Queens

7/5/10
Not too much to report on today – stopped off at a few cool places along the road.

It rained today – I havn’t seen rain like today since I left the UK! Mainly spent driving to Queenstown today but saw some of the best views I think since I have been in NZ. Just in my hostel, Nomads, at the minute and have just spent a while in the sauna they have – felt so good after eating so much greasy food to sweat it all out! First impressions of Queenstown – really beautiful but arrived late afternoon so won’t have a chance to have a walk about until tomorrow as I get an extra day here. Have to wake up early tomorrow for my BUNGY – actually pretty nervous.. I made sure it was booked in the morning so I don’t have all day to dwell on it. There is a pub crawl tonight which I would actually love to go on with the guys from my bus but I’m thinking that bungy-ing in the morning with a hangover would not be a sensible idea!! Maybe tomorrow night instead to celebrate me still having all limbs in-tact!

                                                        Driving into Queenstown

Glacier climb & possum pies

6/5/10
Today we headed to Franz Josef where you could climb the glacier! On the way stopped off at a bizarre little shop which sold possum pies!!! – like chicken pies but slightly blander? Very interesting though!

 

Arrived at the glacier and as we only had one day to stay there the majority of us did the half-day hike. We all got kitted up in hiking boots/socks/gloves/waterproofs/clampons (attachable boot studs to keep you on the ice. It was actually so much better than I anticipated and I really enjoyed it :D Spent the evening in the hostel where they supplied free popcorn and evening soup so snuggled up infront of ‘Iron Man’ on the beanbags and tucked into my dinner!

                                                                      

Cream cakes

5/5/10

Had a few stops along the way today.. did a little walk and saw heaps of seals just sitting on the rocks next to the coast. Here are some photos of some other cool bits we saw today :)

Arrived at my hostel called Neptune’s last night – was a pretty chilled out hostel with fish tanks and a pet cat and terrapin in the snug/TVroom :) The hostel gets free bakery food delivered each day so the kitchen was full of sandwiches and rolls and cream cakes – which I fully took advantage of! In the evening the rest of the guys on my tour in my room went to the local brewery tour which I decided to give a miss to save a bit of money, and stayed in the warmth and comfort of the hostel TV room and watched a few films with a few guys from the hostel. Was succhhh a cold night so when everyone had left I hit all the heaters on and filled up my complimentary hot water bottle and headed for bed! :)

to the South!

4/5/10

Woke up really early to catch my shuttle bus to the ferry this morning and said my goodbye’s to Simon, Poppy & Mark again which was sad :( Caught the ferry and from then on it was a 3 hour trip to the South island – most of which I slept! Arrived and jumped onto a coach which took me straight to Nelson where I had pre-booked my hostel for the night call Paradiso.. on the way saw a random volcano eruption! It was really impressive but so strange to see it in real life!

Am at the hostel now and literally the nicest hostel I have been in so far! Free pool/sauna/evening soup/wifi/noodles and really clean and lovely areas to just sit and chill out. Shame that I’m only staying the one night – as am being picked up by the Magic bus again tomorrow!

Wonderful Welly

3/5/10
Walked outside this morning in literally the freezing cold!! I hadn’t felt cold like that since I had left the UK! It was so bad I could see my breath in the shower room! Another big driving day today into Wellington.. on the way through Welly we saw sights such as the view over the city from the top of Mt Victoria, the cinema where all the Lord of the Rings premiers were held and a fountain that Eliyah Wood allegedly peed in (?)

Our hostel, ‘Nomads’ was pretty naff actually even though it had been recommended to us by our tour guide but at least I was only staying there for 1 night. All 4 of us managed to get a room together which made it better and in the evening as it was our last night together we decided to go out for a nice meal and then found ANOTHER Irish bar where we once again drank beer and played pool :D I see a running theme here... me and Simon left early as both of us had to wake up super early. Poppy and Mark are leaving to go down to the South like me but are doing it one day behind me, Simon is staying in the North island and heading back to Columbia in a few weeks and me.. well... the Magic bus isn’t running tomorrow so I need to sort out my own transport and ferry ride over to the South island which is fine but just means more expenditure! Regardless of the crappy dirty hostel room, I had a really good nights sleep due to being ridiculously tired from all the touring around!

