Christchurch Day 4 & 5

Today we saw off some more stray friends, Sophie, Zac and Ste who had hired a compervan to complete their travelling around New Zealand.

We spent the afternoon looking around the modern chirstchurch Art Gallery. Unfortunantly the exhibition on the Antarctic had already gone, but we looked around the rest of the gallery. There were a few exhibitions by local artists as well as token romantic European paintings.

On our last full day in New Zealand we spent the day preparing for Asia by getting a few last min bits and bobs from the warehouse and changing some of our money into Thai Baht. On the way back to the hotel we had a nice surprise as we bumped into 3 England Rugby Players, (they have a match against the All Blacks in Christchurch at the weekend.) Andrew said one of them was Andy Sheridan and another was Graham Roundtree! We spent the evening with a few stray people watching the Euro 2008 replays in a massive sports bar. We had any early night as our flight was very early in the morning and we had a full day of flying to get to Bangkok.

Christchurch - Day 2 & 3

We got up late today as Andrew had a bit too much to drink last night and was feeling a hungover It was a sunny afternoon so we headed to the Botanical Gardens, which were very picturesque and well kept with a nice setting of the River Avon. The indoor tropical plant house was really good, with special exhibitions on cactus and orchids. In the evening we got a take away curry as it was Adam and Kerrys last night in New Zealand, before they headed over Oz.

This morning we saw off Adam and Kerry in the morning and then headed into town to do some shopping. We popped into the Cathedral for a quick look around. The Cathedral was lovely, quite simple in its design and relatively small compared to Cathedrals at home but it was well worth the visit.

Christchurch - Day 1

We travelled from Dunedin to Christchurch on an automic bus which took about 5 and a half hours travelling up the east coast. These buses are similar to National Express but alot cheaper, it only cost us about $35 each for the journey. When we arrived in Christchurch we opted to stay in a cheap hostel where some of our friends from Stray were staying. The dorm rooms were only $15 each. The hotel Stonehurst was very big a quite dated but for the money we couldn't complain.

On our first full day in christchurch we headed to the Arts Centre with Sophie as at the weeekends there is a big outdoor craft market. Inside there was some interesting shops selling locally made produce including a honey and brandy spirit with gold leaf in which we tried and it was very yummy.

In a similar way to Dunedin, Christchurch has a very arty and alternative feel, with alot of second hand book shops and backstreet cafes and bars aswell as small cinemas and theatres. Christchurch is very similar to England and it really reminded us of being at home \. There was even a River Avon with punting on it! We went out to watch the All Blacks play England at a bar called Dux De Lux which had abig outdoor screen. The match was being played in Auckland and it was a shame we lost 37-20. After the rugby we headed out to some clubs in the town centre.

Dunedin Day 4 - Museum and Art Gallery

Our final day in Dunedin, the weather was a bit drab so we decided to do the cultural thing and visit the highly recommended Otago Museum and Dunedin Public Art gallery. We went into an interesting exhibition on Leonardo Da Vinci's machines in the museum and then wondered around the paintings in the art gallery - both were well presented and interesting. One thing we have noticed about most of the galleries in NZ is that they seem to disply very little in the way of art done by New Zealanders. We accept that NZ doesn't have a history as long and fruitful as the Europe, but they seem to fill most of their galleries with 17th century Italian and Dutch romantic paintings! Ah well, perhaps the NZ art just isn't up to scratch!

Dunedin Day 3 - Otago Peninsula Nature Tour

Another great day out around Dunedin, today we headed down to another Dunedin institution - The Cadbury Chocolate Factory! New Zealnad seems to have similar chocolate habits to England, and although the Cadbury's seems to taste slightly different here, it is nice to have a bit of Dairy Milk every once in a while! Our tour was fun and friendly and we got lots of free chocolate to gorge on! Cadbury's bought the main chocolate factory here about 60 years ago and their chocolate has been popular in NZ ever since. The factory is much more modern than the Speights Brewery, but not all that big even though they export choclate all over the world!

