After saying goodbye to Jodie in Melbourne, my family in Brisbane and my lovely Lottie in Perth, I headed to New Zealand, and for the first time ever, I travelled alone. As ever with arriving in a new country, the first few hours is always the weirdest and most daunting, and so it proved as I arrived in Auckland at around 2am on a Saturday morning (Friday night!). My chosen hostel was to be found on the K-Road, a road I soon found out to be a party street, where the clubs were over-spilling with drunken hoards and awkward transvestites, whilst the large Maori bouncers added to the overall hostility of my welcome. No surprises that I could not find my hostel either, adding to the confusion and panic!

Auckland offered me little else that weekend than a bed for the night and the ability to organise my itinerary across this double island country. I decided to travel with 'Stray Bus,' a hop on hop off travel service which specialises in 'off the beaten track' routes offering more scenery and closer access to the local wildlife. So, at 6am on my second day in Auckland I could be found waiting outside of base hostel, wearing my rather subtle pink 'rock-star' fluffy wig, before hopping onto the bus to be met by a bunch of strangers. Stranger still, my opening conversation was with arguably the most annoying person on the bus (if that wasn't me!), some punk idiot from Switzerland - I am happy to say his name slips my mind at this moment - but we were off heading towards our first destination - Raglan.

Raglan was relatively lackluster for New Zealand- the main reason for the detour is that it is famed for its surfing, so the opening days activities were fairly limited to the surf. Despite the fact we were in NZ's winter, the many individual travelers on the bus were looking to make new friends, and so about 13 of us braved the icy waters. And my, they were icy! After about an hour of being battered by the cold choppy waters, most of us had failed to mount our boards. The short interlude gave us a chance to chat, get to know each other better, and take a deep breath of non-salty oxygen! Before long we were back in the waters, and after some further agonising, I managed to understand the principals of surfing, and for the first time ever I stood up on the board! Wahoo! I celebrated with a large shout of something similar. All of a sudden it all fit into place, and I shared my success with Mike, from Canada, who had also got to grips with it. The same could not be said about Mike's travelling partner Dan, who failed to conquer the surf, although he was later to achieve other successes to make up for it!

The evening allowed for some socialising, although I have better stories to come, and early the next day we were boarding the bus and heading towards the Waitomo caves, before spending a night with the Maori's. Now don't get me wrong, the Waitomo caves were excellent, absailing down into dark limestone caves that were once miles under the sea, before having to scamper through and climb back up the watery ways- an excellent adventure with knowledgeable staff - but the events to follow merit more of my writing and your attention. The night with the Maoris was great fun- eating their food, and learning how to do the Haka, before sharing a large sleeping room in traditional Maori style with the other 25 members of the bus- a good way to get to know each other better!

The next day was set to be the most adrenaline pack day of my life. Firstly, we stopped in Rotorua which is famed for its natural geothermic activity, where bubbling sulphuric mud pools create a misty yet smelly atmosphere. For us, the options were plentiful, and I had to make the choice between white water rafting on grade 5 rapids, or Zorbing. I followed my friends down to the Zorb-site and was not disappointed. I started with Zydro, in the zorb ball on my own with some warm water, and began rolling and tumbling until I got some sort rhythm and from then on it was like going on an ever moving waterslide. I then went on Zorbit, where I was tied into the zorb for a series of dizzying revolutions. But all of this was supposed to be my warm-up, for in the afternoon I had the opportunity for a skydive! 4 days into New Zealand, and I had already surfed, abseiled, learnt the Haka, and zorbed for the first time, but the skydive was just too much too soon, and so I wimped out! This proved to be a good decision as the weather was poor and only half of the divers were allowed to go due to safety issues. My action packed day transformed into an adrenaline slump, and whilst all others were partying in the evening, I just wanted to crash out in my bed. I slept soundly, until I was awoken by a sudden outburst - a yelp in the night! It was one of our roommates - namely James Evans - who was found to be shouting in his sleep! This was the first of many broken nights for both James and his fellow roommates…

