named it Milford Haven after the welsh town, as it went so far inland the name changed to Milford Sound. A Sound is formed by erosion after many years which Milford Sound wasn't! Milford Sound is actually a fiord which is created by glaciers!

We arrived at Milford Town and went straight to the ferry terminal and boarded our boat. It was very nice, it was brand new and had wasn't very busy, it was only us really! They had free tea and coffe for us to! Milford Sound is so unbelievably spectacular, sheer cliffs dropping into the fiord and beautiful snow capped peaks, lush green vegetation and wildlife. We saw seals and dolphins! There are penguins but we didn't see any! We were really lucky as the weather was gorgeous and the scenery was stunning! The waterfalls were fantastic! They were either massive or just spray, the slight breeze would blow the spray waterfalls so that they fell in a completely different spot! Apparently we were only seeing a small part of many of the waterfalls as they came down huge mountains where we couldn't see!

I was sorry to get off the cruise it was so good! Back on the bus I asked if we were stopping for lunch now as I had been taking so many photos I hadn't bought anything on the boat! The boat was our lunch stop! So Q went back and got me a selection of 2 sandwiches for free! I only had one and gave the other to someone else!

On the way back we stopped at the Chasm which is a 20 minute loop walk. It was amazing here we were in such mountainous areas and there was a tiny bit of rainforest and in the midst was a waterfall which had shaped out some amazing rock formations! It was all like bubbles in the rocks and there was a rainbow where the water was falling! This was like being on another planet!

Our next stop was the otherside of the Homer Tunnel where some snow was still left - very icy though! We walked to it and there was an ice tunnel formed by a small stream! Walking back to the bus a Kea which is like a parrot landed on one of the cars and started pecking at the car roof! It was hilarious, this poor lady was wondering what on earth all these people were taking photos of her car for! She finally got out but the Kea tried pecking her!

We pretty much drove straight back from here only stopping twice for toilets and food!

Back at the YHA in Queenstown I checked in and headed up to the supermarket. On the way down I walked past Fergburger and bumped into a few people. I ended up having one of the girls chips as she was stuffed after her burger! I chatted to some people that had been on my bus from Wellington to Nelson and that also went kayaking in Abel Tasman.

Back at the hostel I got ready and met the guys off of the bus in Altitude. We didn't stay there long as it was dead and moved on to World Bar where I saw a few people from previous buses. We stayed and some of the others had teapots! They sell teapots full of cocktails! They didn't have any I liked so I opted out! We stayed in World Bar then and danced the night away!

Te Anau - Milford Sound - Queenstown remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our time was affected by this so we raced to Invercargill where we were an hour late picking this bloke up and got 10 minutes in the museum to grab lunch and look around! They had a Tuatara lizard which is one of the only animals that still survives from the dinosaur age!

There were about a million sheep along the way, lambing season has just been so there were loads of lambs as well! It was us girls at the back of the bus going 'aww' everytime we saw lambs! So quite a lot then!

We drove to MacKenzies something then, it was something to do with a bum so some of the guys pulled their trousers down and had their photos taken! Weird!

It was to Manapouri then where we picked up a couple who had been to Doubtful Sound! We hung out on Lake Manapouri for a while getting attacked by sandflies!

We drove straight to Te Anau then and got ourselves checked in to the hostel, went and did some food shopping and we all hung out at the hostel for the rest of the night!

Curio Bay - Te Anau remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I got picked up by my new driver Rob who had decided not to bring a trailer so there was a tiny luggage section at the back and I had to put some of my stuff in the seating section with me! Luckily I was able to put stuff under the seats!

The bus seemed really friendly and everyone was chatting away straight away!

We firstly stopped at Nugget Point where there is a lovely lighthouse and some rocks that jutt out in the sea. These are the nuggets and what the point is named after - surprisingly! A bit of history - Captain James Cook, explorer extroadinaire noticed these nuggets whilst they were sailing past at sunset and there was a goldish hue cast upon them from the sun and he thought that they looked like gold nuggets! Now you get it!
We saw some seals here as well!

