After a tearful farewell to Pembo who I would not be seeing again I jumped onto my "East As" trip. I was really looking forward to it as you get to see the real New Zealand and Maouri culture. A white transit style bus picked me up and I was a little apprehensive as to who would be on the trip and to my surprise only 4 people were on it and that included me! Luckily enough everyone was nice, there were two English guys called John and Rich and a Dutchy ...

Upon my arrival into rainy Rotorua, I was greeted with the stench of rotten eggs...mmmmm yummy I thought. This place is home to Geothermal Spa's which contain the discusting smelling sulphur...hence the eggy smell. We got to (what i will describe) as the most repulsive hostel in the whole of New Zealand, Hot Rocks Base. It looked like a delapidated secondary school and the bedrooms we minging and the kitchen was infested with cockroaches and Pembo got bitten by b...

Taupo is the adventure capital of the North Island but nothing in comparison with South Islands Queenstown. We arrived in Taupo and the rain was ridiculous, ah well. We were staying at a nice backpackers called Urban Retreat. It was really small and really personal. The owners were so lovely and you really felt looked after and that they actually cared about you... that doesnt really happen too often. Our room was possibly the smallest room I have ever seen. It s...

The journey from Kaikoura to Wellington was absolutely pants! First we were on the bus (again ..yes) but then we had to catch the interislander ferry which take 3 hours to get from the South Island to the North Island. The ferry journey was so rough I felt so sick even though I had overdosed myself on travelcalm tablets. Pembo being Pembo was starving and decided she was going to buy a huge roast dinner. I was sitting in the conservatory type part of the boat whi...

I had heard that Milford Sound was well worth a day trip as the scenery was supposed to be spectacular. The only probably with this place is that it rains pretty much every day of the year. Sometimes they get upto 10 metres in a year...and I complain about Hertfordshire! It was an early morning once again and as this was just a day trip from Queenstown a lot of driving was involved. Infact 4 hours there and 4 hours back. Nice. No one else from my other bus was g...