So it's been a while since I have written in my blog and I'm getting demands, so I am taking the time to tell you about the crazy antics since I left the states and headed on part 2 of my travels.

So I have been going for 11 months now in total and it's been awesome, I really do wonder how I am going to go back to normal life after all this crazy gallivanting about. One minute I'm in LA, the next on a tropical island surrounded by clear blue sea, amazing sea life, luscious food and great people. I arrived in Nadi on the main island on Fiji but there is over 300 islands that make up all the Fiji islands and only 4 days to explore! I was bloody jetlagged as I lost a whole day in travel as I crossed the crazy time zone of no return and had a day to just explore Nadi. The next day I headed to Mana Island. This was however on Fiji time, everyone is so laid back and chilled that nothing is ever done in a rush and nothing is on schedule, so my 9:00 boat to the island finally left at 10:30 but I couldn't complain as its all beach, good music and friendly people. The people of Fiji are super friendly, poor and a lot work on the resorts (loads of 5 star resorts), they work hard to make sure everyone is enjoying their time in Fiji and they always remember your name. They really tested my memory as I have been meeting so many people that facebook is sometimes the only way I can remember who is who. I would speak to the locals or be walking through town and the next day I would be walking past and people would call me out by my name and I would have to rattle through all the names in my head trying to remember theirs. So I spent my time sunbathing, snorkelling, diving and also went to the cast away island where they filmed the movie. I got an amazing massage from a large Fijian lady on the beach and every time she leaned over me I had her boobs resting on my head which was strangely nice!!

So I headed back to main island after a couple of days and had a great day chilling on the beach with a girl I had met on the boat back, went running, ate sea food and lapped up the sun as I knew that heading to New Zealand in May and June would be the winter so I would finally lose my sun chasing days and have a winter finally after a year of sunshine (sigh).

So my brother had decided to come and join me for a month in New Zealand as he is in the air force and they don't seem to work much (they also don't teach them to navigate, which I found out the hard way, when everything was 15 mins away or 40 kms, they were the only options apparently!)

So Carl arrived in Auckland 2 days before me and he proceeded to get to know the city quite well and didn't sleep for 2 days so when he met me in the airport he looked like a drunken hobo but I was so happy to see his scraggly face!! So the plan was to stay in Auckland for a couple of days before getting a camper van and exploring NZ. So as things go with the Warner clan we got completed battered the night before getting the camper van for my friend's Hayley's birthday (whom I'd met in Honduras) so after about an hours sleep we had to check out and get the camper van! It was a bad day, if anyone has rented a car or camper van you will know they will try and screw you over with extra charges for all manner of things and all we wanted to do was get the van, be on our way and find somewhere to crash out! So after about 2 to 3 hours of being played about we finally got out of Auckland with our shopping and decided to head north! Well we were going to head all the way to Paihia in the Bay of Islands, however we felt so rubbish and the sun was setting and we had no idea where we were heading that we only made it a couple of hours out of Auckland before we found a campsite and decided to crash for the night, we were so lame we were in bed by 8pm!!

So the next day we did finally make it to the Bay of Islands, the weather was warm and we were in shorts and T-shirt. I had met a local guy on coach surfing, who met up with us and gave us a mini tour of the area, it's a small place surrounded by islands, woods, hills and waterfalls. The next day we decided to do a circular walk where you walk along the beaches, catch passenger ferries to the other islands and keep walking round, it was a great way to see the area and as we were feeling human again, a good way to get some exercise!

The next day we decided to drive to the very tip of New Zealand to Cape Reinga. Some of you may have seen the episode about 90 mile beach on Top Gear, so we decided to test out the camper van on this stretch of sand, it is in fact only about 55 miles long but was still hilarious, we didn't actually know if the van would handle it but the sand was as hard as a road and you just needed to make sure you were there for low tide.

