We had booked the Kiwi Experience bus to tour us around the North and South island of New Zealand. We were a bit anxious at first because we heard the bus is known as the 'shag bus' for an average age group of 18 year olds (which wasn't what we wanted from our time in NZ) but we were pleasantly suprised to find it wasn't like that at all. We spent a day in Auckland on arrival in NZ, the city was nice, it reminded me of Melbourne with lots of cafes and bars. In Auckland, we met a friend - Adam Blin who was going to be travelling NZ on the Kiwi bus with us too - from 2 people to 3. We went out for dinner in Auckland to a restaurant owned by one of Emilys university friends siblings. Em was quite sure that dinner would be covered but unfortunatley it wasnt - a steak and a couple of glasses of wine later - we had learnt our lesson. We boarded the Kiwi bus from Auckland and met our driver Nathan (known as 'Smiley' on the road). Em, I and Ad secured our seats at the front of the bus (the new cool place to sit). We were sitting with 3 girls from Derbyshire that we had met in Fiji, Sarah, Lisa and Jenny - little did we know that 3 weeks later, the 5 of us girls would be best friends. We were also sitting with Aaron (an abercrombie model, the one who stands at the door topless taking pictures with customers) and his sister Lucy. All lovely people and a great group. Our first stop on the bus was Mt. Eden with 360 views of Auckland which isnt that impressive really. We stopped at a supermarket - since my splash out of dinner the night before and too many nights partying in Oz, I am on a a bit of a budget so bread, jam and pasta for the next 3 weeks it was (not that I am complaining!) We then headed to Cathedral Cove, a beautiful beach and it was stunning weather. Em and Ad went kayaking and myself and the girls went for the free option and sunbathed. It was a long walk to the cove but was well worth it at the end. The weather was such a nice surprise as we head the weather in NZ was to be very cold. We checked into our hostel in Mercury Bay (in 1769 Captain Cook anchored his ship here), the hostel was called Turtle Cove and was lovely. We spent the evening as a big group getting to know each other under the stars, was a really chilled out night. The next day we left early heading to Rotorua. We went for a walk around the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to explore the bush clad gorge, there were great views, we walked through caves and saw lots of glow worms, and crossed over swing bridges. We jumped back on the bus and Smiley stopped for a 'Smiley extra' - a rock jump into the river. We then passed through towns called Paeroa and Te Aroha (mountain of love). Then stopped at Matamata, the filming location of Lord of the Rings - a location called Hobbiton. So we stopped for a photo opportunity. Next stop was Tamaki Maori village where we got an hour and a half tour of Te Puia, NZ most well known thermal park with geysers, boiling mud, a kiwi bird house and an authentic Maori village. The geysers were 90 degrees - so hot and smelt pretty bad of sulphur but it was still pretty cool to see. Last stop of the day was the Hot Rocks hostel is Rotorua - an unusual town with a very distinctive smelll. That night was Toga night at the bar!

From Rotorua we headed to Waitomo for our Black Abyss Caving trip. None of us had read the brochure but we heard it was a must do activity in NZ so we all signed up. We all got given wet suits, socks, shoes, jackets, balaclavas, helmets and absailing equipment. We learnt how to absail before doing the real thing. We all then absailing down 30m into a narrow pitch black cave, I was so nervous the whole time but it was wicked. Once in the cave we walked over to a zip wire and we all zip wired at 60mph in the dark over a big hole. We then walked into a big area in the cave where we were given hot chocolate and flapjacks. After the quick food break, we were given tyre rings in which we had to jump into the water landing in the ring. The water was freezing and the jump was hard on the water, such a thrill. Once allin, we rafted down though a glow worm cave and all turned our head lights off. Aaron was in front of me and hid behind a rock, jumped out and scared the life out of me. We then put our legs on each others tyres to make an eel shape and the guides pulled us along while we lay back watching the glow worms. We got out our tyres, still freezing and had to swim through water to this big slide which we all went down. Next food break was hot orange and chocolate . There were lots of small cracks for us to wriggle through and eels in the water which i kept feeling against my legs. At the end we had the option of the easy or adventorous way back and we all chose the latter. We had to climb up 2 waterfalls involving hard rock climbing but we all did it and it was amazing. You couldnt have done it if you were at all claustrophobic. We saw stalagmites, helicites, cave coral and much more. On our return, we had soup and bagels to warm us up. A really great day black water rafting!