After a spot of lunch, we heading back into town to be pickd up for a trip out to the Otago Peninsula - renowned for someof the best wildlife in NZ. The peninsula is only a 20 min drive from the city, but again feels detatched from any civilisation. our first stop was the Royal Albatross Centre - home to the largest birds in the world. Unfortunately due to the time of year and prevailing weather conditions, we didn't spot any of the monsters in the sky (we were by no means guaranteesd to see any anyway) there are only a few living on this peninsula anyway! Next we headed round to a piece of farmland with private acces and headed down to the waterside to see some seals sunbathing on the rocks. From here we were also able to spot loads of other species of albatross circling the choppy waters out to sea. Next we headed over to another long secluded beach to the highlight of the trip... a chance to get up-close-and-personal with some sealions and yellow eyes penguins! The conditions were perfect, and just as the sun was setting we were surrounded by about 20 huge sealions playfighting on the beach. They were quite oblivious to our presence, but we had to make a dash for it when their 'playfighting' brought them over into our direction! As we carried on along the beach, we were able to spot half a dozen yellow eyed penguins (the second rarest species of penguin in the world) as they headed back from a full day at sea. These penguins only live in theis partof NZ and no where else in the world, so we were quite lucky to spot them. After a great day of nature spotting, we headed back towards Dunedin as the sun was setting.

Tuesday 10th June - Dunedin

Today we met up with Dave in a small vegetarian cafe in town and spent an hour or so catching up - we explained everything that we had done since we last saw him. He was eager to get us out of the town and take us to see some nice spots in the countryside around his home town of Dunedin. Since we were booked on a nature tour along the Otago Peninsula the next day, he decided to take us for a drive in his 4x4 up the coast to North Dunedin, through the town of Port Chalmers to the village of Punakaike., where he is in the process of building a brand new house overlooking a tiny secluded bay. The scenery here is less dramatic than most of Otago, Westland and Fjordland but is equally beautiful. The rolling hills and secluded beaches are reminiscent of Cornwall only slightly colder! The beauty of this area is that despite being only 20mins from Dunedin city, it feels tranquil and a million miles from anywhere. The little fishing bays and coves are dotted all along the coast and are untouched by tourism and its discontents. Dave spent another couple of hours taking us to pretty little beaches with not a soul to be seen, it was a great day too (if a little windy), so all in all it was great to meet up with Dave and great to see some beautiful spots around Dunedin that we would never normally have been able to see.

We arrived back at the hostel in time to make some tea, and then headed across town to the Speights Brewery - a famous NZ beer, we thought we just could miss the opportunity to have a look round! For about 15NZ dollars each we were taken on a tour of the brewery, given information on the history of the company and told why it is one of Nz's favourite beers. They call it ale over here, but really its more like what we would call bitter back home- drinkable, nonetheless! We were suprised to learn that the brewery was really quite small and that they still use mainly all original barrels and storage units from the 19th century! The best part of course was the beer tasting at the end of the tour where we were basically given free reign to try the 7 different brands of beer they produce at Speights!

Monday 9th June - Queenstown to Dunedin

Having spent quite a bit of time with the Stray bus, we decided to take a regular bus east across to the historic town of Dunedin where we were planning to meet up with Dave, one of our leaders from our time up in Auckland with CVNZ. The bus left early from Queenstown and we arrived in Dunedin at around lunchtime after a 4 hour trip across central Otago. Our hostel was slap bang in the middle of town, a stones through from the cathederal and lots of local shops an cafes. Dunedin has a nice feel to it as there is a large student population and people here are renowned for being a bit arty and alternative. The architecture is much older than almost anything we have seen in New Zealand and has a real Scottish feel to it. Infact we learned that 'Dunedin' is gaellic for Edinburgh - and was named when the first Scottish settlers arrived in the late 18th/ early 19th century.

Central Backpackers is probably the best hostel we have stayed in so far on our trip to date. There is only around 30 beds, with a modern kitchen and cosy living room complete with fire, sofas and throws and even Gizmo the cat. The rooms are stylish and comfortable too- somthing we have not also been used to so far!

Stray Bus Day 23 - Queenstown

Our final full day in Queenstown, we had a bit of a lie in and then decided to head over to the ice rink as the weather was pretty cold and dreary outside anyhow. We both quickly picked things up, despite not having ice skated since we were at school. Turns out one member of our Stray group is a competitive speed skater in Holland! Next day we were booked onto a bus heading down to Dunedin for a few days, and then from there we headed upto Christchurch. Some people on the bus were staying in Queenstown to try and catch some skiing, so we said our goodbyes with one final beer tonight.