So the road systems of New Zealand are fairly simple and there isn't many ways to get lost. The terrain of NZ is hilly and all countryside until you hit the big cities, most towns are between these mountains and hills with only a few main roads and then smaller roads here and there, if you know the general direction you are heading in, you shouldn't get too lost. Also the population of NZ is over 4 million so not many people around a lot of the time. So driving is easy here, except for the terrain, we have been up and down some mountains that have made my butt clench in fear and Carl is a f***ing mental driver (don't care about the amount of tests he has taken for all the vehicles he can drive, he is a maniac) and all the roads are pretty much single carriage and you can only do a top speed of 100 kph (which again doesn't seem to be a concern of his, that's why he got a speeding ticket and I didn't , nah na!!). Driving NZ was beautiful, you would have miles and miles of beaches, or be going through rain forests, mountains, rolling hills, lakes, green pastures and farms and then craggy outcrops, it truly is a stunning country. The weather is very changeable, when in North Island we were in shorts and t-shirts and then as we started to head south it got colder and colder to the point where we were driving through blizzards and roads were being closed due to the storms.

So in North Island after heading to the top we came down the west coast and then headed past Auckland and across to the east to head to the Coromadel. This is where all the Kiwi's come on holiday, lots of walks through the forests, sea side towns, with loads of activities to take part in. We stayed on hot water beach where you can dig your own hot spa in the beach due to the geothermal activity in the area. Obviously Carl rose to the challenge and went on a digging rampage, practically digging a small fort and then also helping some older folks with their own hot pools. Glorious weather chilling in the sun and our hot spas, which at some point were scalding and couldn't even be sat in!!!

So the next day we thought we would go for a nice short hike before heading to Rotorua. This 'short walk' was in the rain forest not far from where we were staying, there was a track of sorts to follow, so of course we get royally lost, I slip down a hill, we go up, down and all over the bloody place and turn up in the backyard of somebody who tells us we are about 6 km from where the van is parked! We end up walking the road back (I'm boiling hot, complaining as Carl keeps telling me its only 15 minutes more walking which is a complete lie), cars are rushing past as we are on a main road and still no sign of the car park. In the end we stumble across some road workers who take pity on us and drives us up the massive hill to the car park, thank god for that man as it would have still taken us another hour at least to get up the hill but was only 5 mins in the car! The funny thing is that we were only going for a short walk so we had no food and only a small water, Carl was ashamed by how unprepared he was, tee hee!!

So we then had a drive to another hot springs camp site that wasn't far from Hobbiton. So the next morning we went to Hobbiton and had a tour round the set. I loved it, it's so well made and was great to watch Lord of the Rings afterwards and notice all the little things you see on the set that you don't really notice. It's an expensive tour but worth it if you are fan of the movies and even the books.

We then headed to Rotorua for a couple of nights. This is a very touristy area and is geared to the tourists with all the crazy activities they advertise, unfortunately due to cash flow problems (I was skint) we kept things to a minimum and took walks round the redwood forest, went and walked to some amazing falls and river sections and just got out there in the country. As it's winter here it gets dark by about 6:30 so it puts a bit of a stop on the activities we can get up to, but most of the camp sites we were staying in had thermal heated pools so we would spend the evenings relaxing in the pools and talking utter b******s that only me and my brothers seem so adept at!!

So we decided to haul ass to the south island and did a mega drive to Wellington and then caught the ferry over to Picton and just freedom camped outside of Picton. We then headed to Christchurch. Now as some of you might know that Christchurch was hit by an earthquake in 2011 and the city was hit really bad. I believe there has been a lot of issues later about insurance and what to do with rebuilding the city but in 3 years it still looks terrible. Lots of buildings are boarded up, businesses closed, building works everywhere, shops still operating out of shipping containers or permanent marquees and we found it kind of depressing and decided not to spend too long there.

Some of you might remember when I was younger I used to go snowboarding about 3 times a year with a group of friends I'd made on a snowboarding trip I went with from a radio station and I used to hang out with a guy called Stretch a lot. Well I hadn't seen him for about 4 years and only recently found out he had been living in Wanaka for the past couple of years so we headed over to spend a couple of days with him. Was so great to see him and reminiscing about all the crazy s*** we used to get up to. Wanaka again is a stunning places, lots of clear blue lakes, surrounded by mountains and stunning views. So Carl and I decide it will be a good idea to hike one of these mountains called Mount Roy. So it started off pleasant but the wind soon picked up and the climb was so steep, it was very hard going, very steep and windy. We got to the top which was about 1300 metres so you can imagine the view was awesome! After this though the days started to get grimmer as time went on. Also another amazing thing we found in Wanaka was their little local cinema which only has one screen and loads of sofa's or a cut out car to sit in, they stop the movie half way through so you can buy freshly baked cookies, it was like sitting in a huge living room, chilling out while watching the latest movie on a massive screen, we need one of these cinemas back home!

