Hey, for once it hasn't eben too long since I last updated.haha

I arrived in the village of Franz Josef a couple of hours ago and will be spending the whole day tomorrow hiking up the glacier- awesome!

The last time I wrtoe a blog I got up to the end of last Thursday so will commence from a week ago when I was still In Taupo-

I got up on Friday 4h May at the ungodly time of 5am, packed my bad and sorted out my lunch then the Tongariro Expeditions Coach picked me and a number of others up so that we could spend the day doing the world's most famous one day hike- The Tongariro Crossing. The drive to the drop off point took about an hour and a half with everyone bar me and a couple of others Out of 40+ asleep as I couldn't wait to do it. We arrived at the Mongarepopo roadend at 7-15, got out into the cold air and soon enough began the hike by?myself listening to my good old ipod at 7-30am. The first 45 minutes were fairly easy just walking through a small valley having the huge Mt.Nguarhoe (Mt Doom) looming over infront. I overtook a number of people before reaching the devils staircase at 8-15 and began the long and steep climb up which seemed to take forever and I felt quite tired and exhausted at the end of it half an hour later- very rugged over rocks and little cliffs. After relaxing for a few minutes and having a snack I decided not to do the Mt. Ngaurhoe as I was too tire, very few people went off to do it and the driver warned us not to as there was ice on the way down. For most normal people they would of carried on walking but typically I stood and had a think then after speaking to an Irish guy going up, who said the climb was the main reason he is doing the walk, I changed my mind and knew I would regret it if I didn't do it. The views all across of the mountains and the west coast of the north island were immense and as the first 15 minutes were easy I kept on having a look aroumd. Soon enough I was at the base of the 2200m almost perfect volcanice cone with Connor (the Irish guy) then started to go up it. For over twenty minutes it was very hard work going up lava material and scree (like thick sand in parts) then we reached a solid lava flow which we walked by holding on the whole time as it was a good 45 degree angle upwards and the height was starting to affect me when I looked down. We stopped for a break and had a chat along with?a German guy called Chris who cuaght up with us then carried on to the top for about another 15 minutes. At the top of the volcano side we took a look at some hot steam (still a very acitive volcano and is overdue and eruption...) then me and Connor ran across to where the cone was, seeing some snow in the process, and climbed up to the very top of the volcano and its cone; cloud was coming in and covering the area and the amazing view quickly. The crater was deep but not that big and I felt fairly safe on the side of it looking in and chucking some rocks in in the process- I was at the top of Mt Doom and it was unbelievable! Time was ticking so after some pottering around and taking photos we went over to the top of the side at 10.30am and contemplated getting down. Connor unbelievably ran down when we got there and Chris went down slower on the other side of the red volcanic side facing towards the north. I began to go but dislodged a big rock that promtly headed full pelt down the side of the volcano in the direction of Connor but he couldn't hear me when I shouted 'Connor! Rock!'. Luckily it missed?him by a couple of metres.?The top began fof very?hard trying to get an y momentum as there was solid lava just below the surface so kept slipping and hurting my hand but then it bcame scree so gently jogged down?knowing one wrong footing and I would literally fall down the entire mountain (extremely scary indeed).?I finally got to the bottom?20 minutes?later tofind Connor relaxing and having a cigarette then we both looked up at what we had just come down- wow.haha.?Chris had gone off somewhere so me and Connor?walked acorss the?crater then up another ridge called Red Crater Ridge arriving at the top to a great view of the Red Crater at about midday. After the ridge the beautiful emerald lakes came into view?(bright?green blue colour, looking competely out of place surrounded by volcanic material)?so we walked down and around them to the intense smell of sulphur as they were full of toxins and gases (no swimming. damn it). A little walk down we had lunch (pate baguette and a banana) then carried on going acorss the huge central crater, with Mt Tongaririo to the left and mt Nguarhoe behind us up to the Blue Lake which is nice but just another mountain lake. One small ridge later and we knew it was downhill the rest of the way- very relieved. We walked along the side of a massive valley till 1.40pm where we got a view of the one and only water and toilet stop on the walk- the Ketatahi Hut. The walk down winded its way across the valley side to side and side and we didn't want to spedn time doing that so just went the mos direct route- straight down over vegetation and old lava flows. Although it was a conservation reserve we didn't feel that guilty as it was obvious people had doen it before and it cut out a good twenty minutes of walking. We chilled for a bit looking over at Lake Taupo then filled up the water bottles and chose to try and make the first bus at 3.30pm but had s two hour alk to get there- it was just gone 2pm.haha. We walked fast down the valley, past some hot springs then eventually reaching a forest bit that carried on for ages but we reahced the end of the walk at 3-15pm but our knees were really sore from going down loads of steps for over an hour to get to the bottom. I was so pleased I had completed the crossing in such a quick time and still managed to do the extra Mt Doom track which took a full two and hal hours. The bus was waiting and left on time, arriving in Taupo just after 4.30pm. I said goodbye to Connor then unpacked and got food from the supermarket then saw Sophie who told me her and the girls were seeing Spiderman 3 so got ready qucikly and met them there for the 6-20 shwoing. The film itself was OK but was far too coincidental, was quite complicated and didn't explain some things and had a very silly half hour that wasn't really needed; the special effects, bad guys and the ending were awesome though so was glad I saw it. After the film I had a pint, went on the internet and wa in bed by midnight.