Stray Bus Day 22 - Queenstown

Our 3 day trip taking in the southern part of the island came to end an end and today we took the 3 1/2 hour drive back from Invercargill to Queenstown to meet up with everybody who hadn't booked on to do the southern loop. We booked into a quiter hostel called Bumble Backpackers, which had a lovely view over lake Wakatipu to the Remarkables mountain range. The first ski slopes had just opened, so there was abuzz about the place as snow was also forecast! We spent the evening in the bars around Queenstown catching up with everybody from the Stray Bus once again.

Stray Bus Day 21 - Invercargill

Today we were meant to be dropping people off at a place called Bluff so that they could catch the ferry across to Stewart Island, however the weather was so bad all ferries had been canceled for the day. Stewart Island is the third largest NZ island and is home to only a few hundred people, but is famous for its wildlife and rugged scenery. We had opted not to take the 1 hour ferry journey across for a few nights stay simply because the crossing is notoriously bad and at this time of year when the weather is not so good, the chances of seeing wildlife such as kiwis, penguins and seals is reduced. However nobody went across on this day anyway, so we didn't really miss out.

Instead we had the pleasure of staying in NZ's most southerly city...Invercargill. We had heard lots of rumours on our travels that Invercargill is not the nicest place in NZ and this turned out to be true. There is a bit of a joke over here that people from Invercargill are generally a bit strange and removed from the rest of the country - a bit like the Cornish! Aparently Mick Jagger once called it '...the arsehole of the Earth...', which is harsh but utterly believable. Nonetheless we had a comfy hostel where we watched DVD's and ventured out into town in the evening to a local band night at the 'Gluepot' club which wasn't all to bad.

Stray Bus Day 20 - Milford Sound

After a couple of nights in the party town of Queenstown, it was time to head off into the countryside once again. We booked ourselves on a bus to do the 'southern loop' heading towards Fjordland National Park and then back to Queenstown via Invercargill and Stewart Island. We set off at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning in order to get all the way down to Milford Sound for a cruise on the fjord at around 1pm. The drive down was spectacular. with numerous snowcapped mountains and crystal clear lakes along the way. We stoppped at a few scenic lookouts to take pictures and takes in the majestic views - some of which had been made famous by the Lord of the Rings films and also King Kong and Jurassic Park. We passed through the famous 'Homer Tunnel' only built during the 2nd world war, and opened up the area to vehicles. There is only 1 road into Milford and it is very windy and treacherous - and in winter there is a serious threat from avalanches! We arrived at Milford Sound at around 1pm and it was basking in glorious winter sunshine.

Our cruise took as all the way around the fjord and out to where it meets the sea. Fjords are a strange phenomenon - essentially a steep sided glacial trough is formed from the ice carving away the rock as it heads towards the coast, this then fills in with sea water forming a kind of lake that runs into the sea. Milford attracts an array of wildlife as freshwater from the mountain streams meets saltwater from the sea. The scenery on the cruise was breathtaking, although we seemed to be somewhat outnumbered by a coach load of Japanese tourists!

After the cruise we headed back down the Milford highway to Te Anau - the gateway to Fjordland National Park, and then onto the rural township of Tuatapere where we spent the night at a pleasant little lodge hostel in the middle of nowhere. We were taken down the road to visit one of the local farms where we were treated to a homemade meal of Tuatapere sausages, roast lamb and potatoes and then taken out onto the farm to experience some proper NZ farming. I got to drive a quad bike around the farm, and we watched some of the amazing sheep dogs in action and also some sheep shearers in action. There is a rich heritage of farming (particularly sheep) in this part of the world, but we quickly came to realise how much these people struggle to make a living nowadays and the art is sadly dying away because of the lack of money available.

Photos!

Finally!

We have been working like busy bees for the last view days in an attempt to get some much needed photos of our trip up for all to see.

If you head to www.snapfish.co.uk and type in the following details...

Email: andrew.j.parry@gmail.com
Password: travelphotos

Be prepared there are hundred to trawl through, so the best way is probably to view a slideshow! We will try and get some captions up soon so you can make sense of them all!

Happy viewing!

