Hello everyone, my apologies for the massive delay in this next blog

I am now in the south island of New Zealand (arrive here yesterday) in a city called Nelson which is the countries sunniest place.

Its been a full two weeks since my last blog so will get right into it as it might be quite long-

On Wednesday 25th April I drove the campervan for the last time to the city centre of Auckland, said goodbye to Simon (he was going to Fiji later that day) and jumped on the Kiwi Experience bus going north to the Bay of islands at 7.30am. After a couple of stops we arrived in the town of Paihia around midday and checked into the Pipi Patch hostel then I relaxed for a while and went on a 1400 horsepower jet boat in the afternoon for a couple of hours around the many islands and through the famous ?hole in the rock?; the ride was very fast and bumpy but all of us loved it who were sitting at the front getting the brunt it. Afterwards me and a guy I met on the boat, Mark, went to the pub for a few drinks then had a BBQ at the hostel (cut my toe again on way back on a metal pole. Ouch) and just sat in the hostel bar for a few hours with some others then was in bed about 11ish.

The day after was the Cape Reinga day trip with the bus picking us up at 7.30am (only about 15 people on coach). After having a walk around some of the worlds largest trees, the Kairi, we arrived at 90 mile beach and drove along it for a while. On the way up we stopped and dug for shellfish just under the sand and I found a whole load of them- the beach itself reminded me of Fraser Island. We then climbed up some massive 80 metre sand dunes and sand boarded down (using body boards) at great speed trying not to come off. It was a lot of fun and I managed to do it 4 times (hard work climbing up so most people only did it once or twice! About an hour or so later we arrived a the furthest point north in New Zealand- Cape Reinga. Here we walked down to the lighthouse and looked over at the ocean where you could see where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet (rare to see two bodies of water meet). We then headed back south along the East of the island, stopping for lunch at a nice beach that I decided to swim in (only me and driver who went in) and at a Kairi shop that sold ancient Kairi wood (40,000 year old) and cost an absolute fortune but also had the world only stair case built directly into a huge Kairi tree trunk. Before arriving back in Paihia at 6 we had stunning fish and chips at a nice harbour. That evening was spent having a couple of drinks in the cheap pub then going in the hostel bar again and chilling with a couple of girls we had met (Lucy and Sophie).

On the Friday the 4 of us made eggs on toast together then as it began to rain we decided to play monopoly for a few hours in the empty bar area to kill time. It had been dry for a while so we left and walked the half hour to Whitianga (stopped in small town centre for food and postcards on way) to see the Treaty Grounds. There we paid to get in, had a look around the grounds and the giant Waka boat (could hold 160 Maori warriors) then walked around the Meeting House decorated with Maori artwork and the Treaty House- the treaty basically unified New Zealand so was quite a big thing. Time was ticking so we walked back to the hostel and got on the Kiwi Experience bus back to Auckland at 4.15pm. It arrived in Auckland around 8pm outside the ACB hostel and the evening was spent just relaxing in the city.

On Saturday I looked around the centre of Auckland for a while then Brianna picked me up and went to look at a massive shopping centre on the outskirts of the city to have some food and just look around before stopping off at her work nearby so she could sort out some things while I had a look around at the various car accessories and cd players and speakers in her shop. That evening I went bowling for the first time in months and managed to get 136 in the second game which was quite pleasing and then had a tasty Hell's pizza but wasn't as good as Dominos and not as big- gutted.

On Sunday I spent virtually the whole day updating my photos, speaking to people on msn and catching up in my journal for the first time in New Zealand so had a good two weeks to put in, very tiring for my hand.

I finally began to head south on the Kiwi Experience bus on Monday after being in New Zealand a full two weeks but because I had seen most of the north island with Simon, had little need to spend any extra days anywhere so could breeze through to the south island. The bus picked me up at 8.30am and spent ages driving around Auckland picking people up from various places then headed up to the top of an extinct volcano called Mt Eden for some fantastic views of the city and surrounding area; our drivers names was Steve and he was a trainee so had a guy called Toddy on the bus as well who was experienced. After getting out of Auckland Steve drove south and then headed East towards the Coromandel Peninsula and stopped in the town of Thames (been there before) at the supermarket for food and supplies. As we were on a coach it would take far too long to go around the peninsula like we did so cut straight across it to Cathedral Cove and Hahei but didn?t venture onto the beautiful beach (was cloudy anyway). We had a look at some views then walked down towards the cove, only going as far as Stingray beach due to time but it was still really nice down there. About an hour or so later we arrived in Whitianga in Mercury Bay, at the Turtle Cove Backpackers which was a nice small hostel. After checking in and speaking to a guy of the bus I went down for spaghetti Bolognese at 5.30pm as well as a couple of beers; had not been a great first day with the bus as didn't really do much, couldn?t mingle with people well and the weather weren't great. It was a nice chilled out evening chatting with people then before bed I watched some family guy on the TV and realised how much I missed the classic cartoon programme. Bit sad.

