Australia

Sorry for yet another really long wait for the next installment has been a crazy couple of weeks, months.......

So I arrived in Sydney after a sad farewell to the beautiful shores of New Zealand. I hated Sydney as soon as I got there, I found it too busy and not enough open space. Did get to go to a Jazz and Blues festival in Darling Harbour on the first weekend there which was really cool, James Morrison headlined the sat night which was sweet!!

We hired a car and headed to the Blue Mountains where it was so cold. We spent the day walking around the bottom of the valley floor but unfortunately due to my fear of heights we couldn't walk down the devil staircase past the Three Sisters. We did get to go to a chocolate shop and took lots of free samples though.

After chilling out in Sydney for 3 weeks trying to find a job we had had enough so we headed up the Gold Coast to Surfers Paradise. I really liked it here the beach is beautiful and the town has an awesome night market by the shore. We headed to Stanbrook Island to go the Couran Cove Resort for a couple of days to stay with some friends who were working there. It was very weird as its a holiday island for the very rich and we rock up with all are backpacks stealing all the free tea bags lol. The island was cool got to hire a bike and go for a wonder, we even got to play tennis and had our own rooms! o the little things in life that make you happy.

It was sad leaving the island to go back to the main land and back into the backpackers. We headed for Brisbane for a couple of nights before I went to Stanthorp to do some WWOOFing.

Now this is where the story starts to get funny......

The farm was in the middle of no-where, it was pretty cool as there were kangaroos hoping about in the back gardens, there was the pig, dogs, cats and chicks. The family were crazy, the mother is a raging alcoholic who thinks its OK to give her children guns and let them watch war films but the Simpson's will corrupt there minds. She hated the fact that I was a veggie and kept referring to me as if I had some sort of disease. The pig escaped one day, it was so funny we had to stop puppy from eating it, he managed to get a pretty good bit though. On our last night on the farm me and the other two English girls who were also working on the farm all got really pissed, after only two hours sleep we had to get up and drive the car around the farm flower picking. It was very difficult not to throw up everywhere and we managed to get the car stuck in a pot hole. We had some funny times on the farm will go into more detail at a later date but I think it will something I will never forget.

I got back to Brisbane 3 weeks later and although I had sworn never to stay in one again after NZ I arrived in the Base hostel. I met loads of people straight away, drinking goon on the balcony. The first week is a bit of a blur of drunkenness. Brisbane is such a beautiful place def one of the nicest places I have been to in oz so far. I've been here about 2 weeks now and have found myself a job and made some awesome friends. I think I have found a place I can call home for now but still missing everyone loads.

Sorry this has been really rushed but I thought I should write something as it had been a while.


Sweet As!

New Zealand: South Island (sorry its a bit long)

Nelson was the first stop after spending the weekend with Sam and Ian and drinking far to much white wine. Nelson is a really nice hippish sort of town, with some amazing shops and a really the best hostel in New Zealand, The Palace. After arriving we went up to the 'center of New Zealand' to view the sunset, its not really the center but it has an amazing view of the town and of the sea in the distance. The next day 5 of us hired a car and drove to the Abel Tasman National Park following Golden Bay. Our first stop was Wainui Bay and a small walk into the NP to see a small waterfall, on the way to the waterfall you had to cross a bridge over a river, only one person was allowed on the bridge at a time and you could only step one foot in front of the other. The next stop was Collingwood for a spot of lunch before heading to Farewell Spit, the furthest north you can go on the south island. We were really lucky today as the weather was really good all day, just a little bit cold. We went to Wharaiki Beach to watch the sunset, I have never seen a sunset so beautiful in my life, if there is a heaven I would say it would look like what we saw, I would be surprised if I ever see something so amazing again in my life.

I got back on the kiwi bus the next day and headed to Westport, we didn't do much today apart from a small bush walk to picnic by a lake with mountains in the background. I rained most of the night so I stayed in the hostel with my new friends and played card games.

The next day we went through Greymouth to pick up supplies for the fancy dress party we had that evening at the Poo Pub. The theme was idols or in bad taste, I couldn't think of anything so I went as a Pirate. There were some amazing costumes, the best was Pinocchio and Geppetto (Tom and Tom), who ended up winning the best costume prize. It was a really funny night we all got so drunk and it was a great way to get to know everyone on my new bus, plus we had a huge sit down meal at the beginning of the evening.