Stray Bus Day 19 - Queenstown

After a heavy night in various bars around Queenstown with everybody from the Stray Bus, what better thing to do than head out for a spot of wine tasting!? We booked ourselves onto the 'Central Otago Wine Trail' a half day tour around some of the regions vinyards. The Central Otago region is famed for its Pinot Noir in particular as well as some white varieties such as Pinot Gris, Rieseling and Chardonnay. This is one of the world's most southernly wine growing regions, yet it still prospers due to its dry climate throughout the year. The cold winters are combatted by installing frost repelling covers and heaters to the vines in colder months of the year. We visited 4 wineries in the Gibbston Valley (about 20 mins drive from Queenstown). We visited Gibbston Valley Wines, Peregrene Wines, The Home & Kitchen Winery and finally Amisfield Wines, probably the most famous of the four. We tried numeruos varieties of the famous Pinot Noir - some good, some not so good. As I (Andy) had never been wine tasting before it was interesting to observe the winemaking process- from growing and harvesting to fermenting and storage. We aso were able to sample some Champagne at Amisfield and learn about how it is made. Each winery was different and had unique facets which made thier wine taste slightly different (apparently). It was fascinating to learn about the different types of grape and how this region compares to the world famous Marlborough region further north, famous for much more fruity and instant flavours.

Stray Bus Day 18 - Wanaka to Queenstown

Today at around midday we hopped on the next bus to come through with it's driver, a well travelled Kiwi called Bundy.

A Stray policy seems to be to give all their drivers an abstract nickname in order to provoke lots of questions by their passengers. Bagginz' story was something to do with him losing lugguge out the back of a bus becuase he forgot to shut the door properly; Lucky, I have no idea; and Bundy I assume had something to do with Bundaberg rum, although we never got the chance to ask him.

Anyhow, I digress. Our first stop on route was a quaint little fruit and veg shop just out of Wanaka called 'Mrs Jones'. She was famous not only for her vast array of fruit and veg, but also her homemade ice cream, which we all took advantage of. We continued on into Central Otago, past more mountains and through the wine region. We made another stop to watch some crazy people do a bungy jump at the original AJ Hackett bungy site at Kawarau Bridge, just outside Queenstown. There was an interesting centre dedicated to the history of bungy for those of us not crazy enough to do the jump itself. Late afternoon we drove on into the backpacking partying and ski hotspot of Queenstown, based at the Discovery Lodge bang slap in the middle of town for a couple of nights.

Stray Bus Day 17 - Wanaka

We awoke to a beautiful clear day in stunning Wanaka, so decided to make the most of the scenery and get out and about. We hired some Mountain bikes with Adam and Kerry (another couple we met on the Stray Bus) and planned ourselves a gentle route around Lake Wanaka, cutting inland back towards town. The scenery again was stunning, and the tracks were fun without ever being too strenuous. All along the route we bumped into Kiwi's enjoying their bank holiday day off work, and they were all to happy to tell us the best trails and tracks around the lake. We arrived back at the Purpule Cow hostel just in time to make a nice meal and enjoy a bottle of red by the big log fire.

Stray Bus Day 16 - Makorora to Wanaka

A day of scenic driving today, as we continued to head inland towards the small ski resort of Wanaka on the banks of Lake Wanaka. Just before we arrived in the twn we stopped an eccentic little musuem called 'Puzzling World'. This was one of the more unconventional places we had visited so far, but turned out to be a lot of fun! The museum contained the world's biggest purpose built outdoor maze (which we got lost in for about an hour) and lots of puzzles and brain teasers inside. Mid Afternoon we headed onto Wanaka, again a beautiful township set amongst snow capped mountains, beside a crystal clear lake. As we had been told this was a relaxing and pretty place to spend a few days, we decided to jump off the Stray bus and catch the one coming past a few days later.

Stray Bus day 15 - Franz Josef to Makorora

After an exhilarating few days amongst mountains and glaciers, today we made the scenic drive inland towards Otago and the Ski fields of Wanaka and Queenstown. Our first stop was at Lake Matheson, where we had opportunities to take photos against the stunning backdrop of Mt Cook/Aoraki (the tallest mountain in NZ at 3,754m) and Mt Tasman (2nd tallest at 3,497m). Next we drove upto the Fox Glacier, Franz Josef's slightly longer but shallower brother, and took the opportunity to photograph the snout of the glacier and observe the huge glacial valley that had been carved by centuries of ice movement. Although the scenery started to change as we drove away from Westland (from sub tropical wet vegetation to drier alpine varieties) it was just as breathtaking. We travelled the famous Haast Pass - a mountain road that was only built in the 1960 because of the shear remoteness of the landscape. We spent the night at an isolated mountain retreat in a place called Makorora, where we stayed in small permanent tipi style lodges set against the stunning backdrop of snow-capped mountains. That evening we watched the Canterbury Crusaders beat their Aussie rivals the NSW Waratahs in the Super 14's final... come on you Kiwi's!

