Tue 2nd Dec Nelson to Westport We left Nelson this morning with a new bus driver JB and headed towards the Nelson Lakes National Park, stopping off in Richmond for some supplies for lunch. We then drove on and parked up at the stunning Lake Rotoiti for a small walk and then lunch. After my mammoth walk the previous day I opted to stay by the lake and got out of the coach to just sit by it. I was soon back in my seat when I realised just how many sandflies there...

Sun 30th Nov Nelson Today was a fairly lazy day, but it was nice to catch up with my washing and generally just sorting all of my stuff out. I did manage a walk around though and went to the Queens Gardens and all around the town. Back at the hostel I met Chrissy, a lovely girl from Germany who had already been to Australia and was giving us lots of tips about where to find work. She had lived in Melbourne and said that it was definitely a lot easier to find w...

Sat 29th Nov Wellington to Nelson We managed to make the bus in time unlike a few unlucky people who we had to leave without so we didn't miss the ferry. Made it fine, left the bus at the port (picking up another on the south island) and settled ourselves down for the three hour crossing. I'd been carrying a freezer bag around with all our food in and took it on the ferry with us as I had teabags and milk and watching the pennies decided to make my own cup of ...

thur 27th Nov Taupo to River Valley We were meant to leave at 10.30 this morning but the bus broke down and Rich had to take it to the garage to try and fix it. I went to get some food while we were waiting and nearly missed it, we finally left at noon. We stopped off along the way at many of the waterfalls as we drove through Tongariro, New Zealand's oldest national park. We didn't spend too long here though since we'd lost a bit of time in the morning, hones...

Wed 26th Lake TaupoUnsurprisingly I was nursing a bad hangover today so I spent most of the morning in bed feeling sorry for myself. I did eventually make it out of bed to look at the lake and have another mooch around town but since the Tongariro Crossing trek had been cancelled due to bad weather (which I could't understand as weather seemed fine but apparently it gets cancelled a lot) and I couldn't afford another skydive there wasn't much else to do. The Tong...