So, two weeks ago I was on holiday in France and Spain, going to cities. After two days in Barcelona I remembered why I love the country more than the city. I decided to take the third day in the mountains outside of the city, and get some hiking done.

I woke up at 7 the next morning and made my way to the train station. The city was so quiet in the morning, a completely different environment. I got on the 8.15 train, and slowly made my way away from the city. The scenery gradually began t change; urban turned into fields, which turned into mountains. A bit over an hour later I was the bottom of Mont Serrat.

Mont Serrat is a very old abbey, built very high in the mountains. It’s a very old Benedictine abbey, and also has a statue of the black Virgin Mary which is highly revered. It’s a bit of a tourist attraction, so there’s a funicular railway to it, which I took.

I then got a rack railway higher up the mountain, and from there started walking. For the first 30 minutes I went completely the wrong way and ended up at the ruins of some houses used by monks centuries ago, and a tiny chapel (see picture).



It was getting hot at this point, around 30 degrees, so I was pretty glad I was doing this in the morning rather than in the afternoon when it’d get even hotter.

I returned to the start of the trail, and went on the one I intended to go on originally to the top of the mountain. The path lasted for about an hour and a half, and led to the highest peak on the range. On the walk I went past countless lizards, skinks and butterflies, and was eventually rewarded with views like this:



After a lunch of chorizo (a type of salami), bread and water I started to head down to the abbey, bypassing the rack railway. Another hour and a bit later of more stunning scenery I arrived back at the abbey. After a brief look around at the incredible architecture I headed back to the city for a night of festival at one of the cities biggest free festivals of the year encompassing the entire city.

I’ll leave with a picture of the abbey, taken from above.

We spent the rest of the day in Te Papa, which was interesting but got old after a while. There was an art section in it with some Colin McCahon paintings which I really liked; he does some great art work, often with interesting sentences or phrases. One of my favourites is in the Christchurch galley, and on the bottom it says ‘tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is’. I really like it. That night we were staying at a guys house that was on the IFSA-Butler program with Sharon, Danielle and Mark. Sadly it was their last day of exams, which meant people were getting very drunk, and none of us were in the mood for it. We went out for a few drinks, went to an Irish bar, and generally wandered around taking in the city.

The following sleep was one of the worst I have ever had. Sleeping on the floor, with different people coming in every hour and waking us up and being loud sucked. Some German girls who didn’t even live in the house took it upon themselves to wake us up several times, great stuff.

We left early the next morning to go into town and look around some more. Firstly we went back to the Irish pub and were told we couldn’t get breakfast there unless we had ID, and they didn’t take my driving licence, great stuff. I ended up getting a pancake from a very French man, as did Sharon, and it was damn good and sweet. The first thing we did that morning was head to the Houses of Parliament, and took a tour of them. They’re essentially based on the British ones with the red and green carpets in the House of Lords and commons. They, however, have abolished the house of lords as no-one there could be assed with it! They also didn’t have enough money to finish the building, so instead of the House of Lords being opposite the House of Commons as in England, they’re not. Tour over, we headed to the botanical gardens. A girl from home (Jenna Rogers) is in Wellington for the year, so we met up with her and took the gondola lift up to the gardens, which are on the top of one of the hills to the side of the city.

The gardens were kinda out of season, but still prettyful. Jenna told us how Wellington is normally ridiculously windy, and never that good for weather, but when we were there it was calm and warm. It was strange, the south island isn’t that far away at all, but I already felt as if it was warmer on the north island. It was great to meet someone from home, and all of the Americans were surprised they could understand her fine; for some reason they can never understand what I say, Brady described me as the most British sounding person ever!

Maggie, Josh, Lisa, Mel, Emily, Luke and Teddy were all in Wellington that day as well, so we all went to meet them for lunch. It was fantastic seeing them all again, but also a bit odd as I’d said my goodbyes in Christchurch and had gotten all emotional then, and seeing them all again was making me emotional again! We all ate at a Macs brewery restaurant, and after the meal Jenna excused herself as she had to work. We also had to head off and begin driving north; that night Brady, Sharon, Mark, Danielle and I were staying in Palmerston North with Lizze and Dan who were also from the IFSA program. Dan also went to school with Danielle, so they were pretty good friends and wanted to catch up.

The drive only took a couple of hours, so we got there and all went straight out to a food court to eat. Some Indian food later and we hit up Pak ‘n’ Save for some cider/wine/general alcohol before heading out. After some Ring of Fire we headed into town, to a place called ‘The Game’, a karaoke bar, which I was not overly thrilled to go to! A few drinks later and Dan and I sang Thunderstruck by ACDC very, very badly. Can’t say it was the highlight of my night…! Anyhoo, we left there thankfully and Dan and I went to a house club, leaving everyone else behind as they were taking forever leaving.

A few drinks later and the others arrived; all of us were a tad worse for wear at this point! A lot of dancing ensued, and we left sometime the next morning. In Palmerston North they have a late night pie shop, but with a twist. The dude behind the counter serves you in tiny, tiny shorts, and if you ask him to he whips it out apparently, tasty… Apparently he used to be a lecturer at the uni and had a stroke, which is why he does what he does, and if that is the case it sucks.

One taxi ride home and we were back for a short nights sleep before leaving the next morning. We said our goodbyes to Lizzie and Dan early the next morning (8ish), and got in the car without anyone saying much. Brady doesn’t drink, and being the only one not hungover/way over the legal limit, he drove that day.

We all slope a fair bit that drive, but we were all awake when we drove the desert road. This was spectacular, a desert 3520 feet above sea level. There are several volcanoes on one side, named Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. These names meant nothing to me, and seemed damn confusing, but if I said Mt. Doom I’m guessing you’ll know what I mean. Mt. Ngauruhoe is in fact Mt. Doom, and it was incredible. They were all snow capped, and surrounded by beautiful blue skies. I came back here later; see the third entry of my blog when it comes out in the near future!

A bit after midday we arrived in Matamata, which is where the set of Hobbiton is located (a very Lord of the Rings themed day). We got on a tour pretty soon, and got driven out to the set. To be honest, I wasn’t overly fussed on doing this, but the others were and I’m glad I did. It turns out only 19 (I think) of around 50 of the hobbit holes are still remaining, and it’s only by chance that they are. New Line Studios (who made LOTR) were in the process of taking them down, but it had to be postponed due to weather. People then asked to see the set, and the farm owners got in contact with New Line, who then let them keep the holes that were left, and agrees to maintain them. They’re all completely white, for a couple of reasons; a) to help preserve them, b) it makes them visible in bad weather, c) everything on the movie was a base construction with everything on top being made of incredibly well painted polystyrene. Literally, everything. The bridges, the buildings, everything was fronted by painted by polystyrene. As that’s pretty bad for the environment New Line took the polystyrene down as soon as filming had finished, took it to Wellington, and got rid of it. Another interesting thing at the set was the oak tree. The Tolkien’s said if the movie was made the oak tree which is described in massive detail in the book had to be in the film. As there wasn’t one on site, they had to buy one from nearby, cut it into small pieces and then reassemble it at the set. That’s a fair bit of effort for a 22 ton tree! Also, as it was then dead they had to put thousands of fake leaves on it, so it looked right for filming.

So the set was interesting and after we left we drove to Waitomo, home of very famous glow worm caves. In my guide book we found a very cheap sounding hostel ($12 a night I think), so we headed to that. It turned out to be a cavers hit, with no-one there at all, and a collection box in the main room. To sum it up in one word: amazing. We had a big living room type thing with wood fire, kitchen, a cat Mark named Belle and a bunk bed with a mattress that could hold at least 10 people. We stuck a space heater in that room, made some tea, and reclined in front of the fire. It was fantastic. Danielle and Mark knitted, Brady and I wrote journals and read, and Sharon sat there hating Belle as she’s allergic to cats.