                                                 

Walk around Wellington harbour

Gravity rules

2/5/10
Mainly driving today. The bus stopped off at some glow worm caves which we decided to not do as we wanted to save our money for the afternoon when me, Poppy and Mark decided to go skydiving :D Literally one of the most amazing things I have ever done. It was such an adrenaline rush falling out of the plane with no parachute! All of us got a dorm room together and then went out in the evening for pizza and found a cool Irish bar where we stayed until late having a few drinks and playing foosball and pool. All in all a brilliant day! :)

tea tray

1/5/10
Went down for my freee breakfast in the hostel then booked myself into a tour at the Kiwi Reserve – I was a little bit disappointed with it all to be honest. I would pay to go again just because I wanted to see a real life Kiwi bird – they’re such odd creatures and have the crappest survival techniques of any animal I have ever encountered! But for what I paid to go on the tour there wasn’t that much to it unfortunately. After the reserve I went Luge-ing :D which really picked my day up! Basically.. imagine a tea tray on wheels with a handle bar you pull forward to go faster and pull back to brake.. then imagine that tea tray hurtling down the side of a mountain :D

It was a really cool afternoon actually then in the evening me and Simon went to the hostel bar and drank beer and played pool. We also met an English couple from Reading who were travelling together who had previously been to Asia who were also catching the ‘Magic’ bus the next day to Taupo.

Rotorua

30/4/10

Left Auckland – was glad to say goodbye to it to be honest. Not too keen on spending any prolonged amounts of time in the cities. Our new tour guide was a cool Maori guy called Arangi. Got to know a few of the people on the bus and stopped off at a few little places on the way – a giant bottle (?) and drove through where they filmed Lord of the Rings (impressed arn’t you!!) :)

We arrived in Rotorua and booked myself into the Kiwi Packa hostel which was actually realllyyy cool and mainly run by maori people. I decided to spend two nights here as I wanted to go to the Kiwi Reservation and go Luge-ing the next day (all will be explained tomorrow) Spent evening chatting to a cool Columbian guy I met called Simon and spent the evening exchanging music on our laptops and chatting.

KiwiKiwiKiwiKiwi

29/4/10
Today took the Kiwi Experience free tour around Auckland – I though I might as well as I didn’t have much else planned today and was a good way of getting out of the city centre for free. We did a bit of walking and got to look back on the whole of the city with some great views. Stopped off at a little harbour town for lunch then had the option of getting dropped back at the hostel or Victoria Park Market which I spent a few hours looking around then headed back to the hostel where I am now :)

Nice relaxed day in Auckland but definitely ready to start the tour tomorrow! I get picked up at 7.40am and then for the next few weeks make my way around the North & South island and stop at: Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington – ferry across to the south island – then Nelson, Greymouth, Franz Josef (apparently the views from the Franz Josef glacier are spectacular), Queenstown (BUNGEEEE!), Dunedin, Tekapo, then Christchurch and will have to book myself an internal flight back up to Auckland. Sounds easy peaasy :) fingers crossed!!

what the Auck?!

28/4/10
Had a realllyyy good day today. Had a great nights sleep and after sorting myself out I headed down to the hostels travel desk where a nice chap helped me sort out my tour for the next few weeks. I booked it with Magic, a tour group I was recommended to in Aus, if offers a lot more flexibility than the rigid structure of Adventure Tours and allows me to stay wherever I want for however long I want and do whatever additional activities I want aswell. I also booked my bungeeee jump :D which I will be doing it in Queenstown in the south island. Its called the Nevis bungee and is Australasia’s highest bungee with a 134m (440foot) drop and 8.5 seconds of pure freefall to the ground :D how fabulous!! As I booked it here I get the DVD of me doing it for free and a t-shirt – worth it!! Then in the afternoon I walked to the Auckland Domain which is a big green park with rugby pitches and gardens etc in the centre of Auck.. and then walked around the museum for the best part of the day. I also paid to go and watch a Maori performance which was really good. Afterwards came back to my hostel and got suckered into the vintage and charity shops (god im a sucker for another persons unwanted clothes!!) and TRIED to restrain myself but ended up buying a brand new Fiorelli bag for $12 (£6) – how could I refuse?! Only problem is getting some of this stuff home........

