28/4 - on the way from picton to nelson we stopped at a vineyard for a wine tasting! We got to taste a few wines (and tried to sneakily get some re-fills), not that any of us could afford to buy them, and then had lunch outside this nice little cafe with amazing views of the vineyard with the mountains behind it! We arrived in Nelson in the afternoon, got settled in to our hostel, which was at the back of pub, then had a free beer tasting. which was interesting, ...

25/4 - Today I got the cable car up to the top of this hill on the edge of wellington where there are lots of gardens and some observatories and things! It was really sunny so was an amazing view of wellington and the harbour, and was nice to walk around the gardens. I walked back down to the city and went for a walk along the harbour (with an ice-cream), and watched a street performer swallowing some swords, which was nice :p then I briefly went to the museum, b...

23/4 - I left Taupo this morning to head to a place called River Valley.It was a couple of hours of driving through the greenest countryside ever! lots of sheep :p On the way we drove around the mountains on the tongoriro crossing and stopped for a quick walk down to this waterfall and pool that was apparently used in the lord of the rings films, (something to do with someone chasing a fish?) it was really nice! Then we drove on a bit more, and went past the hote...

18/4 - Today I thought I would go for a walk along this little path that i found on the map, and it would take me to this big park along the river, and wouldnt take too long. But, my map reading skills obviously arn't my greatest attribute, (although to be fair the footpath wasnt easy to see, and got really confusing at times) so it took me a bit longer than expected! But i did eventually get to the park, and it was really nice, very green and the sun was out for...

16/4 - We left Rotorua in the morning, and headed a few mins down the road to a place called Te Puia. Its this place where there are a few geysers and hot mud pools, and some maori things. The geysers were really spectacular, spewing water and weird gases high into the air, and the hot mud pools were exactly that, pools of hot mud! I think the area used to be a maori settlement so there was some interesting maori exhibits and stuff there, and some of them did the...