Stray Bus Day 14 - Franz Josef

We had a great day today one of the best days so far. We went on our heli-hike on the Franz Josef glacier. We had a bit of a lie in and got to the glacier centre at about 10am to check in. After this they got us kitted out in all the kit we needed. We got given boots, socks, mittens, jackets and hats. Then came the exciting bit, we got taken up the glacier in a 5 seater helicopter. The flight only lasted about 15mins but was worth every second. The pilot took us round the top of the glacier and showed us some crevasses and some stunning mountain tops. The ice was really blue and clean with hardly any debris visable. We landed on the ice about 5km up the 11km glacier and got out for our hike on the ice. We had a great day for the glacier as it was sunny and clear blue skies which made it look even more impressive. When we got of the helicopter our guide handed out crampons for our boots. Crampons are basically metal spikes that you attach to your boots with a piece of string. The look a little bit like mini bear traps. Anyway they do their purpose and suddenly you can walk on super slippery ice and not fall on your bum! ndrew ofcourse had to see just how good they were so tried walking down close to vertical slopes, and they worked. We had about 2 hours on the ice, walking around with the guide and looking at all the ice formations, such as the arches, caves , moulins and crevasses. We squeezed ourselves through some pretty small spaces in the ice and even had the chance to jump into an ice pool. We both refused as there was ice ontop of the pool which you would of had to break through before hitting the water. We had an amazing time on the ice, the landscape was stunning and much of the ice was untouched and completly clean. It was very quiet on our part of the glacier with only one other tour of about 5 people up that high! We could hear ice avalanches every now and again. It was the most amazing experience. We flew back in the helicopter of the ice. The trip was fantastic, we only wish we could of had longer on the ice.

Afterwards we headed to the Hukawai Glacier centre to learn about the history of the glacier and what has happened to it in recent years. The Glacier was at its smallest in the 70's and has been growing ever since to its current length of 11km! The centre was really well done and really interesting.

Stray Bus Day 13 - Barry Town to Franz Josef

Today we headed all the way down the west coast of the south island towards the more mountainous parts of the country. The coastal drive was stunning as we travelled down through valleys and gorges. Around mid afternoon we stopped at a weird little place called 'the Bushaman Centre' where they had a collection of native animals including possums, dear, goats and a big wild pig. We watched a video about deer hunters in the area that used to catch wild dear on the mountains using a helicopter to jump out of and catch them with their bare hands!

We arrived at the small village of Franz Joseph at the foot of the Franz Josef Glacier in the dark, making sure we got an early night at the Rainforest Retreat before a busy day trekking up the glacier!

Stray Bus Day 12 - Barrytown

Another day of long driving, we headed down the west coast to the tiny township (if you can call it that it is basically a Hamlet!) of Barrytown. We stopped a couple of time on route, once at a little beach to look for Greenstone and then to look at the Pancake Rocks. The pancake Rocks are basically layered cliffs. It was made even more pretty by the sun setting as we arrived. We arrived at the old miners pub in 'Baz Vegas' at about tea time.

We had a very fun evening in Barrytown, we invaded the pub and all the lads were dressed as women and all us girls were dressed as men. It was very funny as Andrew dressed up as a pregnant women in a lovely floral dress and I had big blue overalls and a beard and looked like a mechanic! It was a very random and very funny night though! The photos are great!

Stray Bus Day 11 - Abel Tasmen National Park

Today was a day without travelling which was lovely, we were free to roam about the Abel Tasmen National Park. Which is beautiful. I went horse riding with 3 other people from the bus, whilst Andrew went for a walk with some of the guys. The horse riding was great, we got to ride accross the beach and even got to go in the sea on the horses. We saw Andrew and the others on the beach so Andrew managed to get some photos. He even patted my horse, who was Frank by the way. I loved the ride and even better i didn't get any allergic reactions from it!

Andrew enjoyed his walk, the national park was lovely. The alk was along the coast, there was little sandy beaches about every km or so. They stopped at one for some lunch and some of the lads even decided that it would be a good idea to go paddling in the sea, but it was very cold so they didn't last long. I met up with Andrew on the walk and we all walked back to the hostel together. In the evening we had some beers and chatted the night away round a fire, toasting marshmellows!