The bus left at 7.30 on Tuesday morning to head south to Rotorua. An hour after leaving we stopped for breakfast then a further hour after that did a walk in the Karangahake Scenic reserve. We walked over a big swing bridge and around the side of a steep valley/canyon far up into it till we got to another bridge that we crossed and walked into a deep dark old mining tunnel with the only light coming from lighters, mobile phones or camera flashes. Me and a few others decided to divert into another tunnel and along it but turned back as it was a bit scary (reminded me of the film Descent) then carried on going along only to find out the walk was cut off and the rest of the group were well in front on the other side. We got back about twenty minutes behind them and was on the bus for a while arriving at the town of Matamata for lunch (where the Hobbit village is) and getting into Rotorua at 2.30 to have a quick tour around the Tamaki tours place (Maori cultural place), check into the Hot Rocks hostel and then got taken up to the Gondola. Here we went to the top for a good view of Rotorua then did Luging which involves going down a course of differing ability in a non powered go kart- you can pick up great speeds and was very dangerous. I did it with Steve the driver and two others, having races each time with me being second every single time. We did all 3 courses plus the hardest one twice then at the bottom instead of going up on the slow ski left and back down in the gondola we ran down the hill over the fence cutting out about 15 minutes so we could make the bus (so funny and exciting). In the hostel I wrote in my journal then got picked up by a Tamaki tour bus along with some others to be taken to a Maori village for a cultural night with them. There was loads of people there and very few backpackers (touristy thing). We stood in a circle and watched as some warriors came out and looked intimidating and did a few moves with weapons while a big chief shouted from above a hut. All of us then walked through and spent a while walking around the village observing different practices they use such as the art of tattooing (very painful) and various other everyday Maori things. A horn was used to call us in to a small theatre where we witnessed Maori dancing and singing as well as the famous Haka. We then proceeded into the dining hall for a buffet feast that was incredibly tasty and filled me right up after a couple of large platefuls (had a full roast as well as fish and mussels) and dessert and I went outside to find out how they cook it using a hole in the ground called a Hangi- make rocks white hot then cover food up to let it cook for a few hours till the meat drips off the bone (wow). I bought a bone necklace then the experience was over and we drove back to Rotorua for about 10pm. I had a couple of drinks with Steve in the bar then went to bed little after midnight. 

The morning after I got up really early at 6.45 so that I could go on the internet for a couple of hours and watch the Liverpool vs Chelsea Champions league semi final on the BBC sport website (no pictures just words) but had to go on the bus at 8.30pm before it finished as it was going into extra time. The bus was practically empty with only 12 people on it and I was the only guy and individual on it; not that good. We had a walk around some giant redwoods but was only worried about the football so when Mum messaged me that Liverpool had won on penalties I was ecstatic (come on the Reds!). A while later we stopped in a town to get food for lunch and dinner that night (went in with 4 girls including Sophie and Lucy who I had met in the Bay of Islands) then arrived at the Kiwi Paka YHA in Waitomo about 2pm. It was a nice big and empty hostel but had little to do so spent a few hours finally finishing off catching up with my journal then helped out with the cooking. There was so little to do that most people were in bed before 10 but typically I didn’t want to go to bed that early to quickly used the expensive hostel internet and lay down on the coach with my ipod for a while, still getting to bed before 12. 