The next morning everyone was feeling a bit groggy from the party but we headed to a weird little place called the Bushman Centre, where we watched a film called When Bambie was a Terrorist, its about deer hunting in NZ and the crazy ways they use to catch them, like jumping out of a helicopter on top of the deer. We headed on to Franz Josef, we had two days here, we were supposed to do a hike over the Glacier here but a massive storm hit. I have never seen so much rain in my life, it didn't stop for over 24 hours, its caused a landslide that cut the power out to the whole area for 8 hours. It was fun though in the day I sat with my friends making bracelets and in the evening we went to the pub in the dark and had to sit by candle light.

We headed to Wanaka the next day and it was still raining so we didn't stop to much, but when we got to Wanaka the weather cleared up and we had beautiful clear sky's but if was really cold, you could tell we were going further into the mountains. The town is lovely, surrounded by mountains and a lake, probably the second best place in the south island next to Nelson. In the evening my friend Kohki cooked us up a Japanese feast which was so good. The following morning we went to Puzzling World, where you can sit and play with lots of different puzzles as well as go through the museum bit where they play with your perception of things including a 3D maze.

I spent the next week in Queenstown, a ski town in the middle of the mountains with a beautiful lake, it was so cold here it didn't go about 5oc the whole time we were there. I didn't really do much the whole time I was there just chilled out and went to the pub. On the first night the whole bus went out and we won a $500 bar tab which we managed to drink in an hour. I also got to see some people from my first bus in the north island which was nice.

I got on the bottom bus to Dunedin and was supposed to go to the Cadbury's factory for a tour but unfortunately it was closed the day we went. Dunedin is very much like Cardiff, a very student town and they love there rugby. The next day was a really early start and we headed down the Catlins, the first stop was Nugget Point, a group of rocks in the sea which Captain Cook named due to them looking like golden nuggets floating in the sea. We went to Surat Beach were we got to see some Sea lions up close and then headed to Curio Bay on the way passing a coastline which has been untouched by human hand so the natural bush came all the way up to the white sand. Its easy to imagine how scary it must have been for the fist settlers when the Maori's came running out of the bush shouting there war chants. Curio Bay is one of the only places you can see the Yellow Eyed Penguin, we waited around for almost an hour for them to come back from the sea to there nests, but it was worth the wait, they were so cute.

The day after we headed towards Te Anau, following the Southern Scenic Route. We first stopped of at the Paua Shell Factory for a quick tour and a though bargains at the factory shop. Today was all about seeing the coastline of the south island it was so beautiful we then headed in to the southern alps to Te Anau which is situated by a lake by the gateway to Milford Sounds. In the morning it was so misty you couldn't see to the other side of the lake, we headed toward Milford Sound and the higher we got into the mountains the clearer it got. It was so cold up here, there was snow lining the road and all over the tops of the mountains. We had a boat cruise around Milford Sounds and we were lucky enough to have dolphins come up to the boat and swim along side us. Milford Sound was beautiful the mountains rise up from the sea and have rings of cloud around their middle. On the way back to Queenstown that evening we drove 4 hours through the country side without seeing any sign of civilisation, you could see every star in the sky.

Christchurch was my last stop in New Zealand, I spent 4 nights there and was the first time I got to stay in a house since starting the kiwi bus, a month and a half ago. The first place I stayed was a bit of a dive as it was really dirty but the second house was lovely and very homely as it was one of my friends I had met in Nelsons house. I liked Christchurch there was a really nice art scene there and was very relaxed. The museum was fun as it had lots of interactive bits in and the botanical gardens were really nice. It reminded me a lot of home as the city was very English.

When I was in the airport to leave for Sydney I almost cried as I did'nt want to leave New Zealand as it is such a beautiful country and eveyone is really nice. I can't wait to go back there and do all the things I missed out on because of the weather.

Stolen

OK I have had quite a bit of stuff stolen off me so far on this trip but some are just bizarre, this list so far is as follows:

Mobile phone - OK that's normal to get nicked
Sunglasses - again normal
Peanut Butter - probably the one that has hurt the most so far

and the most resent and all in the same time.... also the most bizarre....

The last chocolate biscuit, a roll of toilet paper and half a left over veggie burger - who ever took those things must be pretty desperate

Owell hope they have all gone to good homes, I just intrigued to see what will go next.

