After leaving the girls asleep early one morning, I reached the ferry down to the South island to a place called Nelson and stayed there for the night. I made some friends down there and partied with them in the evening, even though I had to wake up very early again the next morning. I got the bus to a place, then a van to a small village called Takaka. The village was in the middle of nowhere and I managed to sleep in a hammock outside as the place was full. ...

Another one of our 8am rises, we suffered no memorable hangovers to mark our last night of North Island. With an option of flying or sailing to the South, we took a 3-hour ferry over the Cook Strait with a smaller group, leaving the Johnston bus behind. With André's absence, we finally reached the South Island's Picton, the gateway to Marlborough Sounds, where a green Kiwi bus awaited our arrival. Heading out via the scenic Marlborough Valley with its li...

Unlike Lord of the Rings, New Zealand is real - this is not Middle Earth, so forget the fictional comparisons and we confronted the country's magnificent geography as well as its ever envolving Maori culture, on its own authentic terms and of course not to forget the adrenalin pumping activities. After a memorable flight from Santiago to Auckland with many digital film clips that we cracked up over impersonations of our friends back home, we landed in Auckla...