We got a semi early night, and went to our by now roasting hot room and got into our bags. For some region we then began to debate war, which (to my surprise) Danielle and Brady were for, and Sharon and I were dead against. Not wanting to get involved, Mark said nothing… Not the lightest bedtime talking, and it got people a bit riled up! No matter, we all settled in for a good nights sleep with nothing to get up early for the next morning.

Then followed one of the best days I have ever had.

I arose after Sharon, who I found rekindling the fire and starting to make pancakes, awesome! We spent the morning sitting around the fire, eating pancakes and spent a very leisurely morning reading, knitting, talking about religion, and then talking about other stuffs. It was really peaceful, and I really liked it.

We’d come to Waitomo to go to the caves, and at around midday we set off to a caving centre to go on the tour we’d booked into. We’d decided to go ‘toobing’, which involved sitting in big rubber rings and gently floating along a slow river through the caves, instead of walking around them. We met our guide (Meg) and set off in her van. It was only the five of us plus Meg doing the tour that day, which was great; no annoying tourists there!

We all got into massive 5ml wetsuits, booties and wellies, and set off for the cave entrance. Meg showed us the distance we’d be going from above ground, it only looked a few hundred metres, but Meg assured us it would take at least a couple of hours to go that distance.

We climbed down a ladder in to the darkness, and one tight squeeze past some rocks later we were in the start of the cave. We had out headlamps on at this point and were all excited for what lay ahead. We began walking through the cave, looking at all of the stalagmites and stalactites all around us, until we reached our first stopping point, a very mini glow worm cave. We turned our lights off and looked around at the ceiling being lit by small worms, surreal! The light is emitted form the worms’ bums, and is from chemical matter breaking down inside them. They cannot excrete, so all waste is burnt off in the form of light.

Lights on, and we went to our first toobing port of call. We all got a tube and jumped off a ledge into the pool below. Linking ourselves in a chain, we slowly floated down a long tunnel with our lights now off. Glow worms littered the ceiling, and it felt like the Milky Way was just above us, but in glow form! It was incredibly serene, but it had to end. We got to the end of the tunnel, and turned our lights back on. Whilst Meg walked the tubes back to the top o the tunnel we were told to crawl through a very narrow tunnel with our lights off and to wait for her in the cave at the end. This freaked me out, but what felt like a long time later I arrived in a big cave with the others. A few minutes later and Meg walked round the corner, asking how we’d found it.

We carried on for a few minutes more and stopped for a hot drink and some chocolate (Meg carried them) to keep us warm. It was lovely, just sitting in a cave, having and eat and not being overly cold either! We pressed on through a section which we had to swim through, and came to our last toobing point. Here we lay on our fronts and casually drifted through a green glow towards the end of our toobing experience. Just before leaving we saw some wetas – massive ass bugs which are freaky. We exited the cave into the night, and instantly got pretty darn cold. On our walk back to the hut and warm showers we saw a possum in the trees, very NZ!

Some hot showers and a drive back into town later and we decided to drive to Rotorua, which is very famous for its hot springs. Emily, Teddy, Mel and Luke were also there that night, so we intended to meet up with them. Our friend Jon had told us about some hot pools which you could bathe in as well which were just under a bridge by a road, and they sounded awesome.

An hour and a bit later we rendezvoused with the others, and all decided to head to the springs. I jumped in the others car as I hadn’t seen them for a while, and wouldn’t be seeing them again after this point.

30km later, and we arrived a bridge enshrouded in stream. Already in swimming trucks, we jumped out of the car and made our way to the steaming river below. The water was deliciously warm, and we quickly sank into it. After a while we moved downstream, to find a massive pool with some others already in it, who were just leaving. This pool was fed by two rivers; one hot and one cold. It was amazing, you could adjust how warm you wanted the water by moving around in the giant pool, and it was great fun running form the hot side to the cold!

Something happened then that I did not expect. We were all sitting around in a large circle, when Brady went ‘guys, I’m not actually wearing my shorts anymore’, really not the person I was expecting to say that! Needless to say, Sharon, Emily and I joined him in it, but sadly the rest wouldn’t! We stayed there until around 11.30, when we dragged ourselves out of the pool and into our clothes. The other car headed back to their hostel, whilst we headed to a nearby campsite, which was deserted and had no running water, which sucked as we had hardly any. We set up camp and got to sleep. Thus ended one of the best days I’ve ever had.

The next morning we woke up rather parched, and hastily got the tent down. As we were in a thermal hotspot I really wanted to see some of the geysers, mud pools, etc. We set out to some nearby mud pools and watched them boil and goop away for about 10 minutes before heading back to the car and heading to a ‘thermal wonderland’. I’d also like to note everything here completely reeks of sulphur, including us who hadn’t showered after the previous night… Sadly the wonderland cost $30 and I was the only one who wanted to do go around, and the others had stuff to do in town, which was about 35km away. We left there and headed in Rotorua.

Danielle, Brady, Sharon and Mark had all decided to go zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant inflatable ball), something which I wasn’t overly fussed about, so I spent the arrest of the morning and early afternoon writing my diary and snoozing in the local library.

We all met up later and drove to one of Dan’s (Maggie’s boyfriend and our friend) friends houses in Ohope, a couple of hours north. We arrived and went straight to the local Charter Club, which had a snooker table, awesome! 2 and a half dinners, 2 frames of snooker and a couple of beers later we headed back to Derek’s and watched Slumdog Millionaire before bed. Not the most eventful day, but nice nonetheless.

The next day we awoke to pouring rain. A couple of hours of driving later stopped for lunch, got food and carried on to Hahei, which is where the famous and stunningly beautiful Cathedral Caves are, or for a more visual description; opening scene of second Narnia movie. Yup, pretty epic! The rain had eased off by this point, so we drove to Cathedral Caves via some very flooded roads. After arriving at the car park near the caves we walked for 30 minutes to the coves. We were pretty much by ourselves on the beach, and the five of us spent some time wandering around in awe of the place, and just marvelling at its beauty. After about an hour other people came and we left. When we got to the top of the cliffs the sun was beginning to set, so I sat watching that for some time before we all left. I realised that my timescales here haven’t added up to anywhere near a day, the time in-between us getting up and sunset was also filled with stops at random places as well the caves!

We found a campsite nearby which let us have a small chalet to ourselves for $100 (£40) for a night, bargain! The chalet had a kitchen, living room and 2 bedrooms, perfect for us. This became another evening of relaxing, we watched George of the Jungle (my choice), failed at doing a puzzle by the end of the night, ate, I drank a fejoia beer (fejoia is a fruit that (to me and Rosie Jones) is disgusting. It tastes like dentist and nastyness) and people that started watching a movie called Napoleon, which was absolutely hideous. It was a bout a do going on adventure who could talk to other animals. I guess getting all of the animals to act is impressive, but it was still hideous. I went to bed and left the others watching it.

Near Cathedral Caves there’s a place called Hot Water beach, which is a beach that has hot springs on it under the sand (surprisingly!). You can only get to them at low tide, which was at 3am that morning. We got up around 1am and headed out. The tide was fairly low, but the sea was rough. After a fair bit of searching Brady and I found some hot springs. They were damn hot. You’d stand on the stand and could feel the soles of your feet burning, crazy. The tide was still too high to make sand pools to bathe in, so we messed around on the beach for a fair while. It was getting to be late autumn there, but we were still out in just shorts and t shirts and were fine. Sadly the sea was too rough and kept washing over the area where the hot springs were and we couldn’t build any pools, so at 3 we headed back to our chalet and slept.

