New Zealand

We were up early this morning to get the 8.45am ferry to Picton on the South Island. The ferries are actually old Stena Line ferries that used to operate on the Dover-Calais crossing! Some of the warning signs are still in French!

We had breakfast as soon as we got onboard which was about 8.00am. We were based in the bar area so we settled down for the ferry journey. About 15 minutes in I started feeling a bit queasy so I went to the reclining seat area and it was so bad! Up and down all about! A lady came through calling to see if every one was ok. i was like nooo! So she moved me into the club lounge area which is more to the middle of the boat and doesn't move as much! The club lounge is just a normal area on this boat, it still says club lounge from the days of crossing the English Channel! I felt alot better and towards the end of the journay I went on to the observation deck for the views.

In Picton we boarded the bus for Nelson. There was a few people already on it and some of them were from the Magic bus tours! Basically the guide/driver hadn't realised that there was no bus running from Picton to Nelson today so Kiwi Experience took them!

We headed through the Marlborough region which is famous for its vineyards. There were thousands of them! It was so beautiful because the mountains in the background were so dramatic against the wide plains of vineyards!

Our first stop was Pelorus Bridge where I tried a Mussel Fritter, it was ok but not great! At Pelorus Bridge the river is gorgeous,so clear! A few people went for a dip!

We then drove onto Nelson and got dropped off at our hostels. I stayed in the YHA which was really nice. Only problem is that my bus driver hadn't booked me in! I got a nice room though!

I then went out for a wander through Nelson. I was meant to stay here for another day but the weather was meant to be really bad and I was planning on a full day kayak so I opted to carry on with the bus and do the half day kayak the next morning.

Nelson was ok, just another town really. What was special is that about 45 minutes walk out of town there is the centre of New Zealand! There's a little memorial and everything! Apparently - I didn't go as I was still feeling quite rough from the ferry! So I walked about found Starbucks and walked upto Jans Hansen jewellers who made the gold rings for the Lord of the Rings Movies! They were sooo expensive about 200 pounds for the cheapest!

I headed back to the hostel after this as all the shops had shut! I watched Whale Rider which is a New Zealand movie, really good! Then I watched Kill Bill 2 as I hadn't seen that either!

I got chatting to a girl from England this morning - Angela and we set off on our explorations of Wellington together!

First stop was the tourist information centre where I found out about some Lord of The Rings tours and winery tours leaving from Wellington. This is for when I come back through when I'm finished in the South Island.

We then headed for Te Papa which is New Zealands National Museum. Te Papa is Maori for Our Place. http://www.tepapa.co.nz
The museum is massive! It's really good as well because it's so interactive, there is so much to see and do! We went on an earthquake simulator and although it was meant to be serious explaining the effects that earthquakes have, especially on NZ me and Angela couldn't stop laughing as it just shakes you from right to left!

We watched quite a few films which were really interesting explaining about anything from climatic changes in NZ to immigration stories.

One of the best parts is the bush walk outside, there is a miniature swing bridge, now I've been on a few real ones in NZ and they are really cool as they shake and move all over the place! So me and Angela started jumping up and down and moving all over the place! There was a school group in at the time and the kids were watching and laughing at us! There are also fake caves that kids can climb through, so Angela went through but I knew that my wide load wouldn't make it so I took photos! The kids also thought this was hilarious!

After our museum exploits we headed upto lambton quay and went up the cable car to the botanical gardens. From here there are amazing views of the city and nice walks around the gardens. We walked around the top bit of the gardens and looked at all the observatories.

Off to the South Island tomorrow!

We waited around at River Valley until 1300 as half of the bus (3 people!) went horse riding. I nearly went but my thighs were still aching from my other horse experience! We had lunch there at 12 - bangers and mash! River Valley does the best home cooked food!

We drove straight through to Wellington only stopping once at Bulls which is famous for having shop names like collecta-bulls, antiqua-bulls!

