I'd booked my bus trip with the Kiwi Experience in April, pretty soon after Nina had told me she wasn't coming to NZ with me, and did it all in a bit of a 'crap I'm travelling on my own' state of panic. However once booked and paid for I was pretty happy that I wouldn't have to worry about getting from place to place. That is, until someone said to me 'Oh yeah Kiwi Experience, that's a real party bus and everyone just sleeps with each other', reigniting my fear of lone travel and exacerbating worries that I would be the oldest person on the bus. So with some trepidation I boarded the bright green bus on Friday afternoon…to find 3 other people on it. Perhaps not the party bus I was scared about! My fellow travellers were Susie, who appears a few times over the next few days, James and Theresa, and another James who we picked up at the airport. First port of call was Kaikoura, where we had an overnight stop and some pretty awesome fush and chups! Still hankering for some proper chippy chips from home though, they just aren't as good here. I awoke on Saturday morning to a beautiful sight - snow capped mountains with the early morning sun shining over them. I think this was the point I officially fell in love with New Zealand.

On our way to Kaiteriteri we dropped a busload of people off in Nelson to get the ferry to the North Island, in my naivety I didn't realise they were literal islands and you have to get a ferry between them, d'oh! This also meant a new influx of people onto the bus from the North Island. It's pretty difficult to infiltrate a group that already has a strong dynamic and as the only two new people on the bus it took until we got to Lake Mahinapua for Susie and I to fully meet everybody and feel a bit more part of the crowd, but we managed eventually. Mangee, our driver (that is a nickname, his real name was Greg) was a really nice guy, full of little bits of information about where we were driving and even showing us his childhood home as we drove through Nelson. 555.

From the ferry port we got back on the bus and drove to a short walk to see the Ohau stream seal pups; it's a delightful sight - a waterfall tumbling into a small pool filled with, you guessed it, seal pups being watched over by mum and dad in the rocks above. They were splashing about and generally having an awesome time, one was very inquisitive and shuffled over to us in that funny gait seals have on land, he was so close I could have reached out and given him a pat on the head. I won't lie, it was very tempting! It's just a shame my camera doesn't perform brilliantly in dull light.

Kaiteriteri wasn't much to write home about, it's enough to say Shania Twain has a holiday home there and it's gorgeous in summer. One of the main draws to it is its proximity to the Abel Tasman National Park, so early the morning of our departure I boarded a ferry which would sail along the coast, passing split apple rock, one of the most famous geological rock formations on that area of coast. It's basically a huge ball shaped rock that has split in half, pretty sweet if you're into geology but otherwise just a funny shaped rock! The ferry dumped me on Anchorage beach, all on my lonesome since everyone else on the ferry was doing a full day trip, and off I strolled into the wilderness. Well, perhaps wilderness is a strong word since it was a marked path but anyway, I climbed up through the Abel Tasman national park out to the Pitt Head lookout which gave me some beautiful views of the coastline. Since I had time to spare I attempted to take some arty photos of the flora in the area, which only half worked but I understand my camera a little more now! At least that will explain the numerous photos of ferns in my photo album. I climbed down from the lookout onto a lovely little beach the ferry was picking me back up from - the beaches here can be really odd though, a lot of them have black sand which I find it difficult to process, they just look dirty. Luckily for me the ferry picked me up just as it started to rain, which whilst annoying did make some gorgeous rainbows over the bay of Kaiteriteri.

Once everyone was back aboard the bright green driving machine we set off on route to Westport, our stop for the evening. The scenery along this stretch was absolutely breathtaking - and Mangee assured us that once we were past Westport and into glacier country that it was even more beautiful. Despite that this part impressed me plenty, driving through valleys with towering peaks looming over you, covered in tree canopies ranging from almost white to darkest green from the abundant flora in the area, crystal clear rivers looping through the valley floor, turning into churning rapids before suddenly becalmed and glassy and clouds wreathing the hilltops all conspired to drag my eyes away from my book (a near impossible task at the best of times) and gaze out of the bus window in almost childlike wonder. I couldn't wait to see what was coming our way once we got to Franz Josef. Even the rain that constantly drizzled down couldn't affect the beauty of the place.