The next day, as I’m sure everyone will agree, was by far my least favourite day of the trip. We did a lot of driving, interspersed with only a few breaks. I shall keep this days description brief. We drove around the Cormandel peninsula to the town of Cormandel where I had an amazing chicken and kumra pie. After a wander around the town, more driving, a brief stop at a lookout and more driving until we were past Auckland where we stopped for lunch. Then more driving to Dan’s parents house, in Whakatane (pronounced faka-tarn-ay – wh – ‘f’ sound). Dan’s parents were absolutely fantastic to us; they put us up and gave us food in exchange for some wine! I was fairly pissed off with the day by this point so went to the beach by myself for some air. Being stuck in a car all day listening to a lot of music which I strongly dislike really grates! I returned and we spent the evening watching TV and chatting with his parents before hitting the hay.

When we woke up the next day it was absolutely chucking it down. Another day which, to be honest, was not my favourite! We did a fair bit of driving again, but at least I got to drive some of it. Firstly we went to Waitangi where the treaty was signed between the Maoris and the English, and it was still raining. Only Sharon was willing to pay to get in, so the rest of us sat in the car and played cards whilst she did that. I also went inside a Maori meeting house by myself, and well all went and looked at some big Maori carvings nearby. Interestingly, the carvings at places such as museums and in public spaces differ very much to these rural ones; these carvings were ridiculously well hung!

I then drove back, but we went a different route which involved getting a ferry across an inlet and taking a smaller, more coastal road back. This really wasn’t the best idea ever, as the road was flooded in parts and blooming scary to drive through! That night we cooked for Dan’s parents and spent a lot of time talking before going to bed,

This next day (a Saturday) was the last day that I was travelling with the others for; they were flying back to Christchurch early on Sunday morning for exams which were taking place the following week. I got up earlier than the others to go to an oil refinery visitors centre nearby (there was a big refinery up there right by the beach), but sadly it was closed. The weather this day was better, but still not ideal. To being with we went to the beach for a frolick, and then to some local caves which were pretty flooded and very slippery, so we didn’t do any exploring, just looked around for a while.

After much umming and ahhing we drove to the south west of the Northlands to a black sand beach. The weather wasn’t particularly great, but it wasn’t raining at least. Brady and I started the beach time by jumping off some massive sand dunes and running around a lot. We then went to the other end of the beach, and saw some crazy, crazy fishermen. The sea was pretty rough, and about 8 fishermen were all standing on a big rock outcrop with their rods jammed into holes in the rock. They would then leave the rods and run to them when they got a bite. Waves kept crashing over the top of the rocks and washing past the rods, it was nuts!

We were standing in shorts and nothing else at this point, and it started to get cold, so we ran up to the top of the cliff to have a look around. Below us was a gannet nesting colony which was empty sadly. It looked like masses of mini craters where the birds would build their nests. In the sea far below a few hardcore surfers were going for it by the rocks in some very choppy waves. We eventually got too cold and ran back to the others, when it started to rain. We all bundled back into the car and headed to Auckland.

It was odd, I’d started my NZ trip and Dane’s, and now I was finally back there. After a lot of parking confusion we got there, and the others met Rebecca, Matho, Dane and Julian. We all went for a wander around town and to the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere (apparently). For such a big tower it has a very small base and is quite incredible. Then to an oriental restaurant, where we were the only people who weren’t Asian. The food was good, and the side dishes which kept being brought were awesome!

We headed back to Dane’s and the others packed their bags, getting ready to leave super early the next morning. It was all pretty sad. At a very early hour of the morning the others got up and we all said our last goodbyes. It was really emotional for me; I’d been with these people almost everyday for the past few months, and I didn’t know when I’d be seeing them again, if ever. They left and I went back to sleep.

Thus ends my time of travelling with the others, and it only took me 6 weeks to write up! Now for the last part of NZ….

End travels, part 1

At the time of starting to write this its 7.06am, before the first day of my new job. I woke up really early for no apparent reason, probably nerves, and have some time on my hands, so am starting to write this up. At the end of writing this, it is 13.48, 6 days later.

So, continuing from where I left off. Emily booked us all onto a party bus, which is essentially a bus which drives to obscure bars before dropping us off in town. It was a lot of fun, and most people ended up pretty drunk. I managed to leave my phone on the bus which sucked massively, especially seeing as I was leaving early the next morning and had no way of getting it back. I said my goodbyes to everyone, and then Danielle and I went back. We later got a call from Sharon, who had locked herself out of her room… I climbed around her balcony and got in through her window, good times!

The next morning I woke up fairly early, and Dan gave me a lift to town and the bus stop; it was pretty emotional. The coach to Kaikoura only took a couple of hours, and when I got there I booked into a hostel and went and bougt some food to use on the Queen Charlotte track the next day. This is important, as it served as my first lesson in travelling (explained later). Kaikoura is famed for its paua shells, which are highly colourful shells in blue and green which can be found on the beach, if you look in the right places. The best ones are picked up by divers and look incredible, but seeing as I wasn’t doing that it was the beach for me. I turned a 3.5 hour cliff walk into a 5.5 hour beach and cliff walk, and found some lovely shells. There are literally thousands of the shells in the town, and they’re made into exquisite jewellery. That night I had made tea and got an early night; I was exhausted and slept for 11 hours. The next day I got up and left and learnt lesson number one; remember whatever you left in the fridge! I realised I left my meat and cheese at the hostel later in the day when I was on the Queen Charlotte track, which I took a coach and boat to get to, so no way of getting them back!

I got the coach from Kaikoura to Picton, stopping on the way to look at seals. The weather was awful, and the road is literally just above the beach, so it was beautiful in a chaotic kind of way. I got into Kaikoura and booked everything for my time on the track, including the first nights stay and my boat which left in an hour. The track is a ‘luxury’ track, meaning that the boat companies pick up your pack each day and drop it at the next place you’re staying so you only have to carry a day pack. I thought this would ruin the point of a big hike, but it was actually great as you could enjoy it so much more.

The Queen Charlotte track is on Marlborough Sound, which has its own weather system. Apparently the wind is always southerly, and it rarely gets any bad weather as its all taken to sea/into the mountains before it reaches the sound, meaning its almost always good weather. The day I got there it wasn’t so good… I had originally planned to do a 15km hike before getting to the homestay where I was staying that night, but ended up just getting the boat straight there.

I got to the homestay around 3, and met my host, Noeline. She was eccentric; her dog was called tuppence, the first was called pence, and she spends 2 months of the year travelling alone, which she can afford by letting people stay for 10 months a year. This year she’s going to Hungary and Romania. She only goes to town once every two months, and she’s 80 years old. Inspirational. Two others were staying there, Liz from Holland and Dorian who was cycling the trail. We spent the evening in the warm and dry, and got an early night. This is also where I realised all of my food was in Kaikoura…

Woke up early the next day and set out with Liz at around 8am. We left our packs on the jetty at Noelines, and just took day packs for the 25km hike ahead of us. The previous night it snowed on the track, which only happens about once year, so it was pretty special. The hike was just incredible. Every corner you turn yields more incredible views, I have hundreds of pictures from the few days I was there that all look really similar to anyone who hasn’t been there! Each inlet had perfect blue water, lush green foliage and stuck into the sea in a haphazard manner. There is no way for me to describe the beauty of it. That night I camped and Liz stayed at another homestay. I was the only one camping which was nice, and in the evening I went to Portage, a luxury retreat which also had a bar. I sat there by myself drinking a beer and eating wedges for 2 hours, and only saw 4 other guests; definitely the quiet time of the season. Portage also has the best steak pies EVER, they were incredible!

