If you took the pretty parts and all the small towns from home where hardly any people live, and throw in a load of adventure playgrounds, I think that would sum New Zealand up pretty well. My first day in Auckland brought me back to normality with a bump, and I found the country's most populated city a little boring...although I did stumble across a jazz festival in the park to laze about at on that sunny Sunday afternoon. I then bought a ticket for the Kiwi Experience bus, the big green mean machine which takes you from place of interest to place of interest throughout the 2 islands with a load of other backpackers on similar trips. So it was on the first day on the Kiwi Bus that I met Sarah, Kate and a load of others that I would be spending my next few weeks with in New Zee.

This was the last time for a while I was to see a significant number of cars or people in the same street, but once outside the city the scenery became a good diversion to the lacking. North Island could be Mid Wales, or maybe the Brecon Beacons over and over, plus a couple of beaches thrown in, like Mercury Bay (Whitianga) and Hot Water Beach...where at low tide hot, natural water boils up to the sand’s surface and you can dig and lounge in little pools of hot sea water until the tide returns.

The first town we stayed at, Rotorua, was a very smelly one, being home to umpteen sulphur springs shooting up in all its green areas. We had a group attempt at luging, basically like tobogganing on concrete, trying to steer the others off track. A trip to the sulphur hot springs at night couldn't go amiss, and on leaving the town we called at a small adventure park, where 3 of us had a go on Swoop, where we were strapped into a big sleeping bag, launched up to however many metres and dropped freefall to the ground. That same week, we also called at Hobbiton, home to Lord of the Rings things, some very dark caves, went to see some Angora rabbits being sheared (they are the biggest fluffiest rabbits I have ever seen), went on lots of little walks and went to a Tamaki Maori Village evening, where a group of modern-day Maori's re-enacted how life was many years before. (This included dancing the HAKA and eating Hangi food (cooked in an underground oven)). But the most exciting activity of the week was in Lake Taupo , when the weather was glorious and the wind low…Skydiving! Going up in a tiny plane to 15000ft meant we needed oxygen, at this point you're not too sure what to expect, but being strapped onto someone else doesn't give you the choice as to when to jump and once outside the plane that 60 second freefall seems to be over within about 10. The view from up there was amazing and I was very lucky to catch sunset over the lake. The guy I jumped with let me take the cords of the parachute once we’d released it, and I was surprised how easy it was to glide us back down to the exact spot we wanted to land at.

Lake Taupo was a very nice little place so we stopped there a couple of days...we accidentally caught the Annual final of TopTown evening at the local swimming pool; TopTown is basically a show where Kiwi towns have contenders to fight gladiator type games out with each other, knocking a town out every week. So that night, they put up big screens, a big barby and had the contenders there for interview while everyone splashed about in the outdoor heated pools. Moving on from Taupo, we stopped at a lovely spot for some waterfall jumping, easily the coldest tajke-your-breath-away water I have ever felt in my life, but a lot of fun. Before arriving at the country's capital, we spent a night in the wilderness at a farmhouse called River Valley where we indulged in a gorgeous Sunday roast (mmmm). Wellington was small for a capital city and we didn't really do anything in particular here apart from going out, but it was a likeable city and somewhere more livable than Auckland .

To get across to the South Island , we caught a ferry through the Marlborough Sounds to Nelson. The journey was lovely and the top deck was constantly packed for it. Nelson, the sunniest place in NZ we were told, was very tranquil but very nice too, its Saturday market brought out hoards of food salesman selling yummy things and I walked through Queens Gardens until I reached the geographical centre of NZ, a point at the top of a hill looking 360 degrees over the sea, the town and its surroundings.

Franz Josef was the next fairly big (with maybe a population of 20) place that we visited. Its principal, and deservedly popular attraction, is the Franz Josef glacier. One of only 3 glaciers in the world which remains intact throughout a subtropical climate, we had the opportunity to hike on the glacier, squeezing between crevices and holes in the ice, climbing at parts and hacking hobbit-steps into the ice to walk up...a really interesting experience.

Some of the smaller places we stopped at enroute included Lake Mahinapua (AKA The Poo Pub) where we had a big beach fancy dress party, and Lake Wanaka where we went to the home from home old-skool cinema, with big couches and homemade cookies at the interval.

Arriving at Queenstown, 3 weeks after arriving in Auckland , I met up with Jonny once more for our last week in NZ. Queenstown, the backpacker Mecca of NZ, was heaving with friends who both of us had made throughout the trip so there was lots of going out and socialising, and eating in Fergburger, possibly the busiest and best burger bar in the world. The town itself is tourist-orientated but its surroundings are beautiful, and would be even more so in the winter when all the mountains are snowcapped and skiers flock for the slopes. We did manage to catch a local rugby match at the rugby club on the weekend, whose standard was brilliant...some of the players could easily have been playing in the Super 14s match we saw later in the week in Dunedin. Queenstown was also where I partook in my scariest activity so far, bungy jumping! This definitely had more of a nerve-racking element to it, just for the fact that you had to throw yourself off the cable car, which is just hanging 134m in mid-air with nothing but rocks and a drizzle of river beneath it. But the thrill was FANTASTIC!

For the last 5 days, we hired a car and along with Sarah and Kate, drove the scenic road down to Milford Sound. The journey was lovely, winding through the mountains and lakes of the Western country and finally ending where we met the sea, at Milford Sound. We took a boat across the sound, and it was very pretty, with its sheer-drop mountains jutting into the channel, lots of waterfalls and reflections in the water. Dunedin was a fairly buzzy city. Originally Scottish, it still had some roots, and hearing the bagpipes coming from the main square, or octagon, as it was named after its shape, was quite funny. It was here we went to see a Super 14s match, The Highlanders (the locals) vs The Stormers, a South African team. It wasn't the most exciting match, but good to see all the same.

We took a long drive up to Christchurch , our last stop in NZ. The city was surprisingly (?!) quite small and not particularly happening but we met some lovely Samoans on our last night out. So here, I said goodbye to Sarah for the time-being and carried on with Jonny to our next destination, Fiji .