New Zealand intro

27/4/10
I’m still alive!! After freaking myself out ever so slightly about the creepy guest house I was staying in, I had a pretty crap nights sleep! But anyway – caught my taxi to the airport at 5am and was in the air by 8am.. pretty good flight but was sad to say goodbye to Sydney as I had had such good times there. Flight only lasted 2 ½ hours so not too bad at all. Arrived into New Zealand with turbulence on landing (dad you would have hated it!) and got off the plane feeling distinctly nauseous! Weather was pretty overcast but it kind of comforted me in a strange way as it reminded me of home. Got my New Zealand dollars before I left the airport and asked a guy at a shuttle bus where I could get a shuttle to the city centre... after walking in the direction he had pointed me in he pulled up alongside me and said he was going that way anyway so I ended up getting a free ride to my hostel which has put me in a very good mood and saved a potential $30:D His name was Arcadia and apparently his bible told him that today he would be a blessing to someone... well bible or no bible, he certainly was my blessing today! Got to my hostel in torrential rain and remembered my poncho was buried deep inside my backpack after spending the last month in utter dryness in Australia. The exchange rate is much better here than Oz and I just have to basically half everything to get the GBP equivalent – which makes my life a lot easier! Currently in my hostel room at Base in the centre of Auckland and debating whether to search out my rain-mac and brave the weather to see if I can book myself on a tour and get some food. I think am definitely going to visit the Auckland museum tomorrow and learn a bit about NZ and the Maori people as I spent so much time organising Australia that im a bit ignorant of NZ in general. In the evening had a bit of a walk to the harbour which is like a mini - less impressive Sydney but with really beautiful skies then headed back to the hostel.

Syd - revisited!

26/4/10
So had about 2 hours of unsettled sleep in my hostel in Darwin before my alarm went off at midnight waking me up for my shuttle bus to the airport for my 2.20am flight. Pretty good flight – flew with Jet Star, an internal Aussie airline and was lucky enough to have the next 3 seats next to me free so stretched out across them and slept for the whole 4 hours I was on the plane. Arrived in Sydney at 7am and caught a taxi to my guest house I am staying out tonight as I’m in Syd 24 hours before my flight over to New Zealand tomorrow morning. They only had a twin room with ensuite available but let me have it for a single price of $55 which is still a little outside my budget but its only for one night. Spent the majority of the day sitting in the guest house reading as im really out on the outskirts of the main city but can see the Sydney Tower in the distance- which was very weird to think I was right there in the centre of it all a month ago. Looking forward to flying out tomorrow – lady at front desk who I think may be the owner is a very sweet older woman and very eager to help and booked my taxi for me tomorrow at 5am – am also getting free breakfast here which softens the blow of the expensive nights sleep somewhat! The building itself seems years old and is called the ‘Old Rectory’...and sitting here in my room with my single lamp on im getting ever so slightly creeped out by the high ceilings and what looks like the original coving/flooring/doors etc! Looking forward to my flight tomorrow!

Darwin & flights

24/4/10
Feeling pretty happy today! I was so anxious about sorting out all my flights out just because as part of my STA flight ticket I have to travel to New Zealand from Sydney plus the whole debacle with the volcano ash. So last night stayed awake really late to ring the UK and sort my flights. So now am flying to Sydney on the 26th then 24 hours later flying over to Auckland in NZ – wouldn’t have minded staying a few night more in Darwin as the place is really lovely, the weather is utterly fabulous and the hostel and nightlife is pretty top-notch aswell! Treated myself today and went ‘Liane shopping’ in the Billabong store and bought a few indulgences :) I forgot how much I missed clothes shoppingggg!! Came back to the hostel and did all my laundry and sorted my backpack out – which I have learnt is actually a really mentally cleansing process to sort everything out and regroup for a few days after a long tour. Feeling really good this evening :) Booked my shuttle bus to take me at 1am tomorrow to the airport ...have a couple in my room from Ireland and UK who are really nice and chatted to them for a bit, then later meeting the Danish guys, Emil and Jacob from my tour in The Vic where we can all get a free meal. All in all very glad all my flights are and I am all organised and don’t have to worry anymore. Yay :)

Last day of tour!