Stray Bus Day 10 - South Island

Today we travelled to South Island, it was a long day with leaving the hostel at 7.30am to catch the ferry over to Picton on South Island. The ferry was a little rough at times, but they put a couple of films on so i watched them whilst Andrew slept most of the journey because he was still suffering from a bit of a cold he had picked up in Wellington. After a 3 hour crossing we arrived in Picton to be gretted by our new driver, Lucky. She drove us through the Marlborough wine region to Nelson for some lunch. then we went on to our night stop at the Abel Tasmen National Park. We stayed at Old Macdondalds Farm in a tiny place called Marahau. We had a chilly BBQ and some green lipped mussels for tea. I passed on the mussels as they were massive and didn't look that nice to me, but Andrew said they were lovely.

Stray Bus Day 7,8 and 9 - Wellington

We had bad weather in Wellington it pretty must rained for the whole three days that we were there, but this didn't matter much because there is alot to do indoors in Wellington. We took time relaxing and restocking on things we needed for south Island.

On Saturday we headed to Te Papa - the national museum. It was a great museum, it was interactive and really well done. It was absolutly massive aswell, it had exhibitions on everything from earthquakes and volcanoes to Maori tribes and the treaty of Waitangi and scots in New Zealand. We had to go to a record shop called Real Groovy that we had first found in Auckland as Andrew wanted to buy some of the New Zealand music that Bagginz had been playing on the bus. He got a Nathane Haynes album and some shapeshifter! On the way back from REal Groovy we had the most random experience ever! Andrew bumped into some he use to work with at East Northants. Clare was in Wellington for a wedding and just happened to be stood on the street having a fag as we walked past! Was very strange!

On the sunday we went to the National Cricket Museum of New Zealand, in Basin Reserve. The Museum was really creepy and the guy that ran it was a bit strange. For a start he had to turn everything on when we arrived because we were the first visitors of the day. However Andrew enjoyed it and said that they had some interesting things so it was all good.

Wellington is nicer than Auckland, much more friendly and smaller so much easier to get around. It reminded Andrew of Manchester because it had a good music scene, lots of cafes and pubs and ofcourse the rain and gloomy weather.

Stray Bus Day 6 - Wellington

Today we travelled from National Park to Wellington, basically today was just alot of driving! Andrew had a great journey becasue Bagginz our bus driver was playing alot of New Zealand music for the whole journey. We stopped in a very funny small town called Bulls. They had made puns for most of the shops in Bulls, for example the Bank - Bank-a-bull, the bins - Respons-a-bull and the police station - Const-a-bull! Very funny little town. We also took part in a welly throwing competition which was very funny, Andrew came close in the boys competition but ended up being about third I was not as good. We arrived in Wellington at around tea time, that night we headed out and sampled the night life!

Stray Bus Day 5 - Tongariro Crossing

Today was one of the best days of travelling so far. We had to get up very early, we were on the bus at 6.30 am! It was very early and very cold, but we made it! We headed towards the Tongariro National Park. We were going to do what is rated to be one of the best one day walks in the world. At this time of year the weather can be bad on the crossing and we were hoping that it would be open and we wouldn't need a guide, this would make it expensive. As it was we were very very lucky and had amazing weather, we were also the last day to be able to do the walk un-guided. We got a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies! The walk was spectacular from start to finish. It was unlike anything either of us had done before. We skirted round the perfect volcanic cone of Mt Ruhapehu, which is more commonly known as Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings. We then decended down to the volcanic Emerald Lakes. Every part of the walk was stunning and was made more impressive by the snow cover at the top. the walk was long and tough, it took about 7 hrs, but it was worth every second. Even the freezing wind at the top and the steep climb was all worth it for the amazing views and landscape that we saw.

That night we stayed in a beautiful lodge with a spa pool. It was nice to have a little bit of luxary after the walk. The hostel was the best one we had stayed in with a log fire and resturant! We made the most of the Jacuzzi and rested our weiry muscles in the hot outdoor tub! It was great fun!

Stray Bus Day 4 - Taupo

Today we went to the Maori heartland of the country. We travelled through to a town called Rotorua. You know when you are close to Rotorua because you can smell it before you can see it. There is alot of Geothermal activity here, hot springs and hot mud pools, however this also means that it smells like rotten eggs! We had a quick walk round the park with lots of bubbling mud pools and found a hot bath to paddle in. Other people from our bus went white water rafting over a 7m water fall! After Rotorua we drove to Taupo. Lake Taupo was stunning, the lake is the same size as Singapore! On the way we stopped at a Green Waterfall called the Huka Falls. We had a nice hostel and spent the evening in the hostel bar making the most of some cheap drinks!