That night I slept for 13 hours, I only had a small hike the next day, so there was no reason for me to get up early. Another pie later, and I set off at around 11. That night I was o be couchsurfing with a guy who lives on the track, and he was about 8km away, so no hurry. This time I carried my pack, hiking is so much harder with it on! A few beautiful hours later and I arrived. I’d also like to note that on this few hours I breathed the purest, best feeling air I have ever breathed. It was just awesome. After staying there for a while and bashing out some sketches I carried on to Peter Cowell’s. the guy I was couchsurfing with. His house was around 45 minutes off the track, and amazing. Just before his house is a rope swing that swings out across the sound, and just sets the tone for the place. I arrived at around 3, as the sun was starting to go out behind the hills, and after some quick introductions he told me we were going out fishing on his boat to catch the sun. So, we headed down to his boat via a cart he made that traverses about 100m of steep hillside. He took some snails off his jetty, and we went out on his boat. The snails were then used to catch snappers, which were then used as bait for bigger fish. Sadly we didn’t catch anything else, but it was great staying in the sun and talking.

He hand built the two houses on his land, and has lived there for 23 years. The one I stayed in he rents out for $200-$300 per night for a third of the year. The rest of his income comes from doing odd jobs for neighbours, such as mowing lawns and painting. There are around 50 homes in the inlet, and only 3 or 4 habited year round. In the rest of his time he reads, hunts and maintains the forest. He catches all his own meat, grows fruit and veg, and has water direct from a natural spring. It is impossible for me to describe how idyllic this was.

So, after fishing he asked what I was doing for tea, and when I said noodles he told me he’d made us stew and was going to make dumplings. It was awesome. We ate, and he then asked if I’d like a beer. I said sure, and he came back with a few litres of beer, which he brews himself. It was good stuff. He then asked if I wanted weed, which I declined. He said he grows it himself, truly self sufficient! We spent the evening watching trashy TV, and relaxing, which was lovely. He was a really interesting guy to meet, with a lot of stories, too many to include here!

The next morning we went out into the forest and collected a couple of bags of pine cones for his fire, and he made us a fry up. A great start to the day. He then had to go into town, and after giving me a bag of passion fruit he left on his boat. I stayed around the house until around 1, just hanging out and being in the sun. One more go on the rope swing, and I set off for my next destination, a campsite only a few miles away.

The next few hours were again, magical. A side track took me up to the top of a hill that gave 360 degree panoramic of the whole area, I’ll try and upload the video somewhere, it’ll show it far better than I can explain.

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnYfNE0QFNA

That evening I arrived at my campsite, which was at Mistletoe Bay eco lodge, or something along those lines. I camped, and spent the evening reading in a cooking hut which was also populated by about 50 10 year olds and their school teachers. I’d picked up the Kite Runner at Portage, and got a fair way through it.

The next morning I got up, dried off the inside of my tent (its cheap, and condensation builds up on the inside, it sucks), and left my bag on the jetty for the water taxi to pick up. I had around 4 hours of hiking ahead of me, and I gave myself 6 hours to do it in so I could take my time. Again, another day of ridiculous scenery and beautiful weather. At one point I rounded a corner and the entire sea was covered in mist; it looked as though you were on top of a mountain far above the cloud line. I finished with two hours to spare and spent some time reading and sketching on the beach before the water taxi picked me up. Over the 4 day I have around 50km, 25 of which were on the first day.

I took the taxi back over the calm waters, and arrived back in Picton. I booked into a hostel which had free chocolate pudding each evening, and free breakfast, pretty good if you ask me! I met a guy from Bath there, and spent the evening talking with him, a guy from Essex and an American, who couldn’t understand a lot of what we said. I had this the whole trip with the Americans; they couldn’t understand me a lot, and it was nice to talk to a couple of English guys who could! I also booked my Ferry ticket; the next day I was going to the north island.

I feel as if my blog has got less descriptive over time, which is probably a good and bad thing; I’ve already written masses and only covered a week or so, and there’s another two weeks at least to write up, but I also feel like there’s probably a lot of bits I miss out. Its impossible to describe how awe-inspiring everything was without being there, the pictures really can’t begin to show what it was like, and they also can’t incorporate things like the wind or the smell or the feeling of being alone in such a beautiful place, which sucks!

The next morning (Friday now) I got up and got ready to leave the south island forever. Sad to be leaving, but also excited to see a new part of the country. The ferrys are huge, and damn slow. They also go through the sound to get into the straight between the islands, and I felt like I should be outside the whole time, but it was actually fairly cold, and after being in the sound I didn’t feel like I’d be seeing anything that I needed to. So I took a nap, and awoke half an hour later for the scenery to be pretty much the same, but now with dolphins included! A fair few people have swam the straight between the islands, and it’s a fair way. I just tried googling the distance, but couldn’t want to find it. I’m writing this as the youngest person to do it was 11, epic!

After arriving in Wellington I headed along the water front to Te Papa (the nation in Maori), where I was meeting Danielle, Sharon, Brady and Mark who I would be travelling with for the next 10 days. I’d like to say it was an emotional reunion, but it really wasn’t more of a ‘hi, hows it going?’!

Right, this is the first section of my end of NZ adventure, and if you’ve read this, props! I’m writing this both for other people if they’re interested, and for myself, so I never forget the times I had.

Next entry to come soon(ish).

x

Home

Hey everyone, I'm back now. Theres going to be a massive entry at some point in the near(ish) future about what happened in the last epic few weeks. Until then, hopefully see everyone soon.

Leaving Christchurch...

Its pretty sad, just went round town for the last time, and said goodbye to everyone at Uni.

On a side note, Sarah did not make the flan as I said last time, it was Josh and Molly. They were pretty happy when they saw that I'd credited someone else with it! Sarah made some muffiny things

So, this week has been good. Sunday evening was church, and it was nice to see people again there before I left. To be honest I was pretty tired and had trouble staying awake during parts of the talk!

On Monday my accommodation ran out so I've moved in with Maggie and Danielle for a few days. The day time on Monday was taken up with writing up report, and seeing my tutor. We've been turning my work into a paper to be published, and its an interesting process. In the evening we all hung out and played games, such as loaded question. Roger and some of his friends stayed the night (they're at Dunedin, and we're flying to Australia from the airport here), so they stayed in Maggie's room and I slept on Danielle's floor.

Tuesday as much of the same, albeit it was Emily's birthday. This involved a lot of drinking on her behalf, and playing beer pong, which I actually quite enjoyed. I'm always sceptical about all of the things the Americans obsess over, but this was good. Also this evening I went to Navigators (Navs for short) which is a Christian group on campus. A lot of my friends were there, so it was nice to see them one last time. We prayed in a circle holding hands, and it was very moving.

The weather was still bad on Wednesday, and on this day I worked some more. I went to my last Christians on Campus meeting in the afternoon, and in the evening went to Don and Karen Pearce's house for tea. Don runs the group, and I've been there a few times to eat. We had a big rice dish, and 5 different sorts of vegetables, it was awesome.

Yesterday (Thursday) the weather was lovely, so I got up early (before 7!) and took a bus ti Lyttelton and a ferry to Diamond Harbour. I was intending to do a hike up Mt. Herbert, but first I accidentally did a cliff walk for 2 hours as I missed the Mt. Herbert path (in my defence it wasn't signed!). So, I got back and then did the hike. The mountain is 919m above sea level, and about 7.5km to the top. I got there in 2 hours and back in 1.5 after a half hour lunch at the top. Most of the trail follows a river which is all water from snow, and beautifully clean. After looking closely at it and tasting it I drank some and it was delicious. Then, about 500m up the river head starts from a large wetland, and in the middle of it there was a dead cow. I was not best pleased to say the least after just drinking the water downstream! I got back after that and slept a lot, then played more beer pong. I got in fairly drunk at about 1.30am, and slept for a about 5.5 hours before getting up for my last meeting with my tutor.

Today (Friday) has been really nice, after my tutorial I went to the park and gardens with Danielle, Mark, Josh, Sarah and Molly. We played a lot of frisbee, and I was very happy to just wander around in the sun. They went to a fudge 'cottage', i.e. a mini fudge factory in the arts centre, and whilst they were doing that I went to the art gallery for an hour or so.

