I think I've fallen in love (again). Not with a hairy white water rafting instructor this time though, instead I've fallen in love with this place, Queenstown, and New Zealand in general really. The only thing it has going against it is that it's pretty much as far away from Devon as it is possible to get! Queenstown is a little bit like Devon actually, but with mountains and bungy jumps and weird bars where you get cocktails served in teapots and sunshine and......

Yesterday I voluntarily paid 140NZ$ to walk across ice in the driving rain, in sub-zero temperatures, wearing ill-fitting hired boots that were wet when I put them on and waterproof clothing that may as well have been made out of denim. Yesterday I watched as one of my friends fell down a crevasse and semi-dislocated her shoulder, before walking down the very slope she fell off and offering to carry her rucksack on my front as well as my own on my back. Yesterday...

Lies our coach driver/guide has told us so far on the Kiwi Experience:- That a strange llama like creature we went past was a new cross between a sheep and a giraffe, called a "shiraffe"- That the cows in New Zealand were genetically modified so that they went white when they were ready to be milked (the ones we were passing at the time were getting there but not quite ready)- That the waterfall everyone was about to jump off had a natural thermal pool ...

Rafting in Zambia was phenomenal, don't get me wrong, but if I'm going to remember one rafting trip in ten years time it will be the one we did on the Kaituna river in Rotorua in the North Island of New Zealand the day before yesterday. The rafting itself was tame in comparison to the Zambezi, and much shorter, but we got value for money solely from the other five people in our boat! Out of all the fifty odd people rafting that day, Kirsty and I ended up in a boa...

Things I have learned so far on my travels:- That nonchalently taking spices through customs at Sydney airport is a bad idea.- That sanitiser gel (the type you get in hospitals) is the best invention ever.- That I can sleep pretty much anywhere, and in any position.- That you can never see too many zebras.- That I should have changed my passport picture before I left home (greeting every customs official with "yes, unfortunately that is me" is never a g...