Finally up in the north island! But sadly nearly at an end to my time in NZ.

After posting the last blog I walked back from Mcdonalds to the hostel. Was pretty late by now so got changed ready for the night. Met a lot of friends from the start of my bus trip on that night out, so thought it would be wise to extend my stay in Queenstown.

So got up early the next day to tell the bus driver not to wait for me, and to book myself onto the bus on Thursday. Then went back to bed.

Monday to thursday all kind of merged into one long day to me, I could tell you what happened on each day, but not know whether it happened on Tuesday or thursday. Dont want to write too much (and risk giving away how much of an alcoholic I've become) but had a huge amount of fun. Did even manage to get a few things done - booked all my accom and transfers in Fiji, uploaded a few hundred photos to Facebook (have a look for the last of Thailand and most of Sydney), watched the 3rd Canucks game (which, to my actual disappointment they spectacularly lost), tried and failed to change my flight, and keep updated with my job in Canada.

Turns out the Canadian job is a lot more of a major operation than I thought - the camp has its own iPhone app, it's own radio station and news paper, around 170 staff, and a huge amount of young kids steaming through it over the weeks. Take a look at the camp manitou site if you wish, theyres a fairly funny 'staff bio' section, which includes one of me.
Anyway it looks like I actually may have to do some work.
Also signed up to the 'camp manitou staff hockey league' which should be funny.

The other one to check out whilst you're on the internet is 'octopus resort' on the yasawas islands. That's where I'm staying in Fiji.

Jealous?

Anyway, skip through to thursday where I managed to catch the bus with about half an hour to spare, didn't forget anything, had the right amount of money, and lots of snacks in my bags. If only I could do this when I get to the airports?? Was struggling a little bit walking though as I had my main bag, my little day bag, and half a crate of beer I couldn't leave behind.

Thursday was pretty much spent on the bus. With Christchurch out of action, what used to be a long drive, turns into a very long drive. Spent 13 hours steaming up the east of the south island. Finally making it back to Kaikoura for about 6:30. Usually everyone gets off in Christchurch, which we drove by at about 2, but as there is nothing to do (said from experience!) we head straight to Kaikoura. This is the 2nd time we've been here, it's meant to be the best place in the world to go whale/dolphin/seal watching or swimming. However I remember it as the place where they asked us to leave the bar at 10:30 as they wanted to mop the floor.

Cooked (sweet and sour sausages with rice for what seems the 100th day in a row, but is actually only the 9th, it started in Wanaka) then slept. Very tired despite sleeping on the bus all day.

Woke up the next day, cooked (sweet and sour again - yes I have it for breakfast) then packed up the last of my stuff and jumped on the bus. Short drive to Picton, where the ferry terminal is. Driving again through the Marlborough region. Got the ferry ticket, checked in my bag, then had to check my crate of beer in as a special fragile item (the guy looked at me very seriously and said he would look after it, think he knew how important it was!) then killed some time in the shops around town.

Boarded the ferry at around 1 and then set off across the Cook straight (the bit between the north and south island).
Bit of a trick question for you - how many main islands does NZ have?

3! The North island, the South island and Stewart island. (a small island just south of the South island, very good for kiwi spotting apparently)

Arrived into New Zealand's capital city - Wellington at around half 4, and was greeted by a huge downpour and near gale force winds. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, as the crossing had been quite calm. Quick drive to our hostel where we checked in for 2 nights. Small bit of trivia - our hostel was directly opposite the cinema where all of the lord of the rings flims (and actually all of Peter Jackson's films) premiered.

Inevitably ended up going out to try out Wellingtons nightlife, wasn't on a par with Queenstown, but still a good night out.

Woke up late at around 11 and had a late brunch (sweet and sour!) before heading to the shops for some supplies, ie more sausages and another jar of sweet and sour sauce. Back to the hostel to drop food off before walking to New Zealand's national museum - called 'Te Papa'. The equivalent of the national history museum in London. Actually a really interesting museum, it starts with stuff about the earths core and land formation and basically goes through to present day NZ, including plenty on maori tradition, and European settlement. Spent about 4 hrs in there and still hadnt seen everything, had to call it a day as we were all dying on our feet from walking around, so staggered back to the hostel. Slept before cooking dinner (you guessed it!)

