Currently hanging out in Queenstown and thought I would update before I move on to Austrailia!

20th Feb 2011 Rotorua

Got on the Bus and met the people on my tour - they all seem very nice! A variety of nationalalites but mainly British, Austrailian and German. Went through the town of Hobbit - which is apparently where they filmed some of Lord of the Rings and therefore the small town decided to change its name to 'Hobbiton' and then we went to stay on the Marae This is like the Sacred Maori (native people of New Zeland's) Church. To be welcomed in, we had to walk slowly up to the door, take our shoes off and then sing a song (in which I had a solo!). Then one of the elders sang their song and let us in. We ate and then all slept in the same room on a matress on the floor. One of Maori Folk told us about his traditions etc and I fell asleep - it was like a bed time story!

21 Feb 2011 Rotorua

Woke up for breakfast at 7 on the Marae and then went to another Maori viliage which was built on an active geo-thermal area. Basically this means that the earths crust is really thin so you get steam pools everywhere. The whole town smelt of Sulpher! It was a horrid smell! What's cool about the steam pools though is that they are natural and you can cook food on them in half the time without using any energy! I sampled some awesome sweetcorn. The Sweetcorn at Dad's BBQ will just not cut it this year!

Later we went White Water Rafting down a 7FT waterfall which was scary but awesome! I loved it! I got some rather dodgy pictures. Before we went out for dinner and drinks, we had some time to relax around the pool where we were staying. I felt very glad that I had left work for this :) We entered a pub quiz which was a combination of drinking games and general knowledge questions. We were most definitely cheated out of the winning prize because most of us were English and I don't think the Kiwis liked us very much! Still I learnt that to "skull" my drink meant to down it - so not an entirely wasted evening!

22 Feb 2011 Rotorua - Wellington

Today was a very tiring Bus day as it took us all day to get to Wellington the capital city of New Zealand which looks just like any city in the UK. I would have liked to have stayed longer and gone for a night out but the earthquake hit Christchurch this afternoon. Luckily I was nowhere near, but nobody was really in the mood for going out - we spent hours watching the shocking scenes on the 24 hour news report in the hostel. The hostel I was going to be staying in was actually completely flattened. Tired from the journey, we just went to bed that night.

23 Feb 2011 Wellington - Nelson

Ready for a new day - Explored the city and went to a musueam which topically had a lot about earthquakes in it. Turns out New Zeland rests on two tectonic plates which often collide and set off earthquakes around the country. Plus because of its location its prone to cyclones. Great. Didn't realise I was in such a potientially dangerous country! The Tourism board hid that one well!

Jumped on the Ferry to the South Island and went for dinner at this Pirate bar in Nelson. YArrgh!

24 Feb 2011 Nelson and Abel Tasman

Got up for an early morning Kayak in the Abel Tasman national park and saw a few seals before hiking up the mountain within the park. Really long, tiring but sunny day. Was awesome though.

25 Feb 2011 Kaikoura

It's a small coastal villiage on the South Island anyway where we were able to swim with seals....well I say swim, we went out on the boat all geared up in our wet suits etc and had to come back again because the sea was too choppy. Thank God I didn't go on the Dolphin swim though, their boat left slightly after ours when the storm was coming in and most the people on board were sick. Yuk!

Left the villiage and headed for Hamner Springs where there were a lot of hot pools to relax in.

26 Feb 2011 Hamner Springs - Fox Glacier

Another long day on the bus. At nightime we went on a pitch black walk through the forest to look at some glow worms. It was very scary and I screamed everytime I walked into a tree or something - which set off everyone else screaming! oops!

27th Feb 2011 Fox Glacier

Climbed up the Ice Glacier today. Learnt a new word - "Crampon" it means the spikes attached to our climbing boots. Very Very cool day.

After a brief stop in Hokitika where I saw a Kiwi bird (in a sanctory) and did some shopping, we entered Queenstown and enjoyed a Ferg Burger by the Lake. These burgers are massive!!

28th Feb 2011 Queenstown

Attempted to jump out of a plane this morning. Unfortunately we were unable to because the clouds meant that the planes could not fly. In the afternoon I rode a horse around the Lord of the Rings scenery which was pretty cool. I also learnt that Orlando Bloom is actually riding in the film - well until he fell off and broke his rib! - and Liv Tyler was rubbish with horses so didn't ride at all!

Evening pizza and icebar (yes everything is made of ice). Lot's of drinkies tonight which resulted in crazy group dancing and the limbo!

1st March 2011 Queenstown

As a result of the previous night, I got up late for sky diving. Luckily, this was actually a good thing as the weather was a lot better by the time I had got out of bed! Going up in the tiny plane was terrifying! The plane only just fit 6 people squashed in and I was the last one to jump. Watching the others jump out did not help though! When I got to the door there was nothing I could do and the instructor guy I was attached to just jumped and I screamed my head off as I tumbled to what I thought was death. After a few seconds though it felt awesome and then the parachute opened and I slowly glided towards earth taking in the beautiful lake and mountain scenery. Really awesome!

In the afternoon, I took a Gondola ride up the mountain to get some epic views and also spent about an hour an a hour trying to get the perfect "jumping" shot - which was you can see from my facebook photos - I completely failed! Then had a go on the luge - I pretended I was on Mario Kart the whole way round :)

2nd March 2011 Milford Sound

Long drive to get on an overnight cruise. The weather turned today and it was cold and rainy! I did not pack well for the cruise and got soaked when we had a mini speed boat trip! I had to wear my pjs for the rest of the night but there wasn't much to do on the boat except play board games and wait for the morning.

3rd March 2011 Milford Sound - Queenstown

Left the rest of my tour on the bus today and now I am in Queenstown all alone :( Still time to get some washing done and life sorted before Melbourne on Saturday! I may even find time to go to a bar or three.