On Saturday everyone got on the bus at 9.30am and arrived in the village of Whakapapa two hours later, on the side of the Tongariro National Park. Here we took a look around the interesting visitor centre on the park and its volcanoes then had a quick 15 minute walk to a waterfall and carried on going south, quickly stopping in a town for food then leaving the road and losing signal about 2.30pm, arriving at River Valley just before 3 o'clock. The maanger, Paul, greeted us and showed us to our rooms (was in a bunk room with two rows of matresses- basic but OK) then I took a look around and played some pitch and putt golf at the top of the hill. The golf course wasn't very good but I hadn't played in ages so enjoyed it even though I only had a sand wedge- didn't go very far. On the 7th tee I tried hitting it very very hard and unfortunately snapped the golf club in two as wel- still did he best shot getting ont he green though; I didn't have to pay for the club. I wrote in my journal, had a couple of drinks then made my dinner and got changed. I spent the rest of the evening in the bar with everyone else (was an adventure lodge in the middle of nowehere so little to do) chatting, having a few drinks and playing cards then went to bed.

The day after I was going white water rafting (was looking unlikely the evening before as not enough people had signed up to do it but two more singed up at the bar and it was all go). I put my board shorts on and waited in the lounge with the others then put the wetsuits on and got taken up to the beginning of the rafting about 20 minutes upstream. Once in the water, the 5 of us and the instructor (I was sat in the middle as that was where the power was needed.lol) negotiated some grade 2 rapids and practiced different manouveres and working together in a team. Further downstream we did some big grade 5 rapids which I found surprisingly easy and hoped something bigger would come up. We found a sheep on the side of the river so put it in the boat and took it across the river to safety- smelly, dirty and wet sheep but looked so cute and helpless. A few more hard rapids were completed down the impressive gorge then we stopped and had a swim int he freezing cold water but were told the big rapids were over- bit disappointed. Half an hour later we arrived back at the lodge then got in the bus and left at 1-15pm. Toddy took us back along the track to the main road and signal and drove south along highway 1 towards Wellington, stopping in the town of Bulls for food en route and arriving. The bus arrived in Wellington, picked up people from the ferry and?dropped us all off at Base backpackers in the centre of New Zealands capital about 6ish; I met Ben and Nick,?who I had last seen on Magnetic Island a month?before, as they?got off the ferry. At base we all checked in then I got a 7 dollar dominos pizza and went ont he internet for a bit and had a couple of drinks with the guys in the hostel bar. Later on I went back on the internet for ages trying to update my site and was in bed about 2am.

