There was a kinda of nervous excitement as we waited in Crash Palace on Tuesday afternoon to get picked up by the next Stray bus and to meet our chums for the next few days/weeks!Our new driver, 'The Hoff' seemed a pretty cool guy and had a big brand spanking new coach too!We paid brief visits to Wai-o-Tapo Thermal Wonderland (more hot water and eggy smells!) and then to the Huka falls, where the fast flowing water was a cool deep turquoise colour (much to Hutch'...

It was an early start for Jonny after the Maori night as he got up at 5.30 to watch United in Uncle Boy's kitchen, and was joined by the man himself shortly afterwards! The rest of us were woken up to the sound of Abba Gold (much to Jonny's delight). After breakfast we headed to Rotorua where the order of the day was..... White water rafting!!! It was a grade 5 course with plenty of rapids and a 7m high waterfall (the highest commercially raftable waterfall in th...

After staying in the jungle retreat in Raglan overnight we set off to Waitomo for some adrenaline-pumping adventure. The activity we had chosen was called 'Haggas Honking Holes' and involved 3 abseils, (2 over waterfalls), 1 climb and some caving in between. Having only ever abseiled on Year 7 camp I was pretty nervous but Jonny was raring to go! After getting suited and booted (or should I say wet-suited and gum-booted) it was time for the first abseil - which w...

We had an early get up on Thursday morning to begin our trip over the rest of the country on the Stray bus, which had come highly recommended from the girls who had done it when they were here. It was slightly strange being on a bus full of other travellers and very different to what we had got used to in South America (ie. we were no longer gringos sticking out like a sore thumb!) We stopped off up Mount Eden on the way out of Auckland (where for the first time ...

We have landed in continent number 2! Although we finally touched down at 4pm rather than 4am after the trauma of Santiago airport, it still felt good to be in an English speaking country - even if we did have to fight the urge to still great everyone with a "hola"! We were naturally shattered and jet lagged, but long queues at passport control followed by us being directed off to a baggage inspection area which seemed to be reserved for UN folk who a...