Just thought i'd let you know i'm still alive and kicking. The working thing totally didn't work out, so i've been travelling to random places with random places and i have to say its been bloody good fun! So as you know i headed straight to the South island as i had already been to the north a year or so ago. I made my way to the fruit picking capital of the south, Nelson, but turns out no one, including farmers, wants to hire you when you're only in it for a fe...

The long bus ride to Christchurch was broken up by a stop at lake Pukaki, a beautiful aqua blue lake with Mount cook in the background, and at lake Tekapo to see New Zealands oldest church. We arrived in Christchurch and thought how English everything looked and sounded, we were staying on Gloucester road near Manchester street on the river Avon! Spent the evening walking around the city centre and cathedral square. Next morning I walked along the river to the bo...

On Wednesday morning we stopped at puzzling world, an illusion house and extremely frustrating giant maze. After 5 minutes I lost my patience and headed for the mergency exit. We headed straight to Queenstown and arrived at Kawarau bridge, the site of the first ever commercial bungy jump. Some people had signed up to jump but having always said I would never do a bungy i was happy standing watching them all. As I was stood there watching people fling themselves o...

Met our new driver Dillon and some new passengers and left Nelson for the west coast. Our 1st stop was Nelson lakes national park where we had lunch on lake Rotoiti surrounded by beautiful mountains and shared with toe-biting black swans! We carried on through the Buller gorge with more stunning scenery to look at. Apparently one of the best drives in new zealand but a bit scary with very narrow one-way bridges sometimes doubling up as railtracks. We arrived in W...

After the excitement of Taupo it was nice to have some chill out time in River Valley. On the way there we stopped in the Tongariro national park to see more familiar scenery from the Lord of the rings and the 3 massive volcanoes that dominate it. We visited the Tawhai falls where some people jumped off after believing our drivers promise of a 22 degree hot pool at the bottom. It was actually 2 degrees so pretty glad i gave that a miss! We stayed at a family run ...