I woke up at 6.40am, got ready quietly (everyone else was asleep) and met the bus half an hour later to head to the ferry terminal. I checked my bags in and saw Richard who I had last seen in Fraser Island then boarded the boat, which left at 8.30am. During the 3 hour crossing I sat in the bar and wrote in my journal as well as checking out the view on the top deck was was quite cold so came back inside and sat out the rest of the trip. At Picton, on the South Island, we collected our bags then piled on to the new kiwi experience bus with Toddy still being our driver but the bus was full of people so was looking forward to travelling around with them (better than just 12 people and me being the only guy!). We stopped not long after at the village winery in Marlborough for a quick wine taste and lunch but the food was expensive so I left it and just got a muffin- most of the others bougth loads of food but I wernt fussed. Before leaving me, Richard and two guys off the bus tried some really tasty and not too strong shots next door (nice butterscotch one). Two hours later we arrived in New Zealand's sunniest city, Nelson, drove around town and got dropped off at the Prince Albert Hotel and Bar before having a talk about the place then unpacking in the cosy rooms (nice kitchens). Me and Richard got food from the supermarket then had beer tasting (not much beer) and made dinner- pasta and tomato sauce. We had a couple more drinks in the bar with some others then spent the rest of the evening in the TV room watching loads of programmes including a great show called Ghost Whisperer. I was in bed about midnight after checking emails.

On Tuesday i got up early to have the 5 dollar breakfast in the bar which included 3 bowls of cereal and about 8 pieces of toast then most of the others left to go on the bus- I had to wait until the next day as I was originaly unsure about staying a night or two nights so had to say goodbye to Rich and a load of others. I couldn't afford to or had the time to go to the Abel Tasman National Park go just had a shower then wrote in my journal and spent a couple of hours doing the previous blog. Me and a Canadian guy called Chris from my room walked into the centre of town and ate a subway then I walked up to the the start of the Centre of New Zealand walk across the bridge and over a football field. It took only 15 minutes to get to the top but it was so nice and warm that I was really sweaty at the top. The view was great all over Nelson and the surrounding mountains as well as seeing the plaque where the Centre of New Zealand was (cool). Back in town I had a look around, bought some postcards and got a cake and pizza bread from the supermarket for dinner and walekd to the hostel to chill out for a bit then heard the new kiwi bus that I would be on in the morning pull up. Me and Chris just waited around, spoke to some people on our bus then I did the beer tasting again but this time I got a lot mroe beer and had a good chat with all the others doing it. I sat around, had a jug of beer, then had dinner and got changed and had a few more jugs in the bar while playing cards with about 6 others. Eventually (waited ages for the girls to get ready) me, Chris, Amy from England, Naiomi from Ireland, Todd from Tennesse and another guy from Calgary went to the shark bar in town for a great drink deal and pool- 4 pints and a shot for only 13 bucks; bar was not very busy. We played pool for an hour (I lost 3 times- potted the black ball by accident twice and the other time time potted it in wrong pocket so was just unlucky), spoke to some weirdos that liked the two girls and were kicked out about 11-40pm as it was so quiet and they wanted to close- rushed down my last drink. We walked back in the cold then I looked at the news on the intenet and went to bed not long after.

