We stayed in Wellington for three nights. There wasn't much to do there to be honest, however its the first place you land in the North Island, and it is also the capital. We got the ferry ffrom Picton in the south, it took about three and a half hours. It was similar to going on a channel crossing, but the ferry was much smaller. We did go outside for a bit but it was very cold and windy so we didn't stay out long. It was a pretty boring journey. IIn Wellington...

We arrived in Nelson on 2nd September quite late in the evening. The next day we spent preparing for our 5 day hike in Abel Tasman National park. We booked return transport to and from the national park and got several maps. We spoke to the department of conservation and got the times for high and low tide as there as several estuaries that can only be crossed at certain times. We also had to sort out our hut tickets. I managed to pick up some good hiking style t...

After staying in Fox Glacier for nearly two weeks, we had a bit of catching up to do to make sure we had enough time for the North Island. We decided to miss a few of the towns on the West Coast like Hokitika and Greymouth, and head straight up to Punakaiki where we were only going to stay for one night. The bus ride took about 6 hours, but it was a nice drive along the coast, and we went through both Hokitiki and Greymouth on the way. We had a lunch break i...

We ended up spending two weeks in Fox Glacier from 19th August to 1 September. During this time we worked in a hostel in exchange for free accommodation. The work mainly involved bed making and cleaning, with Alan occasionally tackling more manly jobs such as wood chopping and gardening. We were meant to work about 3hrs a day, from 10am-1am but more often than not we finished early as the hostel wasn't that busy. After the first few days of sunshine it rained alm...

We arrived in a rainy Queenstown at around two thirty in the afternoon. The bus journey from Dunedin had taken about four hours, but there was plenty of nice scenery on the way, so it flew by. We took the short walk up the hill to our hostel, then checked into a nice double room as it was only marginally more expensive than two dorm beds. Once we were settled in we walked down into town to get our bearings. The town itself is a pretty little ski town, situa...