My roommates didn't want to go out again, so convinced me to have an early night. Probably a good idea as the bus was at 7:45 the next day, and inevitably it would be the day all the hangovers caught up with me. Taught them both a funny card game I had learnt off a friend in Thailand, which we then ended up playing all night.

Up early the next day and packed up before jumping on the bus. Spent the day driving through incredible scenery. I know I say that every time, but that time was driving through a world heritage sight, one of 3 in NZ. They get world heritage accreditation if the world heritage board thinks it is a completely unique landscape that has to be preserved. So you can see it was a pretty cool place.

Also drove by what features as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. I had been planning to do a walk up it, however we learnt that the weather was so severe last week that it had been closed to the public, and that you could walk up this week, but only with a mountain guide - over tripling the price of the walk. So decided not too, would have looked a bit weird with snow on it anyway.

Drove by lake Taupo - NZ's largest lake. Before finally reaching Taupo township. Actually drove straight through to a place called Huka falls. Although there are 100's of streams flowing into Lake Taupo, there is only 1 river that flows out. It's the longest river in NZ, and flows all the way to Auckland. I can't remember what it's called though.

Anyway at Huka falls this river flows through a tiny gorge made of very tough rock. Here it flows at incredible speed (think bottleneck effect) and 220,000 liters goes through a second. Then it shoots off the fairly small waterfall at the end and goes back to being a normal river again. Anyway it's NZ most visited natural attraction.

Drove back to Taupo and checked in, got changed into trunks and ran down to jump in the lake. Got a little distracted along the way - there was a golf shooting range out onto the lake, where they had a little platform with 3 holes on it - a 50cm, a 30cm and a normal golf hole. Basically if you got it in any of the holes you got a prize. From a free meal, walk or entry into a spa in the 50cm, a skydive, quadbike or bungy in the 30cm, to $10,000 in the red hole. It was 102m to the platform, so was basically impossible. Had a few goes on this (you buy the balls, then they snorkel for them later) didn't get anything obviously. Jumped in the lake, which was a mistake as it was freezing.

Got out, dried off then Walked to the shops and cooked dinner before having a little nap. Then walked up to the liquor store so everyone could get drinks for that night. I still had my crate of beer.

Bit of an odd night out, it was a Sunday so wasn't expecting anything to be busy, but it was still utterly quiet. Almost the entire hostel was out, which just showed how few people were staying. Things are definitely getting into the winter season here.

Stayed out til about 1 before crashing back into bed. Big lie in the next day before going out for what was actually a brilliant afternoon, probably the best in NZ, definitely in the top 10 over all.

Anyway we had been told about some hot streams in a park nearby, so went to check it out (in full swimming gear with towels). It was about a 30 min walk but eventually found it, got very excited as we could see huge clouds of steam coming out of the bushes. Found this stream which was awesomely fun - it was at 38 degrees, just slightly hotter than body temp, like a hot bath. Then just sat in it for ages. When you got too hot you simply drifted down a bit until you got to the river, which had come out of the lake and was freezing.

Stayed here til the sun went down, then walked back to the hostel. Stopping on the way for more food (we had been talking about rhubarb crumble and custard in the hot springs so I had cravings). Got back and cooked my usual sweet and sour, then had a gorgeous dessert - couldn't find rhubarb crumble so had gone for a Ginger loaf instead, put a few biscuits in it then smothered it in custard. Gorgeous.

It was about 7pm, went back for a little 30 min nap, and did my usual - waking up 4 hrs later wondering what happened. Then went back to bed and slept through til 8am, when I got woken up by a text from the parents.

I had seen the news about the earthquakes in Christchurch the night before, but of course hadn't realised my parents would be stressing.

If you're interested - type in Taupo in google maps, then see how far away it is from Christchuch. You may remember I mentioned it earlier in the blog - I had been there 4 days ago.

Really sad to hear about more earthquakes, having stayed there for 3 nights and seen how many things were closed/collapsed, it would have been nice for them to start rebuilding.

Anyway after calming hysterical parents I eventually got up and showered, then ate (sweet and sour with rice, on toast)

Then spent the rest of the day on the local mini golf course, very funny afternoon, and fairly good value for money. Came back via the shops. Then went out on a wifi hunt.

All I can write for now,

Josh xx

Photo is of a sign in the tiny town of bulls that we briefly stopped at for a loo break. Don't usually mention these in the blogs, but the sign was very funny!