So, this brings me to the end of my time in Christchurch. I leave early tomorrow morning, and will be travelling for a few weeks before coming home. The general travel plan is as follows; go to Kaikoura Saturday, go up to Picton on Sunday and spend 4 days doing the Queen Charlotte track. 2 of these days will be spent couchsurfing with a guy who owns an eco lodge on the trail, I'm really excited about it! After that go to Wellington, where I'm meeting Sharon, Danielle, Brady and Mark and from there spend 10 days getting to Auckland. After that I've got another week by myself to explore above Auckland. And them home, will be back in Bridport June 24th. Oh, if anyone is selling a car/knows someone who is for £1500 or under, please let me know.

Tonight we're going out again for Emily birthday, and I'm quite looking forwards to being with everyone for the last time.

I won't be updating this for a while I imagine, so don't expect much!

See you all soon,
Rob xxx

Nearly leaving...

Winter is coming, and its scary! Its been raining for over a week now, and its very reminiscent of England - awful! I've pretty much finished all of my work, so am trying to get out, the weather isn't giving me much motivation though.

So, after putt putt we spent a lot of time getting to a burger bar called Wisconsin burger, which was good but not overly amazing, then came back. We hung out in Marks flat, and had a great time just messing about and being immature I think the highlight for most was the Chug of War between Teddy and I. It basically involved eating a lot of bun, very quickly with your arms linked. Teddy is crazy strong, and an awesome wrestler, so very daunting! Its easiest just to watch the video; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=798853783588&subj=204504202

Needless to say, it was very messy, and very, very entertaining.

Two weeks is a lot of time to remember stuff for, so I can't exactly give a day to day run down of what happened, can give a guesstimate though! We probably did a pot luck at some point (everyone makes a dish and we have a group meal - normally themed, i.e. world food, breakfast, etc), and I probably didn't do much work. I finished my experiments before the Easter break, so have spent my time after writing up my project, and writing up sections for a paper that will be published on mine, and others research. I'm really happy about this, it means I'll have a paper published with my name on it before I graduate.

Danielle's friend Ryan came on Thursday some of us went into town for some drinks, and after Dan (Maggie' boyfriend - a Kiwi) drove us up the Port Hills, where we looked down at Christchurch at night. It was so beautiful, I hope not to forget it for a long time.

Danielle and Ryan had decided to drive to Queenstown that weekend, and not having anything else to do, Teddy and I grabbed a lift to Wanaka, which is a town about an hour from Queenstown. We'd stopped there for an afternoon on our travels over Easter, and it was lovely, hence us going back. We'd planned on camping, but it rained all weekend, so we ended up staying in a hostel, the more expensive yet far drier option. Friday night was taken up with pool, ping pong, and some beers at the hostel.

We awoke on Saturday to find it still raining, and decided to go for a small hike and then on to Puzzle World, where there's lots of puzzle (go figure!), a two level maze and lots of things that are world unique or world first, such as a hologram room, uphill room, etc. We got ready for the hike and realised that Teddy had left his boots in the car and only had loafers with him. As Teddy's H-core (what we've coming for hardcore) we did an hour or so hike in the rain up a mini mountain, and trekked into Puzzle World. Puzzle World was a lot of fun, and we spent the most of the day there, until eventually walking home in the pouring rain. That night was spent in the same manner as the one before.

The next morning it wasn't raining, so we did a small walk around the lake before getting on-board our bus home. On the bus we joined Emily, who'd gone to Queenstown with Danielle and Ryan, and we settled in for out 6 hour ride home. About 45 minutes in we got to Tarras, the start of a pass through the mountains to Lake Tekapo, only to find the pass was closed, and that we had to take a huge detour. This seemed to be a recurring theme; at least two other roads were closed due to rain either causing landslides covering the road, or swelling rivers and flooding bridges. 10 hours later we got back to Christchurch - a bit of a long day!

This week I work fairly hard - my tutor had read through my 60 page report over the weekend, and had gone over it in detail, so I had a lot of improvements to do on it. I was really pleased he'd done this, as its improved my report a lot. We did a pot luck on Tuesday, and did world foods; I did a tagine.

After the world Foods a few of went to the casino, which was quite daunting at first, but a lot of fun. We all played $5 blackjack, Teddy came up $47.50 up, I was $50 up, Dan $80 and Luke $100.

On Thursday I had a meal with Dan and Maggie. Friday was my birthday, and we were doing a dessert pot luck and they couldn't make it, so we made tea and had ice cream together - very nice! After that we played beer pong until bed - around 1am.

The next morning Danielle, Ryan and I went into town and spent the morning at the art gallery. I especially liked these quotes I took from paintings;
'Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is'
'Nothing else. And then. The oracle speaks: take one step'
'as there is a constant flow of light we are born into the PURE LAND'

These are from a New Zealand artist called Colin McCahon, asides from the second one.

After that we met up with the others, and went to the Foundry (the campus bar) and played cars, and then proceeded to Hells Pizza, which took forever as it was Friday evening and the traffic was awful.

Then the desserts began! There were a lot; cheesecake form Jon and I, fudge by Brady, more fudge by Danielle and Ryan, Flan by Sarah, peanut pie by Mark, cupcakes by Mel, and a whole lot of other things by everyone else. Lisa and Sharon made a particularly memorable one; 4 Boston buns stacked on top of each other, and covered with icing and jelly sweets for the cake, it was spectacular!

After that we played card games, and Brady and Jon did a chug of war, which was very intense. Then we realised there was a massive puddle outside, and a few of us decided to go jump in it. About 30 minutes later everyone had been persuaded, and everyone donned their ghostbuster uniforms from the Twalk, and went outside into the freezing cold. This next part was probably the best part of the night; 15 of us jumping and sliding in a massive puddle in the middle of uni with a load of people watching. A random guy then got naked and dove in, which was hilarious, made even funnier by him falling over whilst running back to his house! We then crammed about 5 of us into each shower at Emilys house and warmed up a bit. A few more games, and we ended the night.

Yesterday (Saturday) I began to pack up my room, as my accommodation runs out tomorrow (Monday), which is very weird (I'm moving into Maggie and Danielle's for a few days before leaving Christchurch next Saturday). Saturday evening I went to Dan's for food, and we went to some of his friends and then to the casino again. I lost $20 this time, even after being $40 up at one point. This sounds pretty dumb, and most likely is, but its weird when you're there and you hold plastic chips - it doesn't feel like real money. I put down two $20 bets at the end and lost both - you win some you lose some I guess! Its weird, I feel like I lost $60, but I only put $20 in... A very interesting experience anyways, and overall I came out positive. Think that will be my last time going to a casino, its easy to see why they're so addictive.

Anyways, its still raining and the hike I was going to do with some others has been postponed - I've got all of next week with not a lot to do, so will do it then. I'm going to finish tidying my room today, and go to church in the evening, really looking forwards to it.

I'll be back in a month, so see y'all soon!

xxx

Picutre Post

A few pics from Twalk, Easter, etc.


Me, Lisa, Maggie, Dan at Taylors Mistake


Franz Josef glacier. The tin dots are people.



A lake where we camped a couple of nights.


Part of Milford Sound.


A wetter day on the Routeburn.


Queenstown at Night.


Drinking teapots in Queenstown. From left to right; Mark, Josh, Mel, Sarah, Luke, Molly, Brady.


On the Stewart Island trail.


Moeraki Boulders.


A lake on the Twalk.

Will write stuffs up some other time.

xx

Hey everyone, how be?

So, another weeks come and gone crazy quickly, and I thought I'd blast out a quick blog entry. I'd like to firstly say I put a lot of pics up on facebook if anyone wants to see where I've been, some of them are awesome, some not so much! I'm going to get all my friends before I leave and make a best of at some point. I'd also like to point out that no pictures really give this place justice, the camera can't capture the colours anywhere near as well as they'd like. For example, I watched Narnia 2 this week, and the rivers really are that blue, its rediculous, my camera just won't pick that up.