The next stop was at a gorgeous place called Cannibal Bay! It was amazing one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to! It's a gorqeous inlet and bay that has golden sand and the clearest calmest water! The best thing was the sea lions! There were only 3 of them but they were fantastic to see! We had to be really careful as they chase after you if you get too near! They went after one girl but she escaped! The water was so clear as well that you could see the fish in them! Little pods of silver fish! Walking back to the bus one of the sea lions had moved so we had to walk over the dunes around it! I had to put my shoes back on so I got left behind and lost in the sand dunes! Rob had to come and shout directions from a high dune as there were lots of shrubs! He then tells me that the only poisonous spider in NZ lives in the dunes! Agh! I think he was winding me up as he had told us earlier that there was a dolphin in one of the lakes that we wnet past! Apparently (his story) a scientist wanted to see what happened if he took a dolphin out of the sea and put it into a lake! It shrunk and it still lives there! Not true obviously, but I believed it for 5 minutes until someone said he was winding us up!

Next stop (a lot today!) was Cathedral Caves. These caves are only possible to visit at low tide and we had timed it perfectly! It was a 20 minute walk to the beach and a further 10 minutes along the beach to the caves! The caves were amazing, they were about 6-7 stories high and went back for ever, we tried going back but only I had a torch and it was mini LED one so not really that great! We got to the lake in one of the caves though! The seaweed was also huge! These caves would have been perfect for pirates! Ar ar me hearties!

The walk back was knackering as it was all uphill! Also the sun was seriously hot!

Finally we reached Curio Bay where we stayed at Dolphin Lodge, very nice and yes there are dolphins here!

Myself, Rob and 4 others went for dinner and it was really nice! We had a good old chat and I've been trying to persuade Rob to take us to Bluff, the most southern town in NZ!

After dinner we drove back to the hostel got the others and walked to Curio Bay itself, we were going to watch the yellow eyed penguins come in but we missed them and saw only one from a distance! Curio Bay is also a fossilised forest! I'll explain because it's quite strange! Basically you know how you get fossils of dinosaurs and sealife etc! Well they have fossilised tree stumps and logs! They are rock but you can totally see that they were once trees! A volcano wiped this region out and the trees got covered and fossilised!

Back at the hostel we had a few beers and played cards most of the night!

Dunedin - Curio Bay remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I went to Subway for lunch - I'm becoming addicted! And then I just wandered about the shops I did consider going on a Speights brewery tour or cadburys tour but hey I was having a lazy day!

I pretty much ended the day on the internet and then in bed reading!

Wahey a slow day!

Dunedin remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I had booked on the Taieri Gorge Railway for this afternoon so I had a few hours to kill before then. I went and explored the city, mainly the shopping centre! I bought a cheap book and went for lunch in a food court. One of the best things about eating in NZ or OZ is the asian influence! I can get such cheap asian food - chinese/japanese/thai in food courts and it is pretty much always really nice!

After this I headed down to the railway station. Only one section now houses the Taieri Gorge Railways offices, the rest is a NZ Sports Hall of Fame mueseum!

I was a bit worried as it started to spit again as I walked down to the station and as it had been sunny for a few hours I had left my jacket in the hostel!

Well on the train I had been allocated a seat in the heritage carriage which was cute! The seats could be swung to face back or forward!

We set off and in the buffet carriage a bloke was giving commentary, this was quite good, he's obviously a rail buff!

The first part of the journey was reasonably flat and a bit boring but then we headed across the Taieri Plains into the gorge. It was really nice although it was quite cloudy! The river is quite famous for fishing and there was so much yellow gorse all over the hill sides. Gorse was actually introduced from the UK and it has spread like a weed all over the NZ bush! Everything in NZ grows at amazing rates. They have miles upon miles of pine forest that they use for logging. The pines take 25 years to grow to maturity here compared to 35 years in other parts of the world. Other plants are the Russell Lupins, these are gorgeous flowering plants that come out in Spring mainly in the alpine regions. I have seen a fair few but apparently they are the best up at Milford Sound! These have alos coem from the UK but I've never seen them in the wild like they are here! The drawbacks from all of this introduced growth is that it pushes out native bush which is very rare. Many trees and plants just die out as these take hundreds of years to reach maturity, this includes the Kauri tree which grows in the North Island. The Kauri can live up to thousands of years and is the second largest tree in the world after the Californian Redwood. Unfortunatly they were logged so heavily in the 1800s that only a few hundred remain and they are very young! So in many parts of NZ now they are leaving native bush to grow freely and trying to curtail introduced plantlife!

We went over several viaducts whch are made of steel. Much of this steel is Scottish steel imported in the early 1900s. The railroad took an age to build and the workers had to live alongside the track as they worked! It was mainly built to service the gold rush and then it was used to transport materials to build the Clyde Dam which I had visited yesterday.

We reached our destination of Pukerangi where we picked up a coachload of people joing us from Queenstown on a special connection. On the way back it was seriously chucking it down and a wee bit chilly on the train!