The next day we headed to Lake Taupo for our sky dive. Emily, Adam and I were in 1 plane as we were all doing the 15,000 feet drop with the video option and the 4 girls were doing the 12,000 feet. The sky dive came about so quickly. You are never guaranteed you will do it due to weather so it was such a surprise to be doing it. We got to the sky dive centre at 5pm and the weather was gorgeous. We were first to jump so got in our red jump suits, life jacket (as we were sky diving over the lake), helmet and goggles. I wasn't nervous yet, I knew I would be just before I had to jump out of the plane but I was just excited/ My tandem guy - Amos showed me a picture of how I should jump (like a banana), I forgot immediately! We all loaded the plane, I was first in so knew I would be last out. I had to sit on Amos's lap while he harnessed us together. It took 20 minutes to get to 15,000 feet. It wasn't until I saw Adam fall out of the plane (it happens so quickly) that I got nervous. Before I knew it, I was at the plane door, feet at the edge, about to jump, smile at the camera man and we were off. We freefalled 10,000 feet in 1 minute and the impact is huge. It was quite uncomfortable at first, wind in your face and my ears were killing from the pressure but it was so overwhelming. I wasn't paying too much attention to my surroundings as I was having to do movements for the camera man flying in front of me. But once the parachute was up and I had 5 minutes just to enjoy myself and my surroundings, it was awesome - so peaceful. It was surreal to say the least, beautiful and absoultely breathtaking but over before I knew it. We had a very soft landing and was so pumped at the end of it. We were all jumping about together but just felt so surreal. We watched over videos and pictures, got our free tshirts and headed back to hostel, pretty exhausted but still buzzing. The next day we spent the day chilling out in Lake Taupo, still high on adrenaline. An amazing day!

Next stop was River Valley, a place in the middle of the mountains with nothing around but a river and a lodge. We stayed in this crazy room with just matresses everywhere (was actually a really good nights sleep.) That night a big international rugby academy was staying at the lodge so you can imagine it was quite a crazy night. The next morning, the 5 of us girls went white water rafting. We were all pretty tired and hungover but the rafting def cured our hangover. We learnt the strokes on the rafts, back and front stroke, we were also taught how to hold on, get down and fall to the left or right of boat. Our guide was pretty strict when it came down to the higher grade rafts but we obviously knew the risks. The first 1 and a half hours was practising before the big rapids. Emily kept getting told off for not paddling hard enough and eventually got demoted to the back of the boat. She also whacked the guide in the balls with her paddle twice so he loved her. Thankfully our boat didnt turn over but we did choose to human raft down the rapids a couple of times, jump a rock jump and walk through a waterfall so we obviously got pretty cold and wet. It was such a good laugh and real good fun.

The next couple of days were spent chilling out in Wellington, the capital of NZ. We spent Valentines day in the cinema watching 'Valentines Day' and with an Indian (meal that is.) :-)

This concluded the north island of NZ and the next day we got the ferry over to the South island and headed to Nelson.

The bus driver told us that we had to change our north island currency to south island currency as they wouldnt take it in the south island - we like idiots, believed him, so went round the whole ferry terminal trying to change our currency! Nelson was a lovely little town with lots of lush greenery. We were staying at Fern Lodge, a pub hotel more than a hostel with free beer tasting sessions. We spent the next day in Nelson, we climbed up to the Centre of NZ, a pretty steep hill with gorgeous views from the top. We sat and had a picnic up here which was lovely. We also had a few new friends added to our group, Jamie (from Ruislip) and Charlotte. From 2 people to 7. We spent the rest of the day wondering around Nelson. That night was pancake night so we attempted to make pancakes. How 6 girls can fail this so miserably, I do not know. Em's idea to put 12 eggs in the mixture so at this point, we just kept putting more and more flour and milk in. The proportions just went out the window. After about 7 attempts of omlettes and god knows what, we finally made some edible pancakes, well at least the sugar and lemon made them edible. The end of the night concluded with a smashed fridge door, flour everywhere, 6 hyper and very full girls and a glass of well deserved wine :-)

Next morning we drove to Lake Rototi where we walked around Nelson Lakes national park, lots of glacier lakes, beech forest and moutains. A lovely walk. We then took a long scenic drive down Buller Gorge, supposedly the most scenic drive in NZ but it was raining so hard so we didn't see that. We arrived in Westport at Bazils hostel (a little place that looked like an old ladies home, very quaint with a cat sitting on the couch arm.) That night Jamie made us a lush spag bol which went down very well and then we got put in pairs for the 3-legged bar crawl which was hilarious.