Anyways, my week:
Last weekend we did the Twalk. This is a massive 24 hour orienteering/rogaining type of event, and a lot of fun. It started off with a 16.8km first leg, and 14 checkpoints to find. These checkpoints are marked on a map and a clue goes with them, but are still really hard/impossible to find in some cases. We completed the first leg in 7.5 hours and got 12/14 checkpoints. And walked a lot longer that 16.8km!

Everything was set up in a massive sheep hut on a farm, and there was food (and beer!) for the full 24 hours which was awesome. An hour and a half after checking in at the hut we went out on a leg at a night, which turned into a bit of a fail! We spent 5.5 hours getting very lost and found 2 checkpoints... not so good!

I went to bed around 1.30 am and got up at 5.30am for another leg. Teddy, Mel, Brady and I went out for another leg and got 7/14 checkpoint in 4 hours, pretty happy with it. The morning was so beautiful, walking on a hill crest and watching the sun come up over the mountains - sweeet! In total we walked around 40km in 16 hours or so, a pretty good effort I'd say. Oh, and we were all dressed as Ghostbusters as it was themed. The winners did around 80km I guess in the 24 hours and got a lot of checkpoints, some people are rediculously fit here. And seeing as one of the winning teams were over 50 probably, its bloody impressive!

That night we just had a takeaway and nursed aches and pains. Possibly went to the pub as well? I forget.

Monday and Tuesday were fairly un-eventful, I worked on my report in the day, saw friends at night.

Wednesday was Lisa's 21st birthday, so we went to a Mexican restaurant which was nice, and then to a really cool little pub called Cartel, where they played dub and latiny style music. They also has connect 4, I love pubs with games!

Thursday and Friday have been spent writing up my report for my project. I've now finished all of the writing up, its now just going to take a long, long time to correct all of it.

Yesterday (Friday) was Mels 21st birthday, so we went to a rugby game in town and watch the Crusaders hammer the Reds (a good thing). It was a lot of fun, and most of the game was spent messing around rather than actually watching it. Afterwards we returned to Mels for a dance party, had a bit of a boogie, and then slept.

It's now Saturday, and Marks 21st. We're going out for lunch soon, and then to 'putt putt' - what Americans call crazy golf... (All my friends here are American, kinda odd, but also great as they always want to get out and see the country).

So, that's whats happened to me of late, not overly exciting. I've got two more weeks in Christchurch, then around 5 weeks of travel coming up. I'm going to head to the north island which I can't wait for. Then back to England, which I'm sort of looking forwards to, but also very much not! I love this country, its definitely a place everyone should come to at least once in their lifetime.


Rob xxx

3 weeks, 3123km of driving later...

This is most likely going to be a huge post, be forewarned. And I'm not going to include any photos in this post, as there's so many that I could put in, it would take up too much space! I'll get some on facebook at some point.

It began 3 weeks ago yesterday, when we picked up our rental car, which then had to be replaced as the tape player wouldn't work (3 weeks in a car and no music = not good!). Once that'd happened we set off and camped near the Moeraki boulders. However, this was harder that it seemed. There's free campsites all over NZ, but they are damn hard to find! After taking a lot of wrong roads, seeing a hedgehog (exciting!), and getting the oddest directions from an odd bar, we set up the tents and went to sleep fairly early. We left quite late as people had classes on Friday, so we hadn't planned on doing anything that day. There were 8 of us in total, in 2 tents.

The next morning we got up early and went to the boulders. They are big (up to 3m diameter) boulders which are perfectly spherical with cracks all over them and hollow in side. No-one knows how they got there, or how they were formed and I found them rather interesting. After there we visited a couple of waterfalls (Purakanui and McLean), a point with a lighthouse on it and cathedral caves, which I think were in Narnia... The caves were huge, and it was possible to walk in one end and out the other. After the caves I went swimming in my boxers, which seemed a good idea at the time, but turned out to be freezing once I'd got out, and also not so good when I realised my towel was in the car, 10 minutes walk away! During the day we also stopped at an amazing art gallery type of thing called the Lost Gypsy. Its a man who's turned an old, big VW van thing (not a camper, bigger) into his workshop. He makes the type of art that does awesome things, i.e. turn a crank and watch wonderous things unfold. He had a big line of coins running through the van, so I gave him a 2 zloty piece which he dad not have. I also bought a necklace there which I actually wear, quite a rare thing for me!

We stayed that night in a park near Invercargill, which wasn't technically somewhere we should've stayed, but we were leaving early so we figured it didn't matter. We got up early on Sunday and headed to Bluff, the most southern town in NZ. Its fairly small and, to be honest, has nothing going for it asides from the oysters and seafood which are found there and are pretty famous. We left our cars here and took an hour long ferry to Steward Island, which is south of NZ and the location of one of the countries great walks. We spent three days doing a fairly easy hike through the island, totalling 36km. It rained a bit, but overall was awesome. The first night was spent at a beautiful beach which was home to some stunning shells, a few of which I've picked up and will be bringing home with me. What I didn't realise however, is that the dead animal thing was still inside one of them, and a few days later caused much gagging when it was brought out of the bag I put it in. All good now though, been soaked and washed out, and animal is out! The second night was spent in a more foresty campsite. Each night we stayed in two tents, and the other sent saw a kiwi during the night, and sadly we didn't. We finished the day in the rain, and got the ferry back to the south island. I really love the hiking over here, and had a great few days.

Upon arriving back at the mainland we drove to Invercargill and had a Hell Pizza, which is an awesome NZ pizza company. Then we drove to another free campsite somewhere. I'm not so good with details, just know it was between Invercargill and Queenstown! I drove this part, and had an interesting experience. I was going fairly fast as it was night, nothing on the road, and there don't appear to be any police in NZ. So, I came up to a one lane bridge, and part way across it I saw a possum. Not being able to swerve, I slowed to about 60km/h, and went over the possum with the middle of the car. A big 'thunk' noise ensued. I got to the end of the bridge and turned around, to see if it was dead or not, expecting it to be pretty bad and that I should run it over again if it looked as if it was dying. Very surprisingly, the possum was running somewhat haphazardly to the other side of the bridge, albeit with a good few chunks of fur missing on its back. We were pretty surprised that no legs looked broken, and that it just looked dazed, so we left it and carried on to the campsite.

Right, so we stayed at a campsite somewhere on Tuesday night, and drove on the next day to Lake Manapouri. And I just remembered that the campsite was up a dirt track somewhere, and it was blooming cold when we woke up! Luke and I went for a walk in the night and saw a moonlit lake which was sweet. Anyhoo, side note over, we got up and drove to Lake Manapouri. We had to drive over a pass, and it had snowed the night before meaning that there were a few inches of snow on the road at the top. Luckily I wasn't driving, and Brady saw us over the pass fine! Lake Manapouri is huge and beautiful; we got breakfast there and continued to a town called Te Anau. We didn't know it at the time, but we'd be frequenting that town a lot. I skated a bit there, and we wandered around, wrote some postcards, etc. Then onwards to Queenstown.

At Queenstown we stayed in a hostel, meaning that we could shower for the first time in 5 days, and also sleep on real beds which was lovely! That night (Wednesday) we went to Fergburger, which is most likely the best burger place in the world. I got a 'Big Al', which weighed far more than any burger should. This is what was in it (as taken from their site); double serving of prime NZ beef (1/2lb), lashings of bacon, a whole lotta cheese, 2 eggs, beetroot, lettuce, tomato, red onion, relish, and a big wad of aioli (I have no idea what that is...). Needless to say, it was awesome.

After a good nights sleep we all got up bright and early. A few people had decided to go bungee jumping from Nevis, the second highest bungee in the world. I decided not to, as it cost a fair bit and instead climbed Queenstown hill by myself. I'm glad I did, as the views from the top were incredible. The lake lay before me, and mountains topped with snow made a stunning backdrop. I've been writing and drawing (albeit badly) a lot, and have done a fair bit on this trip if anyone ever fancies seeing it. That night we went to Fergburger again and got an early night; the next day we were starting the Routeburn, another of NZ's great walks.