We arrived back in Dunedin and I got soaked going to the Supermarket but managed to stay covered on the way back to the hostel!

I had a bit of toast for dinner and then headed out to the cinema! I was allocated seats and the cinema although not many seats had massive sofa like seats that you could just sink into! No surprises what I watched! Harry Potter! I thought it was really good, the films are defintely getting better each time! Although Hermione annoyed me quite a bit in this one!

It was around 11.30 when I came out so I headed back to the hostel where no one had checked into my room so I had the room to myself - Nice!

Dunedin remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On the bus there were a few faces from my bus trip down the west coast. I am only staying on today as I plan to jump off in Dunedin.

Our first stop was at Cromwell where the bus that is going Queenstown to Christchurch also stopped, there were a fair few people that I knew off of that bus as well! I said goodbye to a few people as they were all heading up the country to fly away or to the North Island, I still have a while before that happens!

Back on the bus our first scenic stop was the Clyde dam - not very scenic just alot of concrete!

We were driving down whats called the Gold Rush highway! Basically alot of the towns along the way were set up for gold mining so they play a large part in New Zealands history.

We only stopped once for a toilet break and then we headed hrough Dunedin to Tunnel Beach. This was about a 20 minute walk down and then we had to go through a tunnel down to the beach. It was so beautiful, the sun had come out quite a bit by this point so were were really hot. Walking back up took twice as long because of the heat and the steepness of the track!

We then drove into Dunedin City and we went to Baldwin Street which is the World's steepest street! A few people walked up it and back again but I walked part of the way and took some photos!

In town we were dropped off at our hostels. I was at the YHA which was lovely but about a 15 minute walk out of town. I walked down into town and they had a santa parade happening! Really christmassy! The main street was closed off for the floats and bands etc!

Dunedin is gaelic for Edinburgh and all the street names are named after the original - Princes Street, George Street, Moray Place! They don't have a Royal Mile though and in fact it's nothing like Edinburgh at all!

I went to Starbucks and then visited the tourist information office. I found out about another backpackers hostel behind the octagon (the main square) that was brand new. I went and had a look - really nice! So I made arrangements to move there tomorrow!

I went to Subway for dinner and back to the hostel where I met some people in my dorm and chatted to them before I went to bed!

Queenstown to Dunedin remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I went and looked around the shops - I have to try very hard not to spend all my money in Queenstown! I have limited myself to one activity a day!

I ended up in Kathmandu which is an outdoor clothing shop (there's one in Covent Garden) and they had a massive sale on 50% off of everything! So I ended up buying a hiking stick with worked out about 17 pounds! I got a few other little things too!

I decided that I would spend too much money if I stayed and looked around the shops to I went up on the Gondola to the Luge track on the hillside above Queenstown.

This was excellent I had six luge rides and I met a girl as I was walking down to the chairlift who was supposed to be doing a skydive but the weather was pretty bad so the skydive company had given her gondola and luge tickets to use whilst they waited to see what the weather would do!

We went down the scenic route first after having our photos taken by the staff! This scenic ride was alot more difficult than the scenic one in Rotorua! So we graduated to the advanced track! Agh it was a bit too steep for me! There were little kids overtaking me all the time but I was like I don't wanna fall off the edge of the mountain! So I stuck to the scenic route after that! We had an excellent time and after the girl I had met (forgotten her name!) went back to see if the skydive was on and I had a panini in the Gondola cafe!

Back down in Queenstown I had to sort myself out as I was starting the bottom bus tomorrow and I needed to put some stuff in a locker until I came back through!

It was great having a double room to myself, I also got to choose the movie being shown on all the TV's that night. As I planned to go and see Harry Potter in Dunedin I watched Harry Potter and Azkaban in the room!

I managed to put a few things into a locker so I didn't have too many heavy bags!

Queenstown Free Day remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Stu was our driver and he later turned out to be my canoe guide and partner! We drove up the Glenorchy Road to Glenorchy! It was so gorgeous driving up along the lakeside, Stu gave us some commentary but I can't remember much!

At Glenorchy - which is tiny - we went to the Dart River Safaris office paid our money and got kitted up. This was awful! Luckily I had been told to bring a swimsuit but others hadn't so had to put these horrible wetsuits over their underwear! Even getting it on was a challenge! Then we had to wear horrible booties! I couldn't even zip mine up and they were awful to walk in! Luckily we were given fleeces and spray jackets to wear over the top!

