Franz Josef

Franz Josef is a little town squashed between a glacier and the Tasman Sea. The main reason for being here was to hike for the day over the glacier. We all kitted out in boots, and some very nice wet weather gear and headed to the glacier with a guide in pouring rain and low cloud. The glacier is 12km long and you can only see 4km of it from the valley where we were and we walked about 1.5km of it. A maori legend explains the glaciers formation as a maidens frozen tears, crying after her lover fell to his death after climbing a nearby mountain. Thankfully the cloud cleared in the afternoon so we could see all the amazing shades of blue the ice was. It was so much fun to be climbing up ice carved step and squeezing through crevasses and it certainly showed how huge the glacier is. I have another full day in Franz Josef and was planning to go sky diving but sadly the bad weather has come in from the south and it's been cancelled but looking out of the window now its clear blue sky!

Punakaiki

We headed down the wild West coast which certainly lived up to its name as we had a day of strong winds and rain. We drove through the Buller gorge and had a short walk to a seal colony at Cape Foulwind which was actually great fun as a we tried to stand up in the wind and saw lots of seal pups lying on the rocks. Next stop was Punakaiki which is famous for its layered 'Pancake' rocks. The rocks were pretty cool but it's definitely not as great as it's made out to be. Worth a stop though. We stayed the night in Barry Town which has about 6 houses and a pub to its name. We stayed in the pub and as there's nothing to the town the stop becomes the place for a fancy dress party which was great fun. I got up super early the next morning to carve a piece of greenstone into a pendant for a necklace. The pendant took 4.5 hours to make and I got one on one instruction from a local carver into how all the tools work and I was amazed how difficult it was to carve and then you have to polish it in 3 different ways. I'm pretty happy with my unique souvenir. The design is off a fish hook which is important in Maori mythology as a fish hook was used to haul the north island out of the water (the north island looks like a fish). It also represents strength, determination, and brings peace, prosperity, good health and safe travel over water which I thought was quite appropriate.

Abel Tasman National Park

I had 2 full days to explore Abel Tasman NP and I was really looking forward to it. Its a coastal national park on the north west of the south island and has the highest number of sunshine hours in New Zealand. I spent a morning walking through the coastal rain forest, past some stunning beaches and then took a catamaran sailing trip back to town. The day was really good and its hard to believe how yellow the sand was and the colour of the water. Definitely one of the best places I've been to yet. On the sailing trip we went past a fur seal colony and also took a swim to Split Apple rock. Despite the sunny weather the water was absolutely freezing! There was so much you could do here- kayaking, days of walking, sky diving and various other aerial trips. It's been nice to just chill out.

Picton

The ferry to the South Island takes a surprisingly long 3 and half hours but it went quickly due to a selection of Disney films being played. I arrived early evening into Picton which is a quiet town with not a lot to it. I am only spending 1 night here but there apparently is really good walking tracks so I may make a pit stop on the way back to Auckland. The views of Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton are stunning and exactly what I thought New Zealand would look like. I'm hoping the scenery is going to continue. Today I am leaving to go to Abel Tasman National Park where I'm staying for 3 nights but there is only 2 nights of accommodation available. That should be interesting!

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand but only the 3rd largest. It doesn't feel like a capital as there isn't a lot here. It has been nice to have 3 nights of lie in though. It rained for the entire of the 1st day and was very cold so I felt it fit to hit the national museum 'Te Papa'. The museum is a bit of an odd mix of New Zealand natural history, with scientific and Maori takes on the countries formation. Its also got an art gallery within it. The highlight was definitely the giant squid specimen which was absolutely disgusting but definitely cool!

Wellington is known as the windy city and it definitely lives up to its name. The winds created by a very narrow passage on the Cook Strait created by some faulting. Some one had a great idea of building the city on an active fault line which is blatantly obvious from the harbour. This led to Daisy our bus driver giving us earthquake 'advice' as we left the bus! Another cold morning and I decide to buy jeans which after 9 months I haven't felt the need for. There was limited selection due to shops being closed due to a public holiday (Wellington Anniversary Day- unsure what it is!) and as soon as I buy them the sun comes out. Typical! I decided to get the cable car up a hill to the botanic gardens and some fab views over the city and harbour. I took a quick look at the parliament building which is know n as the 'beehive' and also the 3rd ugliest building in the world. I have to agree!