We got an early bus to the Routeburn trail from Queenstown, and set off. The first days hike was only about 1.5 hours long, so we had a lot of time to hang out and enjoy the sun. Until 3 o clock that is, when the sun went behind a mountain and it got cold, really fast. We spent the evening playing card games in tents which was nice. The next day was longer, but still nowhere near the time that the DOC (the NZ national park group type thing) told us. We did a 7 hour day in a bit under 4, excluding side tracks and a really long break as we had so much time. The weather was nowhere near as good on this day, with a lot of mist and rain. The Routeburn is meant to be one of the harder great walks, so was a bit of a climb, but nothing major. Teddy, Luke and I did a side track which took us to the top of a mountain. The mountain had snow at the top, and on a clear day must offer some incredible views. Sadly we could only see a few metres in each direction, but it was still worth it in my opinion, just for the sake of doing it!

We carried on, and that night camped at Lake McKenzie. The lake was an emerald green colour, and really nice. There was also a big shelter there, so we wern't always in the rain. After cooking we all got inside a tent again and played some more cards; mostly a game called Mafia which I'll have to teach everyone at home! After a bit of a soggy evening, we all slept and arose the next morning to more mist, but no rain. The hike out from the lake took around 2.5 hours, but longer for Luke and I as we took another side track to a big bog type thing, and a lookout. Again, we couldn't see anything, but we had time to kill so I'm glad we did it. We arrived back at the bus stop at around 1, and the bus wasn't coming til 3, so a wait ensued. The Routeburn passes over a mountain range, so to get to and from each end there's a lengthy bus ride. The one back to Queenstown took about 3.5 hours, and sucked. We also stopped in Te Anau, our second visit there.

That completed Sunday, and that night we stayed in a hostel. We all went to bed early as the next day was another early one; the next day we were going to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is one of the most famous places in New Zealand. It is actually a Fjord, carved out by glaciers a long ass time ago! The sides are incredibly steep, and its just awe inspiring. Annoyingly, the only way to get there is to take the same route as how we got back from the Routeburn, so another long drive, through Te Anau (third time), and to Milford. We took a tour there, and heard some interesting Maori legends from our driver, who said 'guys' more times that we could count. 'And then guys, guys this happened, guys'! Still, it was very interesting. Although Milford Sound is called a sound (meaning carved from rivers), it is actually a fjord (meaning carved out by glaciers). True story. It also rains there 250/365 days a year, and averages 7-9m of rainfall a year, a fair amount.

At the sound we took a ferry tour for about 2 hours. Luke and I were the only people who stayed outside the whole time, everyone else went in when the rain got really heavy, but we figured we'd been outside long enough that it didn't matter anymore! We're both completists, it shows...! Happily it didn't rain for the first hour or so, so we got incredible views of waterfalls and the sound. My camera (which is actually my sisters) didn't do so well here, and got a tad wet, all good now though! The boat tour was awesome, the sound is very mystical; great peaks and cliffs rise straight out of the mist and water, and due to the rain there are waterfalls everywhere. That's something I forgot to mention. The half hours drive up to the sound was crazy; waterfalls running down the mountains every 15 metres or so, and each one fast and beautiful, really never seen anything else like it. So, the boat tour ended, and we soggily got back on board the bus for another 4-5 hour ride back to Queenstown, accompanied with our fourth and final visit to Te Anau.

This is getting rediculously long, and I'm only about halfway through here, massive congratulations if you're still reading this, hopefully you're finding it interesting!

On Tuesday we headed up towards the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, with a stop in a picturesque town called Wanaka. To most of us, it seemed like the nicest town you could possibly live in, ever. The town itself was just about the right size, on a lake, and was surrounded by mountains. The shops were mainly locally owned, with a couple of supermarkets, and it just seemed idyllic. Sadly we had to move on, and we spent the night at a free campsite near the glaciers.

Wednesday involved a days guided hike on the Franz Josef Glacier. The Fox and Franz glaciers were the only tow in the world that were growing, until 8 months ago for the Franz, and last month for the Fox. Most glaciers grow and recede in 5 year cycles, but with global warming and whatnot they may never grow again.At the base we donned crampons, and got on the glacier. Brady, Josh, Teddy, Luke and I opted to go in the front group (there were 6 total), which meant we'd be going faster and over less well made paths. The glaciers is incredible in that it looks small, but is in fact huge. What looked about a kilometre away was in fact around 5. I showed Rohan a pic of the glacier, and he assumed it was tiny, until he realised that the dots in the middle of it were people! I'll get some pics up at some point. So, we spent the day there, and explored ice caves, and went through channels that were so narrow your could only just get through them if you went sideways. The blue colour of the the ice is amazing; there is not air in it as it is so compact, and there's no way to describe it. I tried to come up with different names for the blue with the others, and I don't think we captured it. Some suggested glacial blue, but that's far too unoriginal!

After another nights sleep at the free campsite we awoke to torrential rain. After packing up very hurriedly and relocating to a petrol station where we repacked we decided to head north to Greymouth and see what the weather was like there. It was still raining. We decided to stay the night in a hostel, and ended up staying in a YHA that used to be a monastery. It was awesome. Not much else happened that day really...

We were planning on staying around til Saturday, but as the weather was bad we decided to head back to Christchurch that day (Friday), via Arthurs Pass. The weather cleared up as we went through, so we were able to spend some time climbing at Castle Hill which was nice. I cut my toe which sucked.

And so we returned to Christchurch, 2 weeks later, travels far from complete though!

After a lot of sleep and showering, we arose on Saturday and decided to do nothing, and it was lovely. That night I went out with Rosie and friends. It was her going away party, as she is finished here, and travelling before going to England. We ended up going to a Samoan bar, and I have never felt so white in all my life. I had a fantastic night, certainly a very different to usual one!

Right, this is such a marathon entry I've taken two days so far to write it, onwards into day 3 of writing.

So, Sunday last we went to the town of Lyttleton, which is near Christchurch. Its a harbour town, and very prettyful. I had a huuuge ice cream there for not much, which was lush, and then we went on to a chocolate shop where I had a white chocolate mocha thing, which to be honest wasn't that special. We kept moving around the coast, and got to governors bay, where we walked along a jetty and watched two girls fishing. They were pulling up baby dogfish every few minutes, pretty useless for them, but nice to watch. That finished Sunday off.

On Monday Brady and I went surfing at Sumner. The surf was 3ft and beautifully clean. I had some fantastic waves that just kept going and going, no closeouts at all. There was a longboard club there as well, and some of the guys who must've been 50 or so we're crazy good. In the evening we wandered into town, and I got a message from a friend from Auckland saying he was in town, so we met up for a bit, then I went to see Rosie again, and went to bed. This was the last time I'd see her in NZ, and it was really sad, and made me realise what a good friend she'd become. It also made me realise that I only had two more months left here, a scary thought.

Monday night heralded the return of our friends who'd gone to Australia for the break, and we all met up on Tuesday to catch up, and go to a place called Akaroa, which is at the end of the Christchurch peninsula. The main reason for going was that most of the Americans had vouchers o go swimming with dolphins there; I just wanted to see the town and have a wander around. Over an hours drive later, and we arrived only to find that they'd cancelled the boat out as the sea was too rough outside of the harbour; fairly shitty on the companies behalf not to tell anyone. Instead we looked around for a while, then went to Sumner to have a surf, only to find that there was none. Shitty dude.

On Wednesday 9 of us drove to Mt Cook. We figured we'd done all the outside of the south island, but not the middle, hence the Mt Cook trip. Mt Cook is the highest mountain in the country, at 3700m or so. We got there Wednesday night fairly late and spent some time playing tent games, before falling asleep.