In Wellington I checked into Base http://www.basebackpackers.com and went out to get some supplies - mainly a starbucks! I went out for a few drinks with the bus lot but crawled into bed quite early as travelling on a bus takes it out of you!

Today we drove to River Valley near Taihape.

We left around 0930 and headed to Tongariro National Park, it was quite cloudy so we couldn't really see the mountains very well! As we got closer it was clearing up! We stopped in Whakapapa (Fa-ka-papa) which is one of the ski towns close to the tongariro mountains. We did a 6km loop walk to Taranaki Falls, we went totally the wrong way as you can do it clockwise or anti clockwise, one way is mostly uphill - guess what we did! As the walk went on the clouds cleared and we got fantastic views of the mountains! Mt Doom was still a bit shrouded in clouds but still we knew it was there unlike when we had arrived!

We drove onto River Valley which is in the middle of nowhere - again! (http://www.rivervalley.co.nz) I opted for a 6 bed bunk room and everyone else went for the 16 bed dorm or doubles (there were only 7 of us on the bus!). Because of this I got the bunk room to myself! It had the most amazing views out of the windows towards the river and waterfall! Only problem was that the toilets were also outside - not so good with the sound of water falling all the time!

We had a roast dinner at River Valley. It was the best! I really appreciate roast dinners now! Most of us stayed up playing trivial pursuit and drinking cocktails!

We hung around at the Homestay until around 1200 when we left to get back to Taupo.

It was pretty uneventful day as we just drove most of the time stopping for breaks where and when needed!

I got back to the Tiki Lodge did all my washing and got dinner and had a nice firm bed to ease my back pains!

We left the farm today - thank god! I woke up this morning lifted my book that I had dropped the night before beside my bed and there was a massive dead cockroach underneath! The bed springs were soft so I was practically on the floor! Then somebody had left the light on in the bathroom so there were bugs and spiders everywhere! I cleaned my teeth in the kitchen! Of course the horse riding took it's toll on my muscles!

We headed to Te Kaha where we were to stay at a Home Stay. We stopped along the way at the East Cape lighthouse - 700 steps to the top! The views were fantastic though! On the way up to the lighthouse a german dude had got his campervan stuck whilst three point turning! So all the strong men off the bus halped to push him out! I got some good photos of this! The German dude gave us $40! for Ice Cream! Yum!

Also on the way another girl - Annie from Denmark was not so well either. Both me and Annie had been ill, so I lent her my travel pillow which she dropped out the window! We went back to look for it but couldn't find it, so we carried on and found it about 5 miles up the road. We reckon the car that went past picked it up and then threw it out their window realising that it was off our bus!

At the Te Kaha Homestay we had to wait for Paul O'Brien who's half Maori and half Irish to come back from fishing to greet us. I literally ran into the shower after not having a decent one for 24 hours! At dinner we ate snapper caught by Paul that afternoon and the most amazing strawberry cake!

We then sang songs around the table till 1 am!

- Te Kaha Homestay is in the north of the east cape area and right on the seafront. It looks towards White Island a volcanic island. There is a hot tub at the bottom of the garden pretty much on the beach! The only downside was the beds - again soft springs!

Second day of the trip - still not feeling great! This morning I took more notice of my surroundings and the Chalet Surf Lodge was a really nice place even though there were no locks on the bathroom doors! The people that own it are really typical surfer people! They have a gorgeous 2 year old daughter called Daisy who I spent a couple of hours playing with! The lodge is opposite one of the best surfing beaches in NZ, the break is amazing, just like you see in surf adverts!

We headed to a place called Rangitukia and the Eastender Farm Stay. This was about as basic that you can get! We were in the middle of nowhere! Again not feeling great so this wasn't my favorite place! We went horse riding in the afternoon, bearing in mind that I hadn't been on a horse for a good 10 years!

I was fine riding along the beach and Reg the guide was teasing me about the English way I rode the horse! We were meant to be riding western style, but my old teachings came back! I cantered a few times but didn't have the guts to get into a full gallop! It was really cool riding along the beach!