Tongariro National Park

The Tongariro crossing is classed as the best day walk in New Zealand so some of us spent 6.5 hours walking 17km of it. Mt Tongariro is a dormant volcano which no longer has its conical shape. The crossing walk takes you along the crater rim with some spectacular views across the plains and Lake Taupo. It was steep in some sections with some freezing winds but it was worth it. The path takes you up the side of neighbouring volcano Mt Ngauruhoe which is now more commonly known as Mt Doom thanks to Lord of the Rings which was shot here and with the surrounding plains being Mordor. Mt Ngauruhoe is actually a vent off the magma chamber under Mt Tongariro and had erupted in the last 30 years leaving some lava flows to look at. After a tiring day it was great to get back to a very nice hostel which was more like a wing off a hotel. I treated myself to some proper food in the bar and upgraded to a 4 bed shared loft which was 4 twin beds over 2 levels with an en suite. A fantastic stay and hopefully somewhere I can pop back to on my way back to Auckland. Sadly the national park was also the place to say goodbye to some of my newly found friends who have been great company over the past few days but I hope I'll catch them somewhere else on the bus route. Next stop is Wellington for a few nights of rest.

Rotorua and Taupo

We stopped for a morning in Rotorua which is very geothermally active and as a result stinks of sulphur and is full of pools of steaming water and boiling mud which is pretty cool. After lunch we stopped at Huka falls which are just outside Taupo. The waterfalls arn't visited for their height but instead for the amount of water that is pumped down the Waikato River. The falls can fill 5 Olympic size pools in 1 minute. We spent the night in Taupo which is on the edge of Lake Taupo. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in New Zealand is actually a huge crater left by a super volcano that erupted 26,000 years ago. It's the first place that we have come to with a bit of a night life and it was great to go out for a few drinks in a pub with some of the people on the bus. Its been really nice to actually have the same company for a few days and not have to meet new people everyday and repeat conversations over and over again. 1 drink actually turned into quite a late night (I'm blaming the Irish) but a great time all the same. We were all to get up super early the next morning and head to Tongariro National Park for some walking.

Maketu

From Raglan we headed south to the sun and Waitomo caves. These are a huge network of limestone caves and most of us had signed up to go black water rafting which is actually tubing. We kitted out in a couple of layers of thick wet suites and headed to the caves. I thought I'd signed up for a lazy river type thing looking at glow worms but it was actually a caving trip and we scrambled over the rocks and squeezed through gaps and the tubing sector was actually pretty small. The caving was so much fun though and the glow worms were amazing.

After a tiring few hours we headed back over to the East coast to Maketu on the Bay of Plenty. Here we were to have a bit of a cultural evening as we stayed with a local Maori family who earnt extra pennies by housing the entire bus in their meeting house (a huge hall), putting on a little concert and feeding us traditional food which I certainly didn't expect it to be roast chicken, beef stew, potato and stuffing! The family was really cool and it was interesting to see Maori culture as the family are descendant's of the Arawa tribe and they allocated our tribe a chief and greeted us the traditional way of shaking hands and pressing noses together. The boys learnt the Haka (All Blacks style) which they were really good at. The girls all learnt the Poi which is a ball on a string which you swing and catch in time to music. It was definitely harder than I thought it was going to be. I was dreading the evening before we got there but it was actually a fun evening and the family were lovely. I wish we weren't woken up at 7am to the entire of Abba's greatest hits though!

Hahei and Raglan

We arrived in Hahei which is a little coastal town in the Coromandal region on the north East coast mid afternoon after a sunny travel day. It's famous for being a very scenic strip of coast with excellent kayaking but within about 10 minutes of getting off the bus the clouds rolled in! I went for a walk down the beach to Cathedral cove but sadly by the time I got there it was raining lots. Near Hahei is Hot Water Beach which has patches of geothermic hot water pooling at the surface at low tide. Low tide was at about 10.30pm so we all piled into the bus in the rain to dig a pit on the beach. It was a really odd experience but the water was far too hot to sit in.

The next morning and still raining we headed over the the west coast to the surf spot of Raglan. I was hoping to go body boarding but we were staying 45 minutes walk from the beach and the weather wasn't great to be sitting out. Instead a few of us went on a rain forest walk around the hostel which was lots of fun despite the fact it was pretty steep and slippery in the mud.

Auckland, New Zealand

Getting to Auckland was possibly the worst day since I left in April. Nowhere had I read that I needed a return ticket to get into the country so I was very surprised when the check in lady wouldn't let me check in until I'd bought a return ticket. Que panic. I could have easily have bought a return ticket but didn't want to be restricted by location and dates so I didn't. A frantic hour of internet searching and calls home and I had a ticket but had to queue up again. 30 minutes before my flight was due to leave and I'm being fast tracked through the security queue only to be stopped for having a penknife in my bag (annoying as I'd actually put this into my hand luggage accidentally whilst trying to make my checked in bag lighter!). I ran to the gate with 2 minutes before the flight was due to leave only to find out that it was delayed 1 hour. I wasn't very impressed! The flight however was excellent with Air New Zealand as they had endless films to choose from and they gave you a cup of tea and I also landed an aisle seat with no one on the other side which was nice.