The following night we found ourselves at the Blue Duck lodge, set in the middle of a national park with nothing else around apart from our lovely little wooden chalet, where we all grew fearful of Dan after watching him hit 11 clays out of 11 in his 'first ever go at shooting a gun.' Here I had my first real Skype chat with Lottie the night before she was set to leave for Uganda, before sharing some beers and a bonfire with my bus mates. Early the next morning we headed onto the Tongariro National Park, which has three mountains that are hugely symbolic in Maori history, and were given the option of undertaking the Tongariro crossing, known as one of the best one day walks in New Zealand. I had not done my research, and the thought of a 19km hike up and over a snowy mountain was less than appealing to me! Instead I spent the day relaxing in the hotel and in particular in the Jacuzzi, whilst we also went on a nice relaxing walk under the mountains heading down to Gollum's pond - the small fish pool with the waterfall where Smeagal captured some lovely 'fishies' in the film The Lord of the Rings. The walk also gave us excellent views of the volcanic crater-topped Mount Nguahharoe - otherwise known as Mount Doom from the same movie.

In hindsight, it appears that missing out on the crossing was to be my only regret from New Zealand, as those that did do the crossing considered it to be one of their favourite activities. What I did get right however was not only staying at Tongariro, but also convincing most of my bus mates to stay too, including James, Tom and Aaron from the UK, Mike and Dan from Canada, Ciara and Lindsay from Ireland who were accompanied by the giggling Jordy from the Ne'der'lands. We were also joined by three lads from Manchester and Babs who was also from Holland.

This proved to be an excellent call - for the next day we headed up to the mountains and to the Whakapapa ski village. Aaron, James, Mike and Dan and I donned our ski gear but had to wait for James to slowly ready himself. We finally headed to the slopes and quickly lost James, but found the ski to be pretty good given the recent lack of snow. I slowly became more comfortable and improved throughout the day - but had great fun with my friends, looking out for each other and having a good laugh all the way. The highlight of the day was without doubt the views, as the weather was clear and crisp, so we could see far and wide - across lakes, mountains and for miles and miles over the flatter landscape. James it turned out had gone for a toilet break before escaping Aaron's attempts to both find him on the Nursery slopes and help him learn the ropes - but James instead taught himself how to stay afoot!

Our evening proved to be a brilliant night of drinking - including the excellent drinking game ''Ship-pong!'' which was made particularly fantastic by bulky Jordy's persistent giggling and revealing of his teeth, the exact opposite aim of the game - Drink!! The night was on a slippery slope from this point onwards, where us 'men' took on the macho task of trying to jump and grab the overhanging beam, whilst Dan proved his ineptitude towards drinking throughout his stuttering and stumbling display! The next day's ski surmounted even the previous, where we were joined by Babs and Tom. Tom, like James the previous day, came along and taught himself to ski, whilst James stepped up to the big boys slopes. His skiing was fairly good considering he was self-taught, and he managed to stay on his feet for all bar the most important moment, when he instead crash landed just in front on a 'BEWARE EDGE' sign - much to our amusement! Two minutes later and we had completely lost Mike, who was at the tail of our group. By now, the clouds began rolling in, and we found ourselves on the verge of a white out. Having lost our friend in deteriorating weather conditions, we double back on our paths and tried to locate him. We split off into smaller groups on a rescue mission, but found no Mike, and conditions became even more dangerous, with Dan having a big and painful fall. So, we slowly headed down towards our meeting point, and thankfully found Mike sitting at the bar enjoying a nice drink, telling tales of how his foot slipped out of the boot, sending him flying over the edge of a dangerous drop! Apart from these scary moments, the day was fantastic and we all went home with beaming smiles. The night was once-more broken by James with some loud sleep talking outbursts, something about crashing over the edge of a slope of something…

We soon found ourselves in Wellington, and for this particular group, this was the end of our journey together. Ciara, Lyndsay and Jordy were all heading north to Auckland for their flight, whilst Babs, the boys from Manchester and our three friends from Germany, all settled down in Wellington. A big night loomed. After at least 30 minutes in the fantastic Wellington museum (it was actually really good) we gave up 'site-seeing' and instead headed to the nearest bar! After several hours in this small bar crammed around a table, we headed back to our dorm rooms for some in room drinking games and getting ready for our last night together! After a pub quiz we took control of the dance floor and partied our little bottoms off until the early hours of the morning! A great night was had, and a thoroughly good send off to our friends was provided…

Thanks to all of those that made the first two weeks so much fun!