After saying goodbye to Mark who I did the Glacier Trek with and a couple of girls on there way to Christchurch I got my Atomic Shuttle bus at 10.30. We stopped at a fly infested cafe for lunch watching the rain come down and after a 6 hour journey with only 3 of us on the bus got to Queenstown. My hostel, Reavers Lodge, was a decent place near town and popular with long staying locals and was fine but the walk from the bus stop up the steepest hill imaginable wi...

Had an early start yesterday for a long bus ride getting to chilly Arthurs Pass for a brief morning stop, then onto Greymouth at lunchtime. Had a couple of hours there before my next bus took 3 hours to get to Franz Joseph. It may seem like thats a long slog but the scenery is so amazing that the journey was a pleasure particularly with my ipod being well used yet again. Arrived at the YHA Hostel which is fine, and headed off for a beer after three dry nights. ...

No probs on the flight from Sydney on 22nd Feb meeting Gibbo as soon as I got our Motel, good place on the outskirts of town. An hour later we were heading out for plenty of beers, food, and games of pool which my headache told me the next morning I had enjoyed a bit too much. Got the bus into town on Saturday to get some clothes as many of mine are falling apart and I need some warmer stuff for my Franz Joseph hike. After that we headed straight for the ODI cri...

Sydney is one of my favouirte places so it was strange that on my first day here I felt quite fed up, dont know why. Maybe tired, maybe the showery weather, I dont know but my day around Darling Harbour via the open-top bus at the excellent Martime Museum and the Imax Theatre wasn't the happiest day Ive had since i've been away. Woke up after a night in my decent accommodation in Kings Cross (not the best of areas!) and had a far better second day. I picked up ...

Having been to Perth before I was very keen to have a tour up the west coast, ideally one going further but the best bet on offer was a 4 day trip up to Monkey Mia with Western Exposure who have recently taken over the recommended Pinnacle Tours. After getting picked up and finding my mini bus we headed north, the whole group was very quiet so after a stop our tour guide made us each go to the front and do a little speech introducing ourselves. There were five p...