We were then bused down to the river and got in our jet boats! This was awesome! We jet boated for about an hour and a half and did lots of spins! It wasn't as fast as the excitor in Paihia but it did wicked stunts!

The views were absolutely fantastic! The area we were in was used for the surroundings of Isengard and Sarumans Tower in LOTR! Our driver was lovely he stopped every now and then and explained the history of the area and also about Lord of the Rings! One of the mountains was also where Gandalf fought the Balrog at the end of the first movie! There were two jet boats out at the same time and it was his son driving the other one so there was lots of friendly banter and competition! Especially spraying each other when doing twists!

We then alighted at the river bank where another boat had dropped off the inflatable canoe/kayaks (known as funyaks!). We had to inflate these ourselves (with help of course) and there were hundreds of sandflies. Luckily I had applied liberal amounts of repellent and escaped major injury! They managed to get my knuckles though! Once the funyaks had been inflated we were split into four groups of four kayaks. Stu was my group leader and as I was all by myself I was in the boat with him! He said 'this'll be the easiest day of you holiday!' - No joke I didn't have to anything really. i paddled now and then but he did all the steering with his paddle. I suppose this was cool as I just sat back and enjoyed the views but I was looking forward to a bit of paddling action after my amazing kayaking in Abel Tasman!

We stopped after 45 minutes for lunch, only problem was that we had to walk about a kilometre to where we ate lunch. Normally no problem, but having a wetsuit on and wet uncomfortable shoes over rocks! So I could only take small steps and could feel my scab coming off from where I had blistered on the heli hike in Franz Josef - AGH!

When we got to the clearing we then went down to another river area where the guys had pulled some funyaks up river and we could paddle into the most amazing gorge! I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and how clear the water was! It was obviously formed by water eroding the rock and the water runs straight down from melting snow which was visible from the river! It was so magical, I felt that I had well and truly stepped into middle earth!

Lunch was a buffet affair with make your own sandwiches and then a fruit and cake platter for dinner!

As I had found it difficult to walk in my wetsuit and was therefore last coming up to lunch the Dart River people let me go back in the funyaks! This was way better than walking! It was also a bit rough - small rapids - great fun!

We then all regrouped and made our way in the funyaks down the river! We had to raft up with another funyak as they were finding it very difficult to row! It was interesting though to talk to them, they were a chinese-american couple from LA on their honeymoon! The lady is a news anchor in LA!

Going downstream was so easy we just stayed in the current and it took us all the way down. We had to watch out for jet boats though! We ended up at another bank where we deflated the funyaks and boarded minibuses to take us back to Glenorchy.

On the bus trip - with Stu driving we were shown some of the LOTR locations! Where the ents come out of the forest to attack Isengard, where Boromir was shot by Orcs, Lothlorien woods. It was unbelievable how obvious these sights are! Also this area (called Paradise!) was used for Walking with Dinosaurs and Narnia!

We went past Diamond Lake - those of you have been in my room will know this sight as it is the one on my bathroom door! It was so cool seeing it in real life! The scenery is so amazing with snowcapped peaks, ice blue water, lush green trees - horrid sandflies!

Back in Glenorchy I was so glad to get rid of the wetsuit! I went for a coffee and ice cream in the local cafe before we got back on the bus to Queenstown!

Back in Queenstown I went and had a Fergburger for dinner! Fergburger is the most amazing burgers ever! They have your normal beefburgers, lamb burgers (little bambis), Chicken burgers, etc! And they are massive!

I went back to the hostel room after this and chatted with the dorm mates and went to sleep - I was so tired after today! I am never going near wetsuits ever again!

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I had breakfast and checked out and got a taxi down to the YHA. I left my stuff in storage and went to explore Queenstown!

I visited the information centre and found out about some activities. There are so many, and so expensive! I really wanted to do a Lord of the Rings tour but they are really expensive and I couldn't justify the cost when there is so much else to do!

I found a really good tour with Dart River Safaris who take you jet boating, then on inflatable canoes and you have lunch as well. I also found out about para gliding.

Whilst deciding what to do I walked around the shops and bought an ice breaker jacket, this was really expensive but the clothes are amazing!

I then made my mind up to do the Dart River Safaris and went back to book it!

I then went and checked into the YHA and got my room sorted etc! I walked down to the beach for a wee while where I buped into a few people from yesterdays bus. We sat on the beach for a while it was really hot so I was trying to top up my tan! Some of the guys went for a dip but the lake was freezing!