New Zealand - North Island

Landing 27 hours after leaving the UK, never having a day dating the 21st of March (due to the time difference), I finally had reached the land of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Basing myself in Auckland for the first month, I got to travel around the Coromandel, experiencing the wonders of the thermal activity in the area, with the hot pool resorts to the more natural hot water beach. I got to know what a hamster feels like in a giant running wheel and almost killed myself kayaking in the sea.

Auckland is an interesting city as it is so spread out, you can't really appreciate it without some sort of transport.

After getting bored of Auckland I joined the Kiwi Experience bus, which will be my ride around New Zealand for the next couple of months. We heading up to Paihia, in the Bay of islands for a couple of days. While up there I joined the Awesome bus to travel to the very tip of the north island, Cape Reinga, before getting there we had to drive down 90 Mile Beach, almost hit a seagull and got to do some boggy boarding down some of the biggest sand dunes i have ever seen. Cape Reinga is where the Maori's believe there souls depart the world of the living to the underworld before there long journey back to there ancestral land. It was very moving up there, you could feel the energy running through the place.

We headed back to Auckland for the night before starting to head south. Mercury Bay was our next stop, and after a whole day of rain and missing most of the planned walks we spent the evening in the lost world spa resort, it was very swanky, they even had hair straighteners in the changing rooms. The next day we went to Cathedral Cove, a 45 mins walk down the side of a cliff to a beach of pure white sand and a magnificent archway which connects two beaches together. From there we headed to Rotorua stopping of in Matamata or to Lord of the Ring fans Hobbiton and got some geeky photo of the hobbiton sign.

Rotorua is a strange place as it smells really bad due to the sulphur dioxide from the geothermal activity in the area which also causes steam to rise from the ground in the parks and from man wholes. In the evening we went to a Maori cultural show at Tamaki Maori Village. we had to chose chefs from our buses to be confronted by the Maori warriors and except a peace offering before being allowed into there village. Once we were shown around the village they put on a show for us, traditional Maori singing and dancing, as well as Maori tales and legends. We then sat down for a big meal, and I have to say i have never had such good stuffing before in my life (sorry mum). The driver who took us to the village translated Kia Ora into 57 languages then made us all sing our national anthems, he was very funny.

Waitomo was our next stop, its in the middle of no-where and is only good for the caving which you can do there. I did get to see my first squashed possum on the road which was pretty nasty, the locals enjoy hitting them as they are a pest to NZ, brought over by the Aussies, and is a very sore subject to the kiwis. I decided to do the Black Abyss Blackwater Rafting, 5 hours of caving. It was loads of fun, I had to abseil 34 meters into the cave, then do a zip line in the dark to get to the river at the bottom of the cave. we then floated down the river looking at all the glow worms. we then had to navigate our way though the cave, climbing up two waterfalls to get back into the open air.

Headed to Raglan the next day with the east as bus tour, Raglan is an up and coming surf town famous for its left hand break. we stayed in this awesome backpackers in the middle of the bush run by this cool hippy bloke called charlie. I went for a walk in the bush and almost got lost, my friend did that same thing the next day and almost missed the bus to taupo lol. I think Raglan would be amazing to come to in the peak of the summer season.

Taupo is a town on the shore of taupo lake, which is a crater of a giant volcano, the surrounding area is the Tongariro National Park. Taupo is my favourite place on the north island, there is so much to see and do here, its only a small town but the country side is amazing. I stayed here 5 nights as I wanted to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which had been canceled due to bad weather. The crossing is over Tongariro mountain which lies between mt Ruapehu and mt Ngauruhoe (aka mount Doom in Lord of the Rings). The hike wasn't to difficult, the first part was the hardest as you had to climb the Devils Staircase, stairs which lead you up the side of the mountain, which takes about an hour to climb. Saw some beautiful sulphur lakes at the top and some amazing views on the way down, it took us 5 and a half hours to get to the end, which they say it should take 7, so we did good.

On to Wellington and the Te Papa museum first stopping in Rivervally for the night to share a room with 25 people. I didn't like wellington as much as Auckland so only spent 2 nights here before heading to the south island on the ferry. The best thing about Wellington was the museum as it had lots of interactive areas to mess about in, we created our own digital fish monsters of ourselves and got to dress up as Maori's.

I Spent a couple of days in Picton, exploring the walks around the area, the Queen Charlotte track would be beautiful to explore as I only got to do some trampling around the Picton area bu that alone was amazing Finally headed over to Bleinham to see Sam and Ian, for a bit of drunken fun and a good catch up. It was nice seeing people from back home as missing everyone so much.