It's been a while hey! So after Hiroshima I went back to Wakayama and was so happy to be back home with Helen! I got in and Helen made us a lovely quiche and we had a nice chilled out evening together, was definitely needed. The following day Helen and I both felt pretty awful with what was now named Helen flu, but dragged ourselves out for some lunch. We ate at a Buddhist restaurant which was really great healthy veggie food, and didn't have to worry about an...

It has been a while since my last update so thought I would fill everyone in on what I've been up too… While Helen was away teaching I met up with her friend Amy (this was my first time riding my bike!!) and we got the train to go and see Tama, a cat that runs a train station. Yes, you heard me correctly. The railway made cuts and the station was left unmanned, but a stray cat Tama used to be there every day, so naturally they made her the station master. ...

Konnichiwa! So I am now residing in Japan! My 11 hour flight from Auckland went quite well, apart from sitting next to a lovey dovey couple who felt the need to kiss each other every time one of them got up for the toilet. Great. I landed at Narita airport and soon learnt that you're not meant to fill out your landing card in pink pen. However it worked in my favour as I ended up jumping the massive queue by doing the 'I'm foreign and didn't understand' loo...

The day after the canyon swing we all had a bit of a lie in, and then met up with Kate at Fergbakery. If we thought Fergburger was good the pies here were something else. Seriously need to stop eating in this country!! We decided to be productive with our day and got the gondola up the mountain where you could see the whole of Queenstown. We had a ticket for 5 luge rides which was great fun and bought out the inner speed demon in us all, apart from when we tri...

We had to leave our nice chalet in Punakiki and head off in the direction of Franz Josef. We stopped off in Greymouth which really wasn't too exciting but we picked up some new recruits on the bus, 5 more girls which meant we now has 9 girls and 2 boys, pretty ridiculous! We got to Franz Josef and checked into the rainforest retreat which was going to be our home for the next two nights. The hostel had a massive hot tub and we got to mingle with some people fro...