We then went into the hills, this was really steep and I got nervous, when we got to the top Ma (our driver) took the reins whilst I got off but the horse started rearing backwards - scary! So I had to sit alone for a bit to get myself together! When I went to get back on the horse I couldn't do it! I fell the second time I tried! A bit embarrassing to say the least! But I got up on the third go! Well you know what they say! I went slowly down the hill but had a bit of a canter along the last bit. Everyone thought it was cool of me to get back on again! I was seriously considering walking down with the horse though!

Back at the farm stay I went in the shower and it was cold, another thing to make my day! Then we had a hangi (Maori style food) for dinner but it was dreadful! I went to bed!

I left on my Kiwi Experience East As trip today. It's a 4 day, 3 night trip around the East coast of the North Island.

We drove to Napier in the Hawkes Bay Region. All along the way is miles of pine forest. Pine grows in NZ fater than anywhere else because of the soil so forestry is big business here! Hawkes Bay however is one of the major wine and fruit regions in NZ. Napier is famous for its art deco architecture. The reason Napier has 1930's art deco buildings is that in the 1930s a massive earthquake hit the region and completely devastated Napier. They got in this art deco architect/designer dude who re-did the town in art deco! I thought Napier was lovely, the buildings weren't as art deco as I though they would be but there was a great vibe to the place. The streets were lined with palm trees, the marine parade ran along the sea front. The water was clear - the beach (sand)was black but this is due to the volcanic activity etc. The best thing was that there was a Starbucks - Frappacino yeah!

We then drove on past Poverty Bay where Captain Cook first landed in NZ, he called it Poverty Bay as the Maori tribe there attacked them when they arrived so Captain Cook thought - ah well there's not much to be had here! They then proceeded to land in the Bay of Plenty where they were welcomed by the local Maori tribe there!

We went to a place called the Chalet Surf Lodge in a place called Gisborne (http://www.chaletsurf.co.nz). I felt quite ill when I arrived so I had the barbeque and walked along the beach and fell into bed!

As I had been on the road for a few days I decided to take it easy today. I got up and headed to the visitor information centre, there is a Hotbus that runs from there taking you to various tourist attractions. I opted for the Craters of the Moon. This is a thermal reserve that is a 45-60 minute loop walk and most inportantly free! The bus was $10 though! The craters of the moon has, yep you guessed craters! There's alot of thermal activity here similar to the Te Puia thermal reserve I went to the other day, just no geysers! It wasn't smelly though! The bad thing was the sandflies! Little nasties! I have welts all over my ankles from getting bitten as I forgot to put repellent on!

I met a lady from London and we walked around together and then we went to a bee place and learned all about how bees make honey - fascinating!

Back in Taupo I caught up on the internet and had a relaxing evening in the hostel. The girls in my dorm did the skydive today so I watched their DVD and then I bumped into Ruth and Emma from my dorm in Auckland. Emma was too ill to come on the Kiwi Experience the day I left. We stayed up chatting for a few hours.

As I had done the cave tour yesterday I had a lie in this morning whilst everyone else did the black water rafting. Black water rafting is basically just sitting on a inner tube and going through the caves, a few jumps off of waterfalls within the caves in the pitch black etc! http://www.blackwaterrafting.co.nz This didn't appeal to me as I like to see whats at the bottom of the water! So we boarded the bus at 1000 and saw some of the groups getting ready for the trip. They had to practice falling backwards with their rubber rings! As they hadn't gotten wet yet they were literally pushed in the freezing cold water! This was outside and it was spitting for rain and still cold - lovely!

After we watched this we all went for a wander through the Ruakiri Scenic Reserve, we came to a cave and everybody went in, I opted not to as I had seen loads of caves last night! I am so glad I didn't go in as there were massive spider things!

It started tipping it down so we ran back to the bus and drove to the Black Water Rafting place where we waited for the groups to come back - boring!

We then headed to Taupo, this was a long drive! We finally got there and stopped at Huka Falls, basically the water goes along this really narrow gully and gushes out at such a speed that it can keep you under for 1.5 days! It's not a high waterfall but the force is one of the strongest you're likely to encounter!

