I arrived in Taupo on the evening of 3rd April, taking advantage of the extra hour's sleeping the morning. In the evening I tagged along with some others and took them to the Spa Park for the Hot Water Springs. I brought some beers along and it was so worth it! Taupo seemed pretty dead that night so despite my efforts we all went to bed at a sensible hour. The only thing that really bothered me was my "magic" pumice stone which I decided was good to rub on my ski...

Today is April 1st, and I've just sent off my play application to KDC that involves 5,000 of my holiday photos and an epic dramatic portrayal of my travels, along with dancing and music from a random Nepalese band. I'm pretty sure they'll see through it, though I reckon it's a genuine money spinner... Actually it seems they were quite interested and knowing me there's some way I'll end up putting the story of my travels on stage at some point. Self indulgence fo...

This morning was pretty lazy. I strolled to the Church of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo, just beating a hoard of old Japanese tourists to get some good photos. The collie statue was swarming with them, so I made a quick exit and waited for the bus to Kaikoura. One bus, one minibus and four episodes of Flight Of The Conchords later and we had rolled into Kaikoura, meaning "Eat Crayfish" in Maori. I'll be fulfilling the apparent top item in "100 things to do be...

Today has already been a long day and I've not even finished yet. Some stupid idiot (guess who) had the great idea of getting up early enough to catch the sunrise over Mount Cook from the Red Tarns, which is around an hour's walk from the hostel. It was bloody cold when I got up and cleverly dropped my camera at 5:50am for all my dorm to hear. I trudged up the hill in darkness with the stars still out, then finally arrived at the first viewpoint. That's when I he...

I'm in the national park of New Zealand's highest mountain tonight. It's been a glorious day and the drive past Lake Pikaka was great. I also saw the place where the massive battle on the Lord Of The Rings Pelennor fields took place, just behind Twizel. I also thought I saw the general location for Helm's Deep today as well, as I was walking back from Kea Point and crystal clear views of Mount Cook in the afternoon. I didn't see any kea though, despite the name....