Day 66 - Dunedin - Sun 4th Jan Managed to set the alarm clock correctly for two days running now and made the bus to leave Queenstown and head to Dunedin. We stopped at Moeraki Boulders on the way through for the obligatory bus break and photo stop. The boulders are some perfectly round natural rocks on the shore of the beach that are believed to have been formed on the sea bed about 60 millon years ago, however there are some maori legends about how the rocks...

Day 65 - Sat 3rd Jan - Milford Sound Managed to set the alarm for the correct time today and actually make it on to the bus! It was quite a long drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound (about 5 hours), and we made a couple of stops along the way, photo stops mainly such as Mirror Lakes. It was a very long windy road through the mountains to get there (aparantly the 'Misty Mountains' for those Lord of the Rings fans amongst you!), and I started to feel a little b...

Day 61 - Tues 30th Dec - Queenstown 8am bus departure time for the trip to Queenstown. Numerous stops along the way (photo stops, toilet stops, pick up drop off stops, unneccesary spend money stops, bungy stops, sky dive stops etc etc. Rosan and Leticia did the skydive and said it was amazing). We got to Queenstown about 6pm and I got dropped off in the centre. The bus only stops at designated hostels, and as it was New Year I had pre-booked my hostel before I ...

Day 59 - Sun 28th Dec - Bus from Greymouth to Franz Josef As mentioned the Rotorua to Taupo blog, I am getting really fed up with fairly short journeys taking all day because the bus stops at ten thousand places along the way. All of which want your money. Today on our journey from Greymouth to Franz Josef (left at 8am got there at 3pm), we had to stop at the gold mining place first (to pan for strategically placed speckles of gold in plastic bins), 'Pete's out...

Day 58 - Sat 37th Dec - Transalpine Train from Christchurch to Greymouth Back to the early starts again now and life on the road again. This time I was getting the Transalpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth on the west coast. As the name suggests the train travels through the NZ Alps so this was really my first few of big NZ mountains. Arrived in Greymouth late afternoon, checked into the hostel and then went for a quick walk around town. Very quick, ther...