Lake Mahinapua was our next stop. We drove down the Tasman shoreline, the closest point to OZ where we saw lots of fertile farmland, rainforest and snow capped mountains. We drove down to Foulwind Tauronga Bay where we walked to see NZ largest seal colony. We stopped for lunch and a look at the pancake rocks and blow holes. Next we drove to Greymouth where we had an hour and a half to shop for the fancy dress evening that night - the theme was bin bags so us girls decided to find green bin bags and go as the Teenage Ninja turtles. Greymouth is the largest township in NZ, population of 12,000. We managed to get green bin bags, nunchucks and swords and green face paint. We arrived at Mahinapua hotel otherwise known as 'pua pub'. We had a wicked night preparing our costumes, unfortunatley a group of boys also did ninja turtles so we had no chance of winning the competition. But our friend Jamie (dressed as Charlie Chaplin) did win and he won a free canyon swing worth 190 dollars.

Short drive to Pukekura where we went to the Bushman centre museum. This was on how Newzealanders made a living on possum trapping and helicopter deer farming before tourism hit. They started by just shooting the deer for venison but the deer population began to die out so they started deer farming and to catch the deer, they would jump out of helicopters onto the deer, then tie them up by the feet to the helicopter for transportation to the farm. We watched a video on this and I wasn't happy about it. The museum was awful, dead and alive animals everywhere. Possums fall on your head when you walk through doors, animal fur seats and cockroaches in the toilets. There were however lovely deer and goats outside which I loved. A real interactive and wierd to say the least museum.

We headed to Franz Josef passing loads kettle lakes, snow capped mountains, vast forests, sand dunes and lakes. The township is a ski resort in the winter and it is so lovely. We stayed at the rainforest retreat. We went to some hot pools in the afternoon to relax. There were 4 pools ranging from 36 to 40 degrees and us girls had a really nice time just chatting there. The next day we got up early for out full day Glacier walk. There were 3 groups and they said place yourselves in the appropriate group. For some reason, we put ourselves in the fast group but it ended up being fine. We walked on the ground for an hour before we hit the glacier, and then there were 20 odd minutes of constant steep incline with our crampions on that I really didnt enjoy, thankfully this was the hardest bit over and we could just enjoy the rest of the day. The glacier was awesome, massive and surreal. Our guide had to pick axe steps along the way. The tour itself was through spectactular and challenging terrain and was quite adventorous, through caves and holes so small, we had to squeeze like worms. It was a long day on the glacier 9am-6pm but was a really rewarding adventurous day.

We left Franz Josef for Matheson lake, a lake with a reflection of mount cook and the most photographed lake in the world. The day was spent driving along the Haast river taking breaks to see lush waterfalls, stunning lakes and imposing mountain ranges. The day ended in Queenstown - pretty much the end of the Kiwi experience and NZ. I spent a few hours contimplating the Nevis Bungy - 134m plunge into a canyon and the highest in NZ. Eventually I decided yes and the next day I did it. I was so scared the whole day but once I got there my nerves went away. I was strapped up ready to go when Kings of Leon came on and I was pumped, singing and dancing along. I shuffled over to the edge, and I was scared -petrified but I knew I had no choice. They shouted 3-2-1 Bungy and I was off - I pushed my self off the edge and jumped 134 metres into the air for 8 seconds before bouncing up and down this canyon. We were told to pull the red rope on our second bounce which would release our feet and lift us back up the cable car sitting up but neither me or Adam could do this (too busy enjoying the ride) so was pulled up by our feet. The whole thing was such a rush, never felt anything like it. Was completley different to a sky dive because I was so nervous and because I had to jump myself. I couldnt sit still for hours after and still buzzing about it now. Great experience!

Now have 3 nights in Queenstown filled with Ferg Burger and World Bar before I leave everyone and head to Christchurch, spend 2 nights here, one day will be spent in Kaikura swimming in the open ocean with upto 1000 dusky dolphins before flying to Bangkok for a whole new adventure!