I loved the full day glacier hike at Franz Josef. I was kitted out in a very sexy blue rain jacket with an even sexier red bum bag. I think we did 5 hours of hiking = a very tired me! I really did have a fun day though and the sun was shining for us (until an hour before the end of the hike and it chucked it down!). I could hardly walk in the beastly hiking boots they gave me that also gave me blisters on my heels. Ouch. My treat at the end of the hike? A lovely mug of hot chocolate to warm me up. I fell asleep so early that night.

The day after the hike we made our way to Queenstown. What’s the first thing you do when you get to Queenstown? Go to Fergburger of course. It’s a really popular burger café in Queenstown, I got the Sweet Bambi burger. Best burger I’ve ever had. 

I really like Queenstown. On my day off from the bus I got the gondola up the mountain and saw some amazing views of the town. Just amazing. There were lots of hand gliders hovering around in the sky. A few of us from the bus decided to have a go on the Luge. It was so much fun and boy can those things go fast. I nearly tipped myself over at one point. 

The next day the people I had become friendly with on the bus all went our separate ways. I headed further south to a place called Invercargill. Don’t ever go here; there is nothing at all to do. I ended up going to the cinema to entertain myself. 

The next day however we made our way to Milford Sounds. What a stunning part of New Zealand. We took a 2 hour boat cruise up and down the sound and I was blown away by how beautiful it was. The pictures really don’t do it justice.

I haven’t been feeling too great the last few days, one of the negatives of travelling on a bus of 30 people every day. Never mind. I feel a little better today and I’m back in Queenstown for one night ready for another Fergburger, mmm. 

I wrote the above a few days ago, so here are some more awesome things I’ve done;

Stayed at the base of Mt Cook with our room overlooking the glacier.

Stayed in a hostel that had triple bunkbeds! 

Stayed in a little sea side town called Kaikoura. The sun was shining and it was beautiful, even the seals were sunning themselves on the beach. 

I’m now in Wellington, windy Wellington. Back to Rotorua tomorrow and then Auckland the day after that. 

It’s less than a month to Christmas! I’m so excited!  

(Can't put pictures on yet)

I'm really enjoying Queenstown.

Only have a few minutes on the internet but will try get to Mcdonalds or something.

2 weeks left of being a 24 year old.

Ekk!

Sweet as bro! 

I have fallen in love with New Zealand already. It is so beautiful here. It reminds me more of home than Australia does. True fact: There are LOTS of sheep in New Zealand.

I spent the first week in the North Island doing the following; 

I flew in to Auckland at 2am Saturday morning and only spent one day in the city so didn’t get to see much. The weather wasn’t great but I made myself go out and met up with a friend from Newcastle so saw at least a little of the city. I got a NZ sim so just let me know if you want the number until I get back to Australia.

The next day I started the Stray bus. I have never met so many Germans on one bus in my life! Stray is a little different from the bus I got up the East coast of Australia. Most of the bus has stayed together (and will stay together until Queenstown). 

On the first day we travelled to a place called Hahei where they have hot water pools in the sand at low tide. Unfortunately low tide was at 11pm and was 8km away so no hot sand pools for us. We did a nice walk instead to somewhere called Cathedral Cove, I found out the beach here is where they filmed scenes from The Chronicles of Narnia. 

I have also been black water rafting in Waitomo. You dress up in sexy wetsuits and gumboots then crawl, swim, float on a rubber tubes around underground caves. Some of the guys almost got stuck in in the tiny holes we had to crawl through. At certain points we had to turn our flashlights out and walk around in total darkness with only glow worms guiding us. It was really cool!

We stopped at a surf spot called Raglan. It was really chilled and relaxed and the surfing instructor had a Bobbie dog, I fell in love with the dog. We found out the next day that the surf instructor was going to be our bus driver for the next few days. He was an awesome Maori guy who is quite possibly the dizziest man I have ever met. We then travelled Rotorua and spent a few hours looking around the natural hot springs there. My god it smelt so bad of eggs because of the Sulphur. No way could I live in this town. We stop here on the way back up to Auckland so I might do zorbing depending on time. We also stopped at the National Park to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing but the weather was bad so the hike was called off. The views here are amazing, snow topped mountains in the background of lush greenery. Just wow. Next we stopped a night a Blue Duck Farm. The weather was beautiful and they had baby lambs, piglets and horses running around the place.

But the best thing I have done in the 10 months I have been away is………..

A freaking sky dive baby!

I jumped out of a plane at 15,000ft over Lake Taupo. I can’t begin to describe how amazing it feels to free fall before the parachute opens. We got picked up by a limousine that then took us to the air field. I hadn’t actually planned on doing it in Taupo but the weather was good and within half an hour I was in a plane looking down at the ground below. I didn’t give myself time to get nervous! I got the dvd but can’t put it up on here yet because my netbook doesn’t have a cd drive. I’ll do it as soon as possible though. You get some amazing views of up my nostrils haha. 

In the south island we have only been to Able Tasman and now in a town called Greymouth on the west coast of New Zealand. I find the town a little bit off. Think of the tv show ‘ A League of Gentleman’. We all had a good time last night and made various fancy dress costumes out of bin bags. I had three other people in my room so we decided to dress up as a deck of cards – I was Queen of hearts. Today we make our way to Franz Josef and tomorrow do a full day glacier hike.

But for now, Kia Ora!

 Cathedral Cove

 Cathedral Cove

 Able Tasman National Park

 Blue Duck Farm

 Tongariro National Park - Mount Doom!

 Inspiration Point - Raglan

 Black swans at Rotorua

 Wine tasting in Marlborough

I went to Freemantle yesterday. It's a tiny place but pretty to walk around.

I'm going to New Zealand in the morning! Excited doesn't even describe how I feel right now. I'm spending my last day in Perth and guess what, it's raining. Boo to you weather. It has been beautiful the last few days though. They have started putting up Christmas decorations in the street and it's the oddest thing to see when it's 30 degrees outside.

I booked the Stray bus to take me around New Zealand. It's a hop on hop off bus and takes me all around both islands. I looked at my bank balance after and cried. That's what you get when you go off travelling for months on end! 

I'm going to buy a NZ sim when I get there so will let you all know the number on Saturday. NZ is 11 hours ahead of you guys. Hopefully I can get on to skype. If not, I'll just keep updating this for you.

Don't go worrying about me! I'll be back in Sydney on 2nd December. 

XXX