I left Nelson on the 8.30am bus two days ago (had the 5 dollar brekky again and rushed it down before getting on the bus) with a new bunch of people but included Chris and the girls I went to the pub with the night before so had people to speak to. Our new driver was called Manama who was a bit quiet and looked 'out of it' alot of the time (quite funny). 20 minutes down the road we got off in Richmond to look around the mall there and get food for the rest of the day. Me and Chris got some pizza bread and snacks then looked around the many shops but as we are backpackers we couldn't even think about buying anything. About an hour later we arrived at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park where we would be staying for a while doing- the lake itself is simply beautiful with mountains surrounding it and the water being very calm. There were sandflies everything which were very annoying but easy to kill and hit off (alot more satisying than the flies in central australia). Me and Chris did a '45 minute' walk around practically nothing but trees for 45 minutes then had lunch and waited around before getting back on the bus. The two hours drive to Murchison was really relaxing so I just listened to my ipod and shut my eyes for a while. Here we picked up a dozen people from a minibus coming from christchurch then winded our way down the impressive Buller Gorge and River and arrived at the Buller Adventure Tours centre just before 4pm to do jet boating. Myself and 12 others (me, Chris, Amy, Korea, Bav and Naomi were on) put jackets and wetsuits on then jumped in the 850hp jetboat attached to the back of a tractor (the guy told us all about how the jet system worked and could do well in shallow water). We were driven down to the river along a track for 15 minutes then reversed into the water and he jumped in and started up the v8 engine (sounded great). For about 40 minutes he took us and the jet boat upstream occasionally going very close to rocks (I waas sat in the mdidle in the back) but generaly going at a steady speed so we could look around at the view. Eventually he turned the boat around at a point kiwi experience people used to jump into the river off a rock (dont do it any more cause of safety- gutted) and instantly did an awesome 360 degree in theboat, getting wet in the process but wasn't too cold as the hand rail was heated (ingenius). For the remainder of the trip he booted it down stream next to the rocks, doing sharp fast turns, loads of 360 turns and we were all having a great time. It was really dark when we arrived back at the centre for a hot drink. There was a bit of waiting around before the guy drove those that did activities into the town of West port so couldn't wait to check in to the hostel just off the centre of town. Straight away me and Chris walekd into town, got cash and had food at a chippy then got booze at the supermarket and spent the rest of the night watching movies in the warm lounge while having a few cans of Tui. We saw the second half of the really great film Green Mile then watched the gangster film Donnie  Brasco (enjoyed it alot) and finished off with the classic Star Wars- Empire Strikes Back but I fell asleep at the crusical 'Luek, i am your father bit' (devastated). The other 5 in the room with me at 1.30am were asleep so I got up and fell asleep in my really warm bed.

Yesterday began with a nice late wake up of 9am, getting on the bus (had free toast in kitchen) half an hour later but waited around for ages till Manama left as the noisy guys who got on the bus late the day before had made a mess of the hostel. Not far down the road we all got off and had a short walk to the top of the cliffs to see some of my faviourite creatures- Fur seals (first time I had seen any). You had to look closely as they were coloured similar to the rocks but looking around you could see loads of them all laying about and rearing the pups (cool little things bouncing around everywhere); i got back on the bus in a really good mood after seeing them and looked froward to seeing alot more further south and in Kaikoura. Next stop was at a cafe in Punakaiki (alot of people felt a bit ill on the bus as it was quite warm inside and stuffy plus we were winding around the ruggesd west coast) so grabbed a bite to eat and did the walk to the famous pancake rocks. These are basically stacks of rocks that look like pancakes piled up on another due to alternating rock types- some of the best rock formations I have seen. As we walked around looking at the whole area we observed some blowholes as the sea pumped water through narrow openings. Further south Manama stopped in the biggest town on the coast, Greymouth, so we could get some food and buy fancy dres gear for the evenings entertainment- theme was cartoons, superheroes and fairytales. There was only a 2 dollar shop and a charity shop to go into plus a big outlet stoore so our options were limited but in the end we both decided on pirates so bought a hat, moustache beard thing and a knife (bougth a blacdk shirt was well). I also found time to get food for the next couple of days, cash (limited cash points) and phone credit. At about 5pm the bus arrived at Hotel Mahinapua (middle of nowhere like a lot of these places) where we were greeted by New Zealand's oldest publican (and owner of the premises) Les, aged 81 and still going strong- very funny and random old guy with a long beard. We went to our extremely basic and smelly rooms, looked around in the really interesting pub (reminded me of Daly Waters in a way as loads of photos of past groups on the wall) then I walked down to the beach with Naiomi and along it for a bit just chatting about travelling and accounting as she did it as a degree. I dived straight into the pub on my return and drank with about 10 guys off the bus, downing several drinks int he process as it was happy hour. At 7pm we were called for dinner in the hall around the back. The steak was lovely as well as the potatoes and pasta but the thing everyone loved the most was the extremely stunning Venizon (some oft he ebst meat I have ever had) so typically I asked Les for a second big helping of it (sooo good and a bargain for 10 bucks). Back in the bar I played pool with one of the guys while having another jug (was 2-1 down) then like most of the others, got changed into our outifts. The girls had bought material and spent ages making theirs so didn't like it when all me and chris had to do was change our t-shirts and put a hat and moustache on.haha. There were so many funny and cool outfits including two canadians in dresses, Amy as Pippy longstocking, a few fairies and pirates (lol) and the best was a short Swede guy called patrick who wore a kids red fox outift and was obviously in constant pain in the groin region due to how incredibly tight it was. The welsh girls (Hannah, Jona, and Bergan) all wore cave girl outfits which looked amazing and caught the attention of all the guys especially. A few jugs were bought and everyone socialised well and got into the party mood then I played the guy at pool again and ended up winning 4-3 in total (oh yes!). For a few of hours it was just people getting drunk and being stupid as well as the group photos being taken (each group is put ont he wall or in the book as the hotel is basically only used for the Kiwi bus that passes through most days) so was having a great time. At half one the bar shut and alot of us made our way the 700 metres down to Lake Mahinapua in the pitch black, seeing glow worms on the way (the cave girls decided to beat them with their mallets (so funny and so cruel at the same time). The lake appeared and although you couldnt see much it felt beautiful with the faint reflections on the water and mountains in the distance. Before going to bed the girls came in our room and we just chatted or a while then I fell asleep in my clothes ontop of the squeaky top bunk about 2am.

