Special K does New Zealand

Well I fell in love. Not with a boy (as I'm sure my mum is delighted!) and no I haven't turned lesbian either. I fell in love with New Zealand, with Aotearoa, with the land of the long white cloud. Where else not only respects their indigenous people, but actively embraces their culture and history? Where else looks equally beautiful in the rain and the sun? Where else can you drive for 8 hours without seeing another car? Where else can you startle sheep that are so unused to cars and people? Where else has made up so many extreme sports? Where else can you stand in front of a mountain capped in ice in a bikini, sweating? Where else has the national catch phrase 'sweet as bro'? I'm so in awe of this beautiful country and the incredible things I have seen and done here in such a short space of time. In just five weeks I have gone black water rafting, white water rafting, climbed mountains, done a glacier hike, swam with wild dolphins and gone fishing.

It's such a country of contrasts with the city life of Wellington, Auckland, Queenstown and Christchurch, which are lively and happening (well in NZ terms...) and the incredible varying scenery of the Abel Tasman National Park or the amazing Franz Josef Glacier. I never expected to see beaches of such beauty and to experience such awesome weather. It really is something special to seee the amazing light blues of the lakes set in a barren landscape and backed by enormous mountains. I love the people, who are so friendly and sarcastic. I love the food, with particular reference to the pies, New Zealand lamb and the yummy roast beef dinners (obviously not a patch on Grandma's though!). A particular highlight of my trip was in fact the Americans' bewildered faces at a Yorkshire Pudding and even after I had explained what in fact it was their protestation of 'I don't like this bread'....! I also love the opportunities to do free things like going to natural hot springs and the amazing Te Papa Museum in Wellington.

I guess it's kinda like England, only better. Even with all the hype from 'The Lord of the Rings', it is not overrated. But could I really live here?? I always thought it would be incredible to live in a place with less people, but I'm not so sure small town life is really for me. In Westport on a Saturday afteroon, not a single cafe was open. Saturday night in the same town involved a 3-legged pub crawl (I was unfortunately attached to the driver...) and I was genuinely horrifed by the array of locals, all dressed entirely in black and looking like they had escaped from the early 90s grunge era. After being chatted up by a 60-year-old man, I decided perhaps it was time for bed. Taupo was no better. There really is only so much 'C'mon Eileen' and 'Man I feel like a woman', together with inappropriate strobe lighting and drunken locals a girl can take. It really made Saturday night out in Dover look like the height of sophistication.

I guess ultimately people do not come to New Zealand for parties. However, the Kiwi Bus really does take you to some amazing places that are completely out of the way. We headed through multiple winding roads, leading to a feeling of general nausea on the bus and terrifying thousands of sheep, to River Valley. The lodge we stayed in was the only thing for miles and with 16 of us to a dorm, which were basically mats on several large tables, it was quite a surreal experience. I also particularly enjoyed our night at the Poo Pub. Bacially the Poo Pub is in Lake Mahinipua and run by an 85-year-old publican named Les. Every single night of the year (for the previous 16 years), Les has hosted an incredible buffet bbq dinner (with steak and venison stew, yum yum) followed by a party in the pub. The walls of the pub are covered in poloroid pictures from all the parties over the years. Our theme was plastic bags, so I naturally enough decided to dress up like a dalmation. The party was attended by everyone, from nuns to pirates to smurgs to my friend Andrew, the killer whale. He put his degree in design to excellent use, coming away with the best costume award and winning a canyon swing in Queenstown.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the little town of Wanaka, where I went to the coolest, quirkiest cinema, which had sofas and a VW car for seating and served hot cookies and hot chocolate during the interval. I'm definitely taking that back to England!

The city (if 15,000 people constitutes a city) I just left, Queenstown, is unique once again. Adrenelin and party capital, its basically where all the mad b******s decide to throw themselves off things. I decided against such madness, but did accompany my friend Katie a.k.a Megatron (more on this later) to the Karawau Bridge (the site of the first ever bungy jump) and cheered her on. So I practically did it... Every night people are guaranteed to be out and about in Queenstown's two main clubs, Altitude and World Bar, thus meaning the Kiwi bus usually leaves half-empty because of the amount of no shows! I was lucky enough to be there for St Patrick's Day, which was particularly messy.

One cannot go to Queenstown without expeiencing the amazing Fergburger, quite possibly the best burger place in the world and even better than University of Southampton's Q Burger. For about 6 pounds, you ger a burger as big as your head, which is made using locally sourced meat, salad and buns especially made by a local bakery. I had the added benefit of munching a Mr Big Stuff (1/2lb of meat...) for free after the muppet that worked there accidentally gave me back my $20 bill :). I also thoroughly enjoyed the Cockadoodle Oink (chicken with bacon) and I wonder why I've put on 7kg...

Fed up with the constraints of the Kiwi Bus, myself and four random other decided to hire a car and head to the Number One Kiwi attraction - Milford Sound. The five chosen ones were: myself, Rowan (18-year-old), Josh (19-year-old), Andrew (an old man of 26) and another Katie (23). Having two Katies presented a confusing problem so we both decided to acquire nicknames and thus forth we were known as Megatron (her) and Special K (me). Andrew was the designated driver of our rather fabulous Ford Focus as he was the only one that had actually driven a manual car before. Thus, with two over-hyped younguns and Andrew probably feeling like their dad, we stocked the car up with goodies and plenty of wine and set off on the 300km journey. The drive was absolutely stunning and we constantly stopped so the boys could jump over rocks and stuff and do general boyish things. Andrew and Josh also developed Oriental-like qualities, because of the enormous number of photos they took. Or maybe I was just jealous that a Canadian had dropped my camera in a puddle on the Franz Josef glacier... (what a way to go though!). We finally made it to Milford in the late afternoon and after making a spectacular spag bol for dinner, we proceeded to play drinking games and get extremely drunk. Lets just say there were goon boxes on heads and it all went a bit hazy after that.

Up early the next morning with sore heads, Megatron and I went on a cruise of the Milford Sound. However, as the rain was so bad (it is the second rainest place in the world) and we were feeling a tad delicate, we were left a little disappointed. It was to get worse as we then had to walk back to the hostel in the rain, with only a hot pie and half a twix each for comfort. Feeling somewhat sorry for ourselves we began the long drive home. The scenery had been dramatically alterd by the rain and there were waterfalls everywhere. We were sad to finish our road trip, but it was funny to see how five random people who barely knew each other could have so much fun.

My trip has also ended on a complete high. Yesterday I went swimming with wild dusky dolphins and it was a completely surreal experience. Despite singing some classic tunes through my snorkel and thrashing about in what I believe was an extraordinarily dolphin-like manner, the dolphins eyeballed me and found me most uninteresting! I was actually quite in awe of their accurate judgement of my behaviour, but also delighted when a couple swam in circles with me. Swimming in a pod of 300 dolphins is certainly not a sight I'll forget in a hurry. The day ended weall as myself and my new friend Emily bought some beautiful meat from the butcher and cooked up a storm on the barbie. The evening was concluded by watching my first VHS in 10 years. Welcome, my friends, to New Zealand.