So we left Wanaka and hauled ass to Milford Sound which is on the west coast of the south islands where all the fjords are. Stunning views and you can see why Lord of the Rings was filmed here and all over the country. We took a fantastic boat ride around the sound, got completely soaked and got to taste a fresh water fall which was all totally worth the money and the moistness. We were so lucky to get there when we did as they started to close all the roads due to storms, debris was falling in the road and snow was on its way. The next day Milford sound road was closed off so we were chuffed to have got there when we did.

We then headed back to Queenstown in the rain and snow and spent a couple of nights there. This again is a beautiful town, geared around so many activities and snow season, very touristy and you could end up spending so much money here. Carl and I decided that we would do the biggest bungy jump which was 134 metres and also the swing that they do there, was so much fun and would love to have done it again if it wasn't so expensive. By this point the weather was quite nasty and we were worried about being stuck on the south island when Carl only had a week left before flying home from Auckland. So the snow had started to come in and more roads were being closed so we decided to start driving as far as we could to get the ferry the next evening. This resulted in me driving in some crazy blizzards on some windy roads during the night, a lot of random screaming and slow speeds but we made some good distance. The next day when we got to the ferry it was a severe weather warning with large swells and they were not lying, I actually felt awful on the ferry, everything was falling over, it was so hard to walk around and everyone was just lying down where ever they could find a space. Carl had taken the floor approach and was trying to sleep it off, I tried to focus on a movie but it was touch and go a few times!

So we made it back to North Island in one piece and decided to stay in Wellington for a few nights. This is actually the capital of New Zealand even though more people live in Auckland and it's a lovely city, surrounded by hills, beautiful gardens and the sea with a small centre feel to it. We spent a leisurely day walking around and eating amazing food and just loving the fact that we didn't have to drive anywhere and just enjoying ourselves.

After Wellington we headed to Waitomo, where they are famous for their glow worm caves! So we went on a 4 hour tour of one of the caves, we got to abseil 100 metres down into the cave which they called the lost world, it was just like out of Jurassic park, covered in ferns, water rushing through, dank and opened into a massive cave. It was only me, Carl and the guide which made it even more fun as he was more up for showing us other things and goading us to do some crazy things (even though the guide didn't know what to make of Carl and I,I think he thought we were crazy!). We also got to the see the glow worms all in the cave, looking like tiny lights or stars on the roof, they look so beautiful in the dark but not so much when you shine your light on them!!

So this was coming to the end of our camper van tour of NZ, we had seen some amazing things and had a really good laugh, this was the longest I had actually spent with my little brother and I was so happy to spend this time with him and didn't want him to leave as we are crazy together. On the last night in Auckland as tradition would have it, we made friends with some fellow crazy people in the hostel, all went out, got rip roaringly drunk and danced the night away. So the next morning, taking Carl to the airport in the same state that he had met me at the airport seemed right. I was sad to see him go but know that he has now got the travelling bug and has already booked tickets to come and join me in Australia.

So after a few days I then headed to Hamilton to live with Lee, the guy I had met in Paihia as he has a house there, so I have spent the last 3 weeks helping out around the house, gardening, getting drunk and generally having a good old chilled and lazy time before I have to head to Oz and be sensible and get a job as I have no money left and currently wouldn't even be able to get home even if I wanted to! However I did a few hours of work at the local art college acting as a model, now talk about liberating and strange, you have to try it sometime and not bad way to earn a few dollars to just stand around naked!!! So on with the next adventures of Oz, that's if I get there as there is a mega storm in the south island at the moment and my flight is from Christchurch, so we will see what happens……….