After a few solid hours in the bus we arrived at Bazils which had the best kitchen I've seen in a hostel, it was just like a little country farmhouse kitchen, made you feel right at home. A kickabout in the park opposite ended a pretty relaxed day before our next leg - Lake Mahinapua.

A grey day heralded our emergence onto the State Highway 6, one of the top ten most scenic drives in the world along the Tasman shoreline. Before we could fully appreciate the view however we had stopped and pulled in at Cape Foulwind, where we were promised viewing of a seal colony. Always being up to see some nature Susie, Michele and I set off at a typically fast pace to Tauranga Bay, the nearest point to Australia. Now don't let the name fool you, there were no untoward smells along this 45 minute walk, but we were rewarded for our efforts by seeing the cute seals at the end of the trek. Now these seals are New Zealand fur seals and so infinitely cuter than most other seals, mainly because they don't store blubber for warmth, instead they have a furry coat but also because their name in Latin is Arctocephalus Forsteri. Yes. No lie that is their official name. Apparently the botanist on Captain Cook's ship was called George Forster and they were named after him. Truly a very very cute animal. Sadly though this did make them very attractive to sealers who could sell the coats for clothing - luckily that is now illegal so big smiles all around.

Once everyone had had their fill of super cute seals we were back on track and headed off to Punakaiki to see the famous pancake rocks. Now I have loved every inch of New Zealand since I arrived but I have to confess that I was massively underwhelmed by the pancake rocks. Mainly because I didn't think they looked like pancakes - the name is deceiving bruh! I could kind of see where they were coming from when they were named but I visualized round rocks with worn down areas creating a stacked effect, whereas the reality was jagged shaped rocks with horizontal lines cutting across them. I felt cheated, a bit like how you feel when a book to film adaptation comes out and they haven't got the actors right. I have taken this as a lesson however and am trying to lower my expectations for all future viewings; Luckily in New Zealand it generally isn't hard to beat them.

The final leg of that days trip was pretty impressive, the coastline is very rugged and windswept, the forces of nature are constantly at work shaping the cliffs, and since they are made of schist which is a very weak rock, it is constantly changing and developing. Lake Mahinapua was our final destination, and the infamous 'poo pub', nothing to do with poo just a shortening of Mahinapua. Or at least I hope it's nothing to do with poo. The place we stayed was just for Kiwi Experience passengers so our motley crew had it to ourselves for the evening. Les, the owner, is in his eighties and still going strong, and cooked a slap up meal for everyone before leaving us to our own devices and to get ready for our fancy dress night - theme, Olympics. Before getting all togged up we had a quick walk to the Lake which is ringed with distant mountains and forest. A few foolhardy people leapt in but since I was already cold enough I decided against it. The water wasn't particularly tempting either, what with being brown and all.

Onto the fancy dress, I had decided to go old school and bought a sheet to turn myself into, you guessed it, an ancient Greek, founders of the original Olympics. Now were I being totally loyal to the ancient Greeks I would have gone naked, but since women couldn't compete in the original games I got off lightly. There were some hilarious outfits, namely Alex, Johnny and Charlie as female beach volleyball players replete with bikinis and boobs, some inspired outfits such as Mel as the Queen and Susie as the Olympic torch, and the downright bizarre, ie. Dean as grass. There were also numerous tennis players, evidently backing Andy Murray! Susie won a free canyon swing as the best fancy dress so spent the next day terrified, even though she wouldn't be doing it until Queenstown, a good couple of days away. The night itself was fun, managed to speak to more people and finally learn some names, sadly I had planned to get off in Franz Josef for an extra couple of days so it was all a little late. That aside it was a fun night, I managed to come third in the limbo and suffice to say the bus journey the next day felt a lot longer than normal.

Becca