23/4/10
OK – officially up to date with blog entries – hoorah :) After 2 days spent in Kakadu, we travelled to Litchfield National Park. Today was, in a nutshell, comprised of visiting 4 waterfalls and swimming in 2 of them. Each one absolutely beautiful... but not that interesting after your 5th waterfall of the whole trip!

Some really nice tropical rainforest we walked through though and in the evening we arrived back into Darwin where I had already previously booked myself a room back at the Cavenagh where I had stayed 3 nights previously and got myself the same room overlooking the pool :) Have just come back from going into the city to have a FREEEE meal with the group :) Was a v good night but soooo looking forward to a mosquito free night of sleep :) Tomorrow I need to sort out my flights so I can get things moving along!

rocks & fish

Day 2 22/4/10
Today we looked at some ancient Aboriginal rock art at Ubirr which could be dated back 20,000 years ago! It was really interesting and out of all the ancient rock art around the mountains the public was only allowed access to a very small percentage of these sites as in the past people with strong religious views have desecrated an tried to rub off all the rock paintings as the existence of human life all those years ago pretty much disproves any other theory other than the theory of evolution which I found very interesting! But the sites that we did see were really amazing to think they had been painted so so many years previously. In the afternoon we went to more waterfalls and natural pools where we spent a good few hours having a well deserved swim in amongst the rocks and fish!

THEN once we got to our campsite in the evening probably something I will never forget from my trip is a good old fashioned toad race!Yes - toad racing.

Kakadu Tour

Day 1 21/4/10
Although we had begun a new tour with new tour guides and a new tour vehicle (4 wheel drive this time due to the tour terrain) pretty much about 90% of the guys from my previous tour were on this one so it was a bus full of people we already knew which was cool... our first stop was in Kakadu National Park where we got the chance to speak so some Aboriginal people and learn about their way of life and culture. Their welcome ceremony included sipping water into their mouths and spitting it directly over our heads... it was so bizarre.

In the afternoon we went on a boat ride in one of the parks billabongs where we saw an array of different birds and some genuinely beautiful scenery and water plants. Managed to catch sight of a few eagles and a croc – although only a teeny tiny one! In all honestly this day is a bit of a blur as we mostly drove around Kakadu National Park which is mahooosive! Have been totally and utterly eaten alive by the mosquitos unfortunately though!!

wet wet wet

Day 3 20/4/10
Currently writing this on the 24th – soo much to catch up on! OK where to start.... It hard trying to wrack my brains as to what I got up to 4 days ago! This was the last day of a 3 day tour with Chris our tour guide – of whom I ended up sitting next to the wholleee drive to Darwin listening to his irritating high-pitched nasal singing voice :| Today the group was split into 2 – those of us who wanted to take a boat ride around Katherine Gorge and those of us who wanted to do the 45min hike to the waterfall where we could swim in the water. I was one of the 6 of us who chose the wetter option of the two! We finally got to the waterfall and it was the best thing ever to take a dip into the waterfall after walking in the heat of the Northern Territory sun. We were all swimming and jumping into the water from rocks and bathing in the sun. It was laaavely!

The rest of the day was mostly spent driving North up to Darwin. When we finally arrived all us girls were in a room together overlooking the hostel pool! For an average budget hostel it was pretty nice and I went for a swim in the pool to cool off before we headed into the city for a farewell dinner where we managed to wangle 8 free pizzas. Then I volunteered myself onto stage and won my table 2 jugs of beer (accomplishment of the holiday me thinks!)Ended up staying up raaaather late this night and helping drink the beer I had previously won!