Day 12 – Franz Josef Glacier Hike Pretty awesome day today – not often can you say you spent the day hiking the world’s steepest walkable glacier, and one of only 3 glaciers in the world surrounded by rainforest...and the fact that you were hiking on ice! Put on the crampons (not croupons or tampons) and led by our guide called Kruddy who we then nicknamed Poo we explored 13km of crevasses, big ice holes, waterfalls and at one point water – having to cr...

Day 6 Christchurch to KaikouraWoke up with stiff legs and ventured back onto our kiwi experience bus with the delightful Dillon. A nice driver, but a strange sense of humour - in other words, not very funny. We drove for about two hours and arrived in Kaikoura, a small town specialising in whale and dolphin tours because of the canyon in the sea about 1.6km deep which attracts loads of these mammals to feed. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad over the past ...

Arrived in Christchurch probably stinking to high heaven after a day wandering around Hong Kong followed by about 13 hours of flying. Cleaned off my stink and went for a walk around the town. Discovered that Christchurch seems to be more or less a hub for the South Island - guide books generally tell of activities that pick you up from Christchurch and then drive you 130 odd kilometres away to somewhere else. Saying that though, there was nothing really wrong wit...

Day Three Rised and shined early again and caught the MTR (tube) over to Tung Chung in order to get the Poi Ning cable car up to see the Tian Tan Statue of Buddah and the Po Lin Monastery. Some pretty nice views from the cable car, including Hong Kong Airport which was surprisingly interesting and mesmerising to watch planes land and take off from above. Walked up literally thousands and thousands of steps to get up to the Buddah Statue and walked around it, i...

Walked down Nathan Road to get to the Harbour. As usual, was offered several tailored suits and a few rolex watches along the way, but very Britishly