With very sore legs and asses from the ridiculous hike up tongariro we made our way to Wellington. Wellington is a really pretty city and we were lucky because the sun was out which made everything that much better. That was until we went to the chinese embassy to get our visas where they told us they would have to keep our passports for 5 days and we could only hand our applications to them between 9 and 12 in the morning. As we didn't arrive until the afternoon...

So we arrived in Auckland ready with a pass booked aboard stray (a new zealand bus tour company). We stayed one night in Auckland in a hostel which was nice but freezing cold. Got picked up by Ricky our driver onthe stray bus in the morning to begin our travels. First stop was up Mount Eden which is an old inactive volcano with views out accross Auckland. Stopped at a really high waterfall and then in a town called Raglan which is famous for its mile long wave or...

So we arrived in Sydney after a long, long, long overnight bus to find it raining and miserable. Not to be deterred we went out for a bit of sight seeing and shopping seeing as we didn't have any clothes suitable for the rain. Had a look around our hostel which had 13 floors, 1 broken lift, 1 partially functioning lift which occassionaly got stuck, 4 saucepans and 3 bowls. Not particularly impressive! The rain carried on all day so we had some super noodles and g...

So we arrived in Byron Bay to the sound of some friendly homeless drunks cheering at us at the station. We were picked up (late) by people from our hostel,one of which was from Bude in Cornwall. She sounded like a posh former so i thought she was probably from Cornwall but from a nicer part than me. We were in 5 bed dorm but were the only ones there which was cool. The hostel backed on to the beach so we went down for a wander. It was mostly overcast so we didn't...

So after sleeping in the airport we flew into Cairns feeling pretty tired. We were staying at a place called the Asylum which is aptly named. The place had a rep around town for making loads of noise and all the locals complained about it. Me and Lee had our own 2 bed room but after Amber found someone sleeping in her bed we blew up the airbed and she stayed with us. The place was pretty grotty and disgusting with no hot water but despite the crazy reputation it ...