Landing in Auckland was another nightmare as the queues for nothing to declare and declare are as long as each other. Going into NZ you have to declare practically everything as they are really high on bio security so after a rummage through my bags for museli bars and my walking shoes I was free to go. Getting into the city was easy as I just hopped on the airport bus but I wasn't very happy about the driver blaming me the whole way for the fact he was running 4 minutes late as he should have left on time and I would have just caught the next bus!

So, Auckland, a harbour city in which the centre feels pretty compact and is nicknamed the 'city of sails'' due to the large amount of boats however I think 'city of hills' is much more appropriate as they seem to appear out of nowhere! There isn't a huge amount to do in the city so I've just had a walk around the harbour which looks out on lots of little islands and the water in the sun is green coloured which is pretty cool. I also met fellow Odysseyers Katie and Taylor for a pub lunch which was lovely to be able to catch up them. I will be returning to Auckland so i'll see what there is to do day trip wise later.

I have booked a hop on hop off bus ticket which goes around both islands, however its not gone so simple as the buses are all booked for the week even then I can only get Auckland to Wellington in the minimum number of days which is 5 and then only stopping off at the compulsory overnight stops for 1 night which is a shame. However I have now booked the South Island with some longer stops which will be better. It's really annoying as it means the flexible bus ticket isn't flexible at all! All the bus problems means that I would miss my flight back to Sydney so I had to change it which I have later realised has cost me more than just buying a new ticket which was a pretty stupid mistake.

To fill in the time before I head south I have booked on a 3 day tour of the Bay of Islands which I'm on now- WIFI on the bus so I'll let you know how that goes. So far it's been a rubbish start to New Zealand but I'm really glad to be here as the Australia floods have now hit Brisbane and NZ is also a little cheaper that Australia. I'm really looking forwards to some amazing scenery and some crazy adrenalin activities.

Sydney

With Forresters Beach just a short hour and a half trip on the train I headed into the city. I popped straight out to catch up with my old school friend Roisin before she headed to Melbourne. Roisin and I haven't seen each other in 4 years so it was great to have a quick catchup and it was like 4 years hadn't passed! I've had 9 days in Sydney which is the longest that I've not moved since I left the UK. Sydney's a great city and there is so much to do. I could happily fill another few days here. I been around the Rocks which is 'old' Sydney, Darling Harbour, the Botanic gardens, walked around the opera house in sunshine and cloud (it looks much better in the sun. In cloud it's a stack of dirty white tiles), china town, and walked around every free museum and art gallery there is going. A definite highlight is seeing an exhibition of the first emperor of China's terracotta warriors. I queued forever to buy a ticket and then forever again to see the warriors but they were fantastic. The exhibition displayed 8 men and 2 horses and it was great to see the size and detail of the statues which were much taller than I thought they were going to be. The warriors are supposed to be life size but they were over 2m tall so maybe the Chinese were bigger back then! The photo of me is with a replica warrior which they sold in the gift shop. Would make a great ornament for the front garden but sadly it was $2000.

Sydney is only 2 hours by train from Katoomba, the largest town in the Blue Mountains National Park. I spent the whole day in the park wandering around the walking tracks which features many 1000 steps up and down the valley and getting lots of different views of the main attraction, the rock formation 'The 3 Sisters'. The mountains were stunning especially as the morning mist started to rise and they really are blue! The blue haze is created as the oily vapour released by the eucalyptus trees mixes with water vapour and dust in the air. I also went on the steepest funicular in the world at 56 degrees which was a little scary as you head backwards into the unknown with your bum sliding off the seat! The funicular was first created in the 19th century coal mining days and as a result there are bits of old mining equipment dotted about the forest which was quite interesting to look at. I had a great day trudging through mud and looking at waterfalls and it was nice not to have to wait for a coach load of other people!

Another 'must do' from Sydney is a 30 minute trip on the ferry to Manly. I walked 20km of the Manly Scenic Walkway which gave me some fantastic views over the harbour and into some very nice swimming beaches which I didn't have time to take advantage of. It seems that you can do every watersport imaginable here and Manly is a lot more than just the Bondi rival I thought it was! I would love to come back for a few nights stay and a hunt for work.

Tomorrow I'm flying to New Zealand on a last minute decision. I was originally going to head to New Zealand after Australia, but seeing that Queensland is flooded I wouldn't be able to get any north of Brisbane so I thought I'd go now whilst Australia dries out! So next stop will be Auckland.

Forresters Beach

After a week in Port Mac I was ready to leave. I headed south to fellow Odyssey member Kaye's house for a few days over New Year. It was great to meet her family and have a bed, my own room and some food that wasn't pasta! Her house was gorgeous and very near the beach which is classed as busy when 10 people are on it. It was great to meet some of her friends for New Year which involved watching the Sydney fireworks on the TV and a trip to the beach with some amazing stars. Thanks so much to the Hopping's for having me, it was a great break from hostel life!