I woke up to the sound of rain this morning, had a shower in the very basic bathrooms (but nice hot showers) and was on the bus on time at 9.30am after charging my ipod. The weather was horrible on the hour drive south to the bushmen Centre but the coach felt a lot nicer and few people were asleep. At the centre, Pete the owner came on board and introduced himself and what he does then we paid the 4 dollars and went inside to watch a film about deer hunting and capturing (really cold inside) which was a bit horrible in parts (real video of deer shooting) but funny as well with blokes jumping out of helicopters to grab a deer (extreme New Zealander's). Most of the others paid for breakfast (had my cookies so didnt need to buy anything) and we left a bit later. Little over an hour later the white topped mountains came into view as the weather cleared and soon enough the Franz Josef Glacier could be seen in the distance so we drove through the Franz Josef Village and up to the car park 4km up the road. Here we walked for ten minutes up a hill to get a great view of the glacier and the valley around it as well as the mountains of the Southern Alsp (reminded me of the Mount Blanc Massif) and back down to the bus and to the village. We jumped in the Glacier Guides centre to pay for the Glacier Hikes the day after and Manama drove us the 400 metres to the Rainforest Retreat Hostel. I checked into my nice room with Chris and ate my pizza bread outside and spoke to some of the others in the rooms along near us then, as it was good global gossip internet in the hostel, went on the net for a few hours doing this blog. Tonight I will have some cheese on toast for dinner (no need to have anything else), will have a couple of drinks at most and come back on here to upload photos.

Tomorrow I am doing one of the things I have been most looking forward to on my entire trip- a full day hike on the Franz Josef Glacier (6 full hours on the ice going up crevasses and climbing the ice- awesome).

I get in to the party town of Queenstown on Monday then will do the 4 day Bottom Bus from next Thursday before arriving back in Queenstown late Sunday evening. I will update this when I am in the town- probably next Wednesday so not too long away for one.

 Really hope you enjoy reading this and I would love it if some of you could leave messages for me as I haven't had any in a while, even though I know alot of you read this...it doesn't take long but it makes me feel like I ain't spending all this time doing this in vain.

Goodbye for now

Cheers

Antony!