Skydiving was likely so we headed to the skydive centre where we all watched the video and those who weren't doing it left to go to our hostels. I later found out that it got cancelled because of the weather.

My hostel is the Tiki Lodge, it's very nice! There's a massive terrace out front that looks over lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park - it was too cloudy to see anything today!

I met a girl called Onya from Ireland and we went shopping for food and had dinner together then settled down for a night in fron t of the telly! They are a year behind in Eastenders here!

Heading out of Rotorua this morning we went to Te Puia which is a thermal reserve. Basically it has geysers and boiling mud pools and stunk of Rotten Eggs!

The tour started with a look at maori crafts, we saw the workshop where the blokes make the totem poles and such. We then saw hown the Maori women would make the grass skirts and weaved items. This was pretty fascinating as they use flax which is green, they use the hot thermal pools to boil out the green colour leaving it a natural wheat colour!

We then headed to the Kiwi Sanctuary where there are two kiwi birds. Kiwi birds are very rare in NZ as they have been killed by humans in the past for food and at the moment Possums which have been bought over from OZ are threatening their existence. The Department of Conservation are currently culling thousands of Possums a year to ensure the Kiwi's survival - you'll quite oftem see dead Possums on the road side, many NZ drivers try to run them over as much as possible! The kiwi is a wingless nocturnal bird with a massive beak - get out your kiwi shoe polish cans and you'll see one!

After this was the main attraction, the geysers! they basically spout loads of hot water and steam out of the ground! There are boiling mud pools here as well which are pretty icky! We sat down on some rocks which were very toasty because of the thermal activity!

Back on the coach we headed to Waitomo with a stop at the supermarket as we could either have a BBQ or buy Pizza tonight. i decided to buy Pizza and get some wine!

The hostel is the Kiwi Paka YHA and with my YHA membership they gave me a towel! Yeah! Towels are nice because I don't have to get mine wet and in turn put it into my suitcase still wet!

I opted to go and look in the caves on a guided tour - Waitomo is where you come to look at caves! I got picked up from the hostel and we went to Ruakiri Cave. When you arrive there's not much there but when you go inside there's this massive spiral walkway down! it's quite dark - only lit by small lights at the walkway edge! We descended and then went through a very james Bond like tunnel, it's like you about to enter a secret underground Mi5 bunker! We went through and there was the most amazing Stalagmite formations with curtain like rocks formed from the limestone, it was amazing! Better than Cheddar Gorge!

The walk lasted around 2 hours, there were only 4 of us and the guide so we got a really interesting and informed tour. One of the girls that was doing the tour worked for the company that owned Black Water Raftting and Ruakiri Caves and she was on a fam trip. THL - Tourism Holdings Limited owns Kiwi Experience as well! It's a big conspiracy theory!

After our tour we went back to the hostel where I caought up on the net and then went and sat on the terrace and drank some wine with some the bus group. It was freezing cold so we opted to go straight for dinner. The Morepork Cafe which is part of the YHA does Kiwi Experience specials so we got $20 pizzas for $15 (6-8 pounds). Very nice!

After the wine I didn't last long and headed to bed about 11.00pm, the rest of the dorm followed me in!

We headed south today to Rotorua, on the way we stopped at Matamata whih is where Hobbiton was filmed. I know I'm a massive fan of Lord of the Rings but I didn't fork out $50 for the set tour as I had heard that it wasn't that special. When LOTR had stopped filming all the sets were taken down and the land returned to normal. This is private land where Hobbitton was filmed so the farmer has set up a tour and put in some wood to depict the doors etc!

However in Matamata there is a sign which says 'Welcome to Hobbiton' so I did my photos! We headed straight to Rotorua from here and went up the gondola to the top wich views over Lake Rotorua, it was a bit miserable with spots of rain so it wasn't a brilliant view!