I woke up fairly early on Thursday and went for a walk for a couple of hours and got back at around 10, to find most of the others just waking up. Once everyone was up and had eaten breakfast we set out on a 3 hour round trip to a glacial lake. Being the clever kids we are, Brady and I decided to go swimming in this lake; how often do you get the chance to swim in a lake with a glacier in it!? It was rediculously cold. It took us a while to actually get the courage to do it, and we had planned to swim to a block of ice about 15m from the shore, but as soon as we fully submerged we both came up gasping for air it was so cold, and promptly ran to shore! After warming up we carried on walking for a while. Teddy and I did some extreme skipping over boulders and whatnot, and ended up a way ahead of the others, who ended up turning back. We plowed on towards the glacier across some very steep rocky slopes, and reached the glacier in time to see a massive boulder fly from the top of it into the lake which was sweet to see. We sat watching the glacier for a while; every couple of minutes or so pieces of ice or rocks from the top would fall off of it, so it made for interesting viewing!

Whilst we were sitting there we heard rocks starting to fall a long way above us, and turned to see a mountain goat bounding along the top of the ridge far above us. Luckily it had only dislodged a few rocks and they didn't fall very far. We returned to the campsite, ate and played more tent games. We played one called 'pigs in a blanket', which involves one person leaving the tent, and one of the others getting inside a sleeping bag. The person outside the tent returns blindfolded and proceeds to poke the person in the bag, who in turn oinks like a pig and the blindfolded person has to guess who it is. It sounds pretty weird, but is hilarious.

The next day Brady, Emily, Teddy, Josh and I climbed to the Mueller hut, which is around 1900m up, about a 1000m climb from where we were camped. It took around 3 hour to do, and at the top we were rewarded some of the most amazing views of the surrounding area; this ranged from Mt Cook, snow capped mountains, to lakes and plains below. Now and again we'd hear a massive 'crack' noise and look at the mountain across the valley and watch avalanches flow down them, something I don't think any of us had ever seen before. At the top we met a Californian man who must've been about 60 who had been there for two nights and was simply sleeping on a thermarest in his sleeping bag outside - proper hardcore! We chilled at the top for a couple of hours and Brady and I climbed another 100m or so to the top of Mt Olliver, apparently the first mountain Sir Edmund Hillary climbed. We then went down, which went far faster than the going up and returned to Christchurch where our trip ended.

All in all, the trip was fantastic, and pretty much everything went according to plan. I am so glad I chose to come here, I can't ever see myself having this experience again.

Since I began writing this I haven't done much; just watched movies and seen friends. Yesterday (Sunday) I went to a very good church service which I was happy about, and tonight we're doing a pot luck where everyone brings a dish and shares. I've made cheesecake, yay!


I hope if you've read this its managed to stay interesting and you haven't nodded off too many times!

Miss you all, and see you in a couple of months,

Rob xxx

Holy Moley this place is awesome

So we did the Abel Tasman track last week, and it was epic. There were 14 of us all told, which is a fairly big group for a hiking track.

We arrived at our campsite late on Wenesday and set up camp in the dark (after about 4.5 hours of driving) at a place called Nelson Lakes, and then spent a long time star gazing. There were so many shooting stars incredible. I woek up the earliest and went for a walk, and was soon joined by Sharon. The mist curled over the mountains in the most incredible way, and everything was so still and peaceful. Words and pictures cannot describe anything from the weekend, nothing does it justice at all.

Later we went on to Nelson and visited the jeweller where the one ring for LOTR was made, it wasn't overly exciting to be honest! We then tried to find a campsite that night, which was a bit of a mission... We drove about 15km (I think) out of our way, and were halfway to the site we were going to and then decided it was too far, and turned back to another one. This one happened to be along 11km of the most ghetto dirt track ever, parts of it were taken straight from a horror movie. It took around 35 minutes to go this 11km... Our rental cars were not feeling the love that night!

In the morning we got up early to get to the start of the Abel Tasman track. Abel Tasman was the first European to reach NZ, but never made it ashore due to the Maori not wanting them there so could not claim it for Holland (and we got it, woop!). We had to get a water taxi to the start, which took around two hours. Our boat driver was awesome, we stopped a lot for him to show us tihngs such as split apple rock, a seal isalnd and penguins. When we arrived it was literally like stepping onto a desert island. Beautiful golden sands, clear skies and seas, I just can't convery how incredible it was!

We walked for a fair while that day through jungle and across beach. At one point we had a water crossing which we could only do at low tide, so a relaxing wait ensued for a few hours. I went wandering by myself for a bit and had a beach to myself with no other human insight, it was wonderful. There were also hundreds of crabs all over the shore which were interesting. I also found a whole urchin shell which I'm stoked about.

That night we set up camp at a designated campsite and star gazed again. We treid to find the southern cross which was in a different place according to who you listened too...

The next day was more of the same, breathtaking scenery at every turn. We stopped part way the second day at a natural pool called Cleopatra's pool which also had a natural water slide - good times! The tramp was around 24 miles total I think, and one of the most amazing hikes of my life.

I've started keeping a notebook on me, and its now getting filled with thoughts, drawings and the like, and a lot are from here (so far). If anyone wants to see these when I'm back please don't hesitate to ask, I'm pretty happy with most of it, even though my art is not quite the best!

After the trail we had an amazing burger and I skated a fair way by myself. The idea was that the cars would catch up with me and pick me up, and about 10 minutes later Sharon's car drew up and asked if I had the key to the other car in my pocket, which I did. They wern't overly happy with that... The car ride after that was awesome, Jon, Brady, Luke and I had the funniest drive ever, full of car games and masses of banter.

Saturday night was spent at another campsite, but more towads the east coast, and Sunday was taken up with the drive home. We also had a look around Picton, one of the larger towns on the south island. It was pretty small and quaint. On the drive back we stopped at a beach which had really dark sand due to volcanic activity, was really different and interesting.

Over the four day trip I swam at least once every day, and on the first three days I got a swim in (always by myself, no-one else wanted to join this early) before breakfast. Life is AWESOME.

Theres three pictures below, there are no best ones so I just picked three of the ncier ones at random. Theres some more on my facebook if anyone wants to see more.

On Friday I'm off for three weeks to travel around the south island, taking in the Routeburn and Stewart Island tracks, Queenstown, Milford Sound, the glaciers, Mt. Cook, Lake Tekapo and wherever else we end up. I'll write more on the road if I get a chance, if not, catch you in a few weeks!

Love,
Rob x

Hello

To be honest, not a whole lot has happened to me this week, I'm just writing to let you know I'm still alive.

The weather was fairly poo this weekend, I did a 30km skate Saturday morning, got to the top of a massive mountain (had to walk the first few km up it, skated the rest, the cyclist I kept up to was pretty impressed, as were some other cyclists at the top!) and then it started to pee it down. The skate down wasn't as fun as intended, as soon as I got to the steeper section I promptly stacked it just trying to carve some speed off, and I ended up walking down as it was too wet and dangerour to skate. Very depressing. BUT, I have got standup slides nailed, which is awesome. That may mean something to about two people who may be reading this....

Oooh, on Friday I went to a two dollar store, and bought an amazing suit jacket which is a beigey dar yellow with a green and brown pattern. I felt bad leaving there without buying a suit jacket as they were so cheap.

I've worked pretty hard today and yesterday, and really exhausted now, so going to head to bed. Tomorrow evening we're leaving for Nelson (I'm taking Thursday and Friday off work) to do some travelling and walk the Abel Tasman track. Theres 14 of us going in two rented cars and Heathers, weather looks great and it should be an awesome weekend. Will write about it when I get back I guess.

Tata x

Some pics

Its so hard to chose what to put in here, so heres a few. Theres many, many more on my facebook.