Last Thursday was a very busy and expensive day but worth every cent. After getting ready and checking out the Legendary Black Water Rafting bus picked me and two Irish girls up to take us down to their centre (picked up a guy called Norm on way)- we were all doing the 5 hour Black Abyss adventure in the caves. Upon arrival I had a cake for brekky then the 4 of us got ready into our wetsuits, harnesses and helmets and got briefed as to what we would be doing. A 10 minute drive later and we were at the cave entrance along with our guides Steve and James. We practised abseiling using special equipment then had a tasty biscuit and hot chocolate while James told us the technique for going down the nearby 30 metre hole. One by one we abseiled off the ledge down a deep black hole, I went third and wasn’t nervous (usually am abseiling). It started off nice and wide (Steve took a picture) then had a really narrow bit before opening up into a big cave so I jumped fast down the sides landing on the bottom in no time. Once everyone was down we went through a passageway and did the flying fox (zip wire in the pitch black) seeing loads of beautiful glow worms on the ceiling then jumped in the water with big black rubber rings- I went first and really enjoyed it even though it was cold water. James left at this point to get the bus so Steve guided us deep into the cave upstream so walked most of the way looking at the cave sides, stalactites and thousands of glow worms. At a waterfall we turned around, lay in a line and relaxed as Steve pulled us down the cave so we could observe the awesome little lights that looked like the night sky due to the many patterns they formed. We got rid of the rubber rings and carried on walking down but floating a lot of the way; at one point we had to lie on our backs and go through a tiny hole and didn’t like it as it was such a small space but still managed to pose for a photo while going through. Soon after we stopped and had chocolate and warm lemon juice but because I wasn’t too keen on going to the toilet in the cave I didn’t have much so Steve poured the remainder down my back inside my wetsuit- nice and warm but smelled. Further down there was a small hole we had to climb through and were then faced with a tiny cave bit with a powerful but small waterfall right in the middle and we had to climb up it. I found it very easy and a lot of fun so was up straight away compared to the others who took a long time (got longer legs). It carried on like this for a while through narrow caves and up waterfalls before finally seeing daylight after almost 3 hours; Steve let us negotiate the last waterfall on our own but was very easy. Out in the open we had a group photo then walked the short distance to the bus and taken back to the centre to get undressed and showered before having hot soup and bagels. The whole caving adventure was simple amazing and well worth the 150 dollars I paid for it and would definitely do it again just to see the glow worms. The others on the bus were waiting so after purchasing the photo cd left at 1pm for the straight drive to Taupo which took a couple of hours- watched the good Maori film Whale Rider en route. The weather was looking good so most of us got dropped off at Freefall for skydiving. In the office I decided to do the highest jump at 15,000ft as well as the video and photos that would cost me 490 dollars (175 pounds), which is a bargain. Straight away the 6 of us skydiving got into our red jump suits and met our tandem masters (mine was an American called Charley who knew a fair bit about Jersey to my surprise) who fitted our harnesses and equipment for us just so it was tight. Unbelievably we had no safety instruction or anything and before we knew it were walking towards the tiny aircraft and climbed in; me, Charley and my video camera lady (costs a lot as she has to jump as well to film me) were at the front of the plane next to the pilot as I was doing the higher jump. The full plane took off and spent about twenty minutes climbing in large circles above the air field and nearby Lake Taupo; got great views of the lake and the end of a rainbow. At 12,000ft the door opened and one by one the other jumped out and it was at the point that I began to realise just what I was doing so got nervous. The door closed and we climbed to over 15,000ft, at which point the camera lady slide forward then me and Charley followed (was tightly attached to him) and the door opened and she jumped out. I sat on the edge of the aeroplane looking over at the sky and before I knew it we had fallen out and were hurtling down towards the ground 3 miles up at over 200kmh. The first 5 seconds were probably the scariest of my life and I honestly thought I could die but just as quickly we had levelled out and I didn’t feel nervous and was just shouting and making hand signals at the camera lady who was now floating in front of me. The air was very cold (had not worn any gloves as wanted to feel the sky) and the feeling indescribable but knew it was the most amazing and incredible thing I had ever done. She left and soon enough the parachute had opened and with the massive lake in front of me was the most peaceful moment of my entire life just floating there with no noise whatsoever. As we got closer to the ground Charley gave me the parachute cords and let me steer the parachute in circles both left and right then I gave them back to him and he guided us to earth and the air field below us where I could eventually see the others who had already landed. We did a steep decline and landed perfectly standing up and couldn’t believe what I had just done considering I don’t like heights very much. We had a group photo/video then took off our gear and watched the dvd of the plane and everyone as well as mine, Lucy’s and Sophies individual videos which were very funny indeed- my face was moving so much it was embarrassing. We paid up then got dropped off to the Urban Retreat hostel in the centre then I spent the evening getting some food and doing my bag for the big walk tomorrow then had a couple of drinks with the girls and then Steve as he was heading back to Auckland the day after as he had passed. I got to bed about 11.30 as I had a very early start the day after.

Sorry, this is not fully updated, I will finish off getting up to date when i am in Franz Joself as I got two nights there.

Bye for now

Antony