Kia Ora from the land of the long white cloud! Well they say time flies when you're having fun, can't believe been here for a month. Its probably the toughest blog will write as there's so much to say but will try to keep it short & sweet.

New Zealand has been nothing short of amazing, by the time got to the South Island had run out of superlatives!! It really has felt like in a movie set at times for Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park. Whilst on the 8 hour trek on the Tongariro crossing, which stood out as the main highlight, felt like Frodo or Sam from LotR. Stunning scenery throughout especially seeing a snow capped volcanic Mount Doom.

Prior to coming to NZ, a lot of people said don't bother with the north island just head straight down to the south. What a crock of cacca. The North island exceeded my expectations, it felt like Scotland on steroids or Cumbria on crack. Cathedral Cove was well lush, the gloworms at Waitomo were err glowing and even the Bay of Islands was bootiful even though the weather wasn't up to scratch. I was ill for the majority of the north island and ended up in hospital in Rotorua collapsing a couple of times due to dehydration/exhaustion. The doc was real good (from Lytham St Annes!) and was just pleased it wasn't a tropical disease.. Chilled in Taupo for a couple of extra days which did the world of good and then really enjoyed the gentle green sloping hills in River Valley. Seeing the location where Gollum ate the fish was really cool also. Wellington the capital city was decent, enjoyed the Te Papa museum with the world's biggest squid on display (if made squid rings from it they would be the size of truck tires!) and also the Weta caves, a company that does a lot of movie work for Lotr, Tintin, District 9 amongs others with life size replicas of an orc, Sauron, Gollum, Tintin and fcuking prawns! ;)

The boat journey from Wellington to Picton was something else going through the Malborough Sounds, again felt like an extra in a movie set.

The south island was even more beautiful and diverse than the north, the weather wasn't brill in Abel Tasman but still went down to the beach and appreciated the beauty. The West coast was wonderful, the poo party at Lake Mahinapua was lots of fun with the living legend that is Les. Franz Josef was fantastic, the glacier was great and the helicopter ride to and from there was awesome! The south island had plenty of stunning mirror lakes from Lake Matheson, Lake Hawea and finishing up at Lake Wanaka which was real nice watching the sunset with friends chilling lakeside. Queenstown was like a black hole, remember entering it but the rest is a big blur!! Had lots of fun and Ferg burgers, always ending up with Ferg fingers ;-) Conquered my fears by doing the Nevis bungy jump which was a massive rush, in the words of Chemical Brothers, Do it again!! Milford Sound was both magnificent and majestic, the bus ride from Lake Te Anau down to the fjords was probably the most scenic and stunning will ever do, was literally speechless! The heavy snow that had fallen made the bus journey from Queenstown to Christchurch brilliant, felt like was in a real winter wonderland when stopped off at Lake Tekapo. Christchurch didn't feel as desolate as was expecting, it was interesting seeing the city centre red zone which was destroyed in the quake.

Got to say been so fortunate with the weather here in NZ, when went up to the Bay of Islands on first day and it was belting it down thought here we go gonna be carp weather for the month. To say its autumn had near perfect weather especially on all the major excursions/trips, well lucky! The air here is so fresh and pure, the waters mostly crystal clear and drinking the water from a creek was really invigorating.

The main thing that has made NZ so fantastico however was the Kiwi bus. We were so fortunate to have such a brilliant bunch of people and real characters and no bus w***ers! When we got to Queenstown we all felt like a family and had plenty of fun together throughout. Sweet as!

There's been plenty of randomness here too seeing people met in Laos, Fiji and sharing a dorm with a girl from Blackburn and then also seeing a Rovers shirt in Auckland yesterday! There were plenty of green shirts in town too as the Irish were playing the All Blacks at Eden park, watching the world champions in the stadium where they won the cup was the cherry on a very big, delizioso New Zealand cake!

Tomorrow will be a really bloody loooong day. 4am get up to watch Italy get bummed by Spain in the Euros.. 4pm flight to Santiago then arrive there at lunchtime on the same day!? Loco!! Speaking of which really looking forward to South America and its loconess!