The first thing we did when we arrived at Taupo was book ourselves in for a skydive, something we'd both been looking forward to for ages! We booked ourselves in for the next day and retired to our room wondering whether we were doing the right thing!We had a morning dive and were pleased to wake up with the sun shining, a perfect clear sky so we had awesome views as we hurtled towards the ground. We were picked up in a limo and driven to the dive site. We wa...

We left Kaikoura by bus to get to Picton, where we were to take the Interislander Ferry across the Cook Straight to Wellington and the North Island. Sad to be leaving the South Island, we looked forward to the joys of the North! We had booked to stay at the Wellington YHA, apparently one of the best hostels in the world. It was nice, but we cant say the same for Wellington. We didnt really like it, though the be fair it did rain for the majority of the time w...

We took the Intercity bus from Fox Glaicer to Greymouth and then caught the Tranz Scenic train across to Christchurch. The train journey was amazing with spectacular scenery for the whole 5 hour trip. We had read that it was the 4th most beautiful train journey in the world and it certainly lived up to those claims. We went up through the mountain ranges and across viaducts which were up to 70 metres above the rivers below. We spent one night back in Christc...

We were only staying at Fox Glacier for 2 nights as trekking the glacier is the only thing there to do really. So we arrived, found our hostel (back to hostels again unfortunately), had some dinner and got some rest for the next days trekking. The first thing we had to do was get all the right gear for our walk, which included waterproof trousers and jacket, gloves, warm hat, boots and cramp-ons. We put on all our kit minus the cramp-ons andÂ...

We actually stayed just outside Queenstown in Arrowtown with another relative of Hannahs, so?more days with home cooked meals and creature comforts (i.e. not being woken up at 5am in a dorm as someone has to catch a bus). Arrowtown is absolutely gorgeous, with the Remarkable Mountains as a backdrop, picturesque town centre and tree lined streets with fantastic autumn colours.Having arrived with Hannahs Auntie on the saturday, we travelled around and met the rest ...