The reason to go up the mountain is the Luging! Basically it's a little Go Kart thing which you speed down the mountain! There's a scenic route, intermediate and advanced routes! Our ticket gave us 2 rides, the first has to be the scenic. What fun! I zoomed down the scenic and went to the intermediate, I then bought two more luge tickets and although I stayed on the Intermediate there is a fork so you change where you go! This was such good fun and really good value!

The hostel situation was a bit funny as I opted to stay in Base, which is part of the chain that I have stayed in in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland so I know what I'm getting. Everyone else stayed in a place called Hot Rocks which is the same chain as the one I stayed in in Paihia! No surprise I didn't stay there! When I gotdropped off I was a bit worried as it was just in the main shopping area and Hot Rocks was opposite a thermal park - smelly but nice views! However when I got inside I was given a dorm room to myself - mainly as they were quiet so I was lucky! It was lovely, 2 single beds and a bunk and the bathrooms were immaculate!

That night I went to a traditional Maori Hangi and Concert, a Hangi is the traditional method the Maori use to cook food, they cook it under the ground and steam cook it! The others from the bus trip also went and were all very jealous as their hostel was awful; really dirty and very basic!

Our buses showed up at the Tamaki Pa (Tamaki is the company/family name and Pa is the hill they live on) and we went in and our chiefs (voted for on the bus) were challenged by a Maori Warrior - rolling eyes and tongue sticking out - think of the All Blacks Haka! We then went through and there were traditional huts set up depicting Pre European Maori life. They then opened the Marae (meeting House) and we wnet in took our seats and watched a Maori concert, they sung tradiotional songs and danced. It was really good, they did the Haka which was hilarious - more rolling eyes and tongues!

After the concert we were led through to the Hangi, this wasn't in a traditional setting, more like a cafeteria! The food was really nice, there was beef, chicken, fish, potatoes, kumara (sweet potato), veg and all sorts!

After we had eaten we went out to see the traditional Hangi and looked around the gift shop. The Maori did a closing ceremony which was a bit cheesy - holding hands and singing along!

One of the best parts of the evening was the bus journey to and from the Hangi! Our bus driver was called Mark and on the way he said Kia Ora (good health/ hi in Maori) in 54 languages! But like in English it was like 'Ah it's jolly nice to see you old chap' in a fake english accent! in Scottish 'Och see you jimmy' of course!

On the way back we sung a few national anthems and a classic - the wheels on the bus!

The girls in my dorm were also meant to start this section of the bus tour but one of them has a stomach bug so they've had to to stay in Auckland for another day! I got on the bus and as it was Dad's birthday he called me, unfortunatly the driver started to talk on the speakers so me and Dad couldn't speak for too long!

We went to Parnell to the Kiwi office and for a last toilet stop! We then headed up to Mt Eden again! I just sat and reflected, mainly at the idiocy of a Jap who was climbing his way out of the crater with his mate taking loads of photos!

We then headed to the Coromandel, we stopped in Thames (yes - named after our lovely river Thames!) for supplies as it would be a beach picnic again!

Onwards to Cathedral Cove, the roads were so winding, but the scenery was stunning! I got chatting to a few people on the bus - a really good group on this bus! I asked Kozi our driver if he could sort out a female dorm for me in Whitianga (Fit E Anga - Pronounciation) and he said he would do it! My nickname on this trip is Pinkie. Kozi called me it as I wore a pink shirt on the first day of my trip and Craig up on the Cape Reinga trip called me it because I lent him my pink iPod!

We got to Cathedral Cove and spent a few hours here, the walk down to the cove took around 45 minutes through an amzing countryside! On one side you could see the sea and beautiful cliffs, hear the waves crashing and on the other was rolling lush green countryside with lots of cows!

The beach itself was perfect, It has a cave which goes through to another beach, you have to walk through the water to get to it, I got a bit wet but I had my board shorts on so it wasn't so bad!

I sat down and had lunch watching people in the water so I went for a paddle and thought - hell why not! So I went and changed and dived straight in - it wasn't cold at all! It's crystal clear and the waves are quite big so I had a right laugh jumping them!