Stray Bus Day 3 - Raglan to Makhetu

Today we had a really hectic day, packed with activities! We left Raglan at 8am, headed for the rural settlement of Waitomo. Here are some huge underground networks - limestone caves have been carved out by the water underneath the ground. The best way to see these caves is to go caving, so we signed up for some black water rafting! We were given wetsuits and helmets with lights and taken deep underground for 4 hours. We travelled through tight gaps in the rocks, underwater for some sections (in eel infested water!) and we saw some interesting glow worms on the cave ceiling and some wonderful stalagtite and stalagmite formations. Half way round the network, we got to some deep under water lakes where we were given a huge black rubber inner tube to float down the river on! Although a bit dark and wet, this was an amazing activity which we both thoroughly enjoyed!

Next we carried on our journey back inland towards a Maori cultural experience stopover at Makhetu. We stayed at a puropose built Maori Marae (communal hut) which hold great significance for the Maori people. Our host was an interesting chap called 'Uncle Boy', who told us the history of the place and gave us a taste of Maori traditions and culture. We had a traditional Maori meal of mutton, potatoes, veg, chicken and fish and then were trreated to a show by Uncle Boy's family. They demonstrated dances, songs and the Haka - which we were then taught and performed to the group! I can now do a perfect Haka and Kate is not bad with the Puy! Around 20 of us spent the night in the main hall of the Marae - which was an expeience in itself!

Stray Bus Day 2 - Hahei to Raglan

Today was mainly a travelling day, we drove back down the peninsula through Hamilton - NZ's biggest inland city. We made our way across to the West Coast to the small surfing town of Raglan. Our overnight base was the Kaiori Lodge - a wonderful rainforest retreat on the hill side overlooking the sea. This was by far the nicest hostel we had stayed in so far, with a ropes course, zip wire and games room (oh and the beds weren't bad either). We had local fish and chips for tea sat by the log fire, and they were good, but not quite as good as back home!

Raglan is famed as one of the best surfing locations in NZ with good waves coming in from the West. Unfortunately the water looked a little cold for us, and we settled for a nice bush walk to the top of the hill to watch the sun set over the sea.

Stray Bus Day 1 - Auckland to Hahei

We didn't waste any time getting out of Auckland, as after spending 1 month in and around the city we felt we had so much to see still in New Zealand! We signed up to tour the country with a company called 'Stray' who take backpackers on a budget around all the main sites with fun and expert commentary. We chose this company mainly because they are advertised as taking people 'off the beaten track' and gave us the opportunity to see some sites that many other companies didn't offer.

On our first day we were picked up at 8am and driven upto the top of Mt Eden for one final glorious view of the city of Auckland. At this time in the morning the clouds were stunning and this provided a perfect backdrop to say goodbye to Auckland.

Today we drove east of Auckland round to the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula, when many Aucklanders choose to come on holiday. We stopped in the small town of Thames for supplies and then arrived at the quiet little fishing village of Hahei early afternoon. From here we took a walk along the beach to the famous 'Cathederal Cove' a huge arched feature in the rock next to a white sandy beach. The beaches here were quiet and clean and the water is a lovely turqoiuse colour, and the views across the bay are stunning.

In the evening we had a big group BBq where everyone got to know each other and we got aquianted with or new bus driver, Bagginz.

Super 14's Rugby - Auckland Blues 19 - 17 Wellington Hurricanes

We were fortunate enough to still be in Auckland for a huge local rugby union game between the Blues and the Hurricanes. It was one of the last games of the season in the competition which includes teams from Australia and South Africa aswell. Kiwis take there rugby very seriously and there was a noisy 40,000 crowd at Eden Park to see the game. As part of a deal with ACB hostel, we were given some free food and drinks at the bar as well as some crazy face paints and then bused over to the ground for kick off. There was a completely different atmosphere to the AFL in Sydney - much less family orientated and more beer involved! The game was tight, with Wellington taking an early lead - much to the disgruntlement of the home supporters. The Rugby here is fast and furious and much more athletic than the premier league stuff at home. Both sets of players are athletes right through the team, no big clumsy forwards in this game! As a result there is not much forward play, most plays are run right from the back which made for an entertaining and thrilling end to our time in Auckland. Despite winning this game, the Blues just missed out on a spot in the play-offs - with Wellington and Canterbury Crusaders going through to represent NZ in the end of season finale.