Leaving the "hotel" the morning after the fancy dress party was pretty rough as we'd all had a heavy night, but were excited to get to Franz Josef to hike the glacier. We arrived and were told that we'd be able to get up there that afternoon, so we got kitted up, within 5 minutes before we got on the helicopter the pilots called it off due to low cloud cover! We were gutted. Unfortunately we couldn't hike from the bottom as the glacier was too unstable in its fo...

The morning in Kaiteriteri consisted of fun on the beach after a nicely cooked breakfast of baked beans and scrambled egg (yes Heidi and Tracie "I don't like egg" [except scrambled now] lol). Luckily we had a nice morning in the sun, as we boarded the bus the heavens opened and we were on our way to Westport. Leaving Ali, Danny, Bennett and Walter behind, they said goodbye by mooning us out of the car park. Arriving at Bazil's hostel, a little random "surfers" h...

Heading from Wellington we had to get a ferry from the north to the south island. Unfortunately the weather was awful on our trip over so we couldn't enjoy the view, which is supposed to be stunning. Instead we took over a corner in the bar and all fell asleep (once you've slept in enough hostels you can sleep anywhere). We travelled from Picton, where we disembarked the ferry, through to Kaiteriteri. By the time we arrived and checked in the rain had stopped, s...

On our way from Taupo to River Valley we stopped in Tongariro National Park (the first in New Zealand) and took a 2hour loop walk to Taranaki Falls. Despite it being freezing Ali decided to go in the water! MAD! A little later some of the guys jumped into a smaller waterfall and all had to walk back in their pants with bare feet so they didn't get their clothes and shoes wet. Hilarious for those of us watching. Arriving at River Valley early evening we booked in...

Aboard my new bus, I headed to Taupo. A last minute decision the night before, meant I was going to do a skydive! I'd taken a risk paying out $160 for it prior to getting there to save money (so I was screwed if the weather wasn't good enough). I was somewhat worried as the journey from Rotorua consisted of clouds and rain. However, as we arrived there were blue skies over Lake Taupo (a lake big enough to fit the whole of Singapore in, with space left over). I ar...