I then went and got some dinner - I ended up getting chinese takeaway and eating down in the park next to the wharf. I ran into the Yorkshire lasses and we sat and chatted for a bit!

I was still feeling funny from being ill so I headed back to the hostel for yet another early night! Plus the fact I had to be up and at em for the safari tomorrow! I did get chatting to the girls in the dorm, one of whom had done a skydive today so we were looking at her photos and they show movies in the rooms at 9 - it was lord of the rings! So we watched some of that as well!

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The cafe in puzzling world was great as well! They had loads of puzzles on the tables that you could play with and work out! The best was one called tantrix! Weird name! You had 8 blocks and had to make loops out of the lines on them! Sounds weird - it is! But it was addictive!

We then went to a place called Have A Shot where you can play mini golf, go on a driving range, clay pigeon shooting, rifle range and archery. We only had an hour - damn! So I started with the rifle range where I had 30 shots and I did really well (I have the targets so I can show you all when I get back!). I then did Archery where I had 20 minutes and got in about 45 shots and only 15 landed on the target paper! I wasn't so good at this! But it was great fun! I would have liked to tried the clay pigeon shooting but didn't have time. The golf driving range was a real one but it had sheep in the range!! I don't know if this is classed as cruelty to animals?!!

We stopped in Cromwell after this at a fruit shop and bought loads of fresh fruit and the most amazing fruit ice creams!

The next stop was AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump! Oh my god these people are mad! We watched stunned at these people jumping, some were flying through the air, some were silent with fear, some actually got dipped in the water and one mad pair did it together! They were off of our bus! It was great to watch but there is no way in hell I would ever do that! Also it is so expensive just for a 20 second experience (you do get a free t shirt though!).

We then headed into Queenstown and stopped off at Info and Track for people who are here to book activities, as I have 6 days here I decided to go back and book stuff tomorrow! I headed to Starbucks and ran into loads of people off my previous bus and off of other buses! I arranged to meet up later with Ruth and Emily who I had seen in Franz Josef last!

We then got dropped off at the hostel which was awful! It was a packed 8 bed dorm with no room to move! The building was really old and not very clean! So I went into town with some of the girls from my dorm and got some food shopping and dinner. Back at the hostel I phoned around trying to find somewhere else to stay!

I met Emily and Ruth in town and they were staying at the YHA Central, they showed me their room and it was massive, only 5 beds in the room, en suite and TV! So I booked myself in the YHA for tomorrow!

We all went to Starbucks then and got some coffee and sat on the beach watching the sunset! I went for a paddle in the lake but it was freezing! We then headed back into town and walked around and headed to the World Bar but it was dead so we went to Altitude which was a bit busier and they were giving away free margheritas!

We stayed in Altitude for a bit but the girls had to get up early to go to Christchurch the next day and they walked me back to my hostel. It was quite dark walking along and I'm glad to have had company!

Wanaka - Queenstown remains copyright of the author Becks2005, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As I had the room to myself last night I slept until about 1000 this morning! I then had some breakfast and wandered down to the lakefront. I went into the visitor information centre to find out some activities, there aren't many, mainly walks and such. I decided to go shopping instead! I sat on the beach for half an hour which was great! It's so beautiful here with all the mountains and crystal clear lake water! Some people were out on aqua bikes and kayaks, I found out that it was $10 an hour to hire a kayak but as I had only done it once before the guys at the kayak place reckoned I should do some more guided kayaking before I went out on my own! I headed across the road and into town and looked around the shops, ok so I didn't buy anything as I know that when I get to Queenstown I'll spend a fortune!

I had coffee and lunch at a cafe along the lakefront and unfortuneatly I started to feel really sick (my tablets make me feel ill!) so I went back to the hotel and laid down for an hour. I then went and sat in the garden with some of the girls from the bus, I had taken some panadol and was feeling better for it!

We decided to go for dinner, they were going to go to a restaurant/cafe but I didn't feel like a massive meal so I ended up getting fish and chips from across the road. At the chippie I ran into a girl I had met in Franz Josef who is working at the hotel for a couple of weeks! We ended up sat on a picnic table eating our fish and chips together!

The other bus was meant to come in today which I was going to be joining tomorrow but it still hadn't turned up at 2000! So I watched the movie waiting for the bus to come in which it finally did at 2030! I knew a few people off of the bus so we ended up sat in the garden that night chatting and drinking (well me on diet coke again!). They were so late as they couldn't do the glacier hiking the day before because the glacier was too dangerous! So they did it this morning and drove straight through from Franz josef!

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