Christchurch is the third largest city in New Zealand and the largest on the Soutch island. In 2010 and then in 2011 Christchurch was hit by two massive earthquakes, the second of which led to mass destruction and several deaths. The demolition/rebuild work is still going on 3 years later and the economic damage dome to New Zealand is estimated to take 50-100 years to recover from. Arriving in the city there is construction work going on everywhere even in the o...

Wanaka was absolutely stunning, even by New Zealand standards with mountains surrounding the small town also with a lakefront the afternoon we arrived I hadn't realised quite how beautiful it was. Wanaka is a less famous, smaller Queenstown according to a lot of people and we only ended up staying one night but it was a niche little town which probably did have a few activities to do but we never really found out. Our initial arrival to Queenstown reminded me of...

Our first stop on the West Coast of the South Island was Kaiterteri which translated from Maori means literally 'run very fast with food'. Kaiteriteri was a very small village located next to the Abel Tasman national park which has beautiful golden beaches caused by an increased iron content in the rocks. The whole west coast has a jagged outline and resembled some parts of the great ocean road to me. Westport was our next stop on the was down which was more of ...

Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and the second largest city. On first glance it looked more like a large seaside town than a city as it doesn't have a lost of tall buildings and its situated in a very compact valley. Walking out of the hostel it was immediately obvious why its called 'windy' wellington with strong gusts of cold wind starting and never stopping once I'd stepped outside. The city reminded me of a more compact Melbourne with lots of s...

Most activities in Rotorua involved the many geysers/hot pools situated in the region. Rotorua alone produces 15% of New Zealand's power, just from geothermal energy. Just walking around the area you can find several bubbling mud pools. Unfortaneatly all of the hot gasses bubbling through the pools causes the area to smell like rotten eggs from all of the Sulphur. Our hostel pool was geothermally heated which made it pleasantly warm to swim in. Both Rotorua and ...