Walking back was a bit of a pain as I hadn't brought a towel down to the beach so I was dripping wet walking along in swimming costume, board shorts and a sarong wrapped around me!

We then headed to Whitianga and the hostels, I stayed at the turtle cove backpackers and it was gorgeous! We had reading lamps on each of the beds - even the top bunks! The kitchen was spotless! I cooked my own meal that night - I'm trying to budget! So it was Mr Ben's Microwavable rice! Me and the girls from my dorm all chipped in for some wine and we sat and ate our meals then had a game of darts which I'm rubbish at!

I got chatting to the lady that runs the place, she's from Devon and she's married to a Kiwi dude. They actually live at the hostel, the kitchen is their kitchen they have their own lounge but they were out eating their dinner with us and having a few drinks!

I had to get up early and do some washing today as I head off on the bus tomorrow!

At 10.30 I boarded the Stray Auckland Tour. Both Stray and Kiwi Experience do free City Tours mainly to try and get you to book national tours with them. As I'm already booked with Kiwi I though it would be interesting to do the Stray tour!

We headed up to Ponsonby first which is a nice little suburb of Auckland with a few old houses (old here is Victorian!). We then headed across the harbour for views of the city skyline. Back across the bridge we went to the Americas Cup Village which is part of the harbour, we had a walk around and looked at some of the Americas Cup Boats. There was a massive motor boat in which our guide though was owned by the Sultan of Brunei! Off to another lookout which is a memorial as well to an ex prime minister, this was nice as it was pretty much opposite Rangitoto Island which I walked up a few days ago!

We then went to Mt Eden which is a dormant volcano with the most fantastic views out over the city, on one side you can see the Hauraki Gulf which is part of the Pacific and the other side is the Tasman! The stadium where the All Blacks sometimes play is also seen as well as Rangitoto Island, the city skyline - everything! The amazing part of the Mt is the crater! It is massive! It is sacred to the Maori for which reason I can't remember reight now, but basically it is tapu (taboo) for anyone to go down into it. Of course there are lots of little tracks where people have ignored this and walked down! Our guide was telling us that once some guys came up and rolled some tyres down, set them alight, this was around 5-6am so they called the local radio saying oh my god Mt Eden is erupting, the poice were called, 3000 people were evacuated from the nearby area, the police were too scared to go up and look! The guys then phoned back the radio station - APRIL FOOLS!

We went to an old ale house which is part of the Speights Brewery who sponser Stray! It was a bit pricey for food and drink but very nice!

It was interesting seeing how Stray operate but from the looks of it, it is the same as Kiwi!

Not a very interesting evening I just packed!

I loved the Bay of Islands, it was so beautiful, the only negative was the hostel! I woke up this morning and there were crisps all over the floor, most of the dorm was still asleep so I brushed my teeth packed and checked out! I was able to put my stuff in storage for the day as the bus didn't leave until 4.30pm.

I decided to go across to Russell which is across the water from Paihia, I got the ferry and walked straight up to Flagstaff Hill. The flagstaff is an excellent place to view the Bay from so I sat up there for a while admiring the view and headed back down again. In the town I walked around, it is one of the oldest places in NZ and has some lovely little houses. I found a Department of Conservation visitor centre and had a look around, they had a free video of the history of the bay so I stayed and watched that. I walked on down to the waterfront and found a little cafe and had a latte. I couldn't afford anything else - it's very expensive in Russell! I got chatting to a couple from OZ and then a couple from Yorkshire! They were ordering food so my stomach growled and I got the ferry across to Paihia (Pie Here - Pronounciation), I bumped into one of the lads from my dorm - not one of the juveniles! We went to a waterfront bar and had lunch together, we stayed there for a few hours as the drinks were quite cheap!

We got on the bus back to Auckland - not very exciting, it was pretty much straight down with a stop for dinner - Thai!

I checked into the hostel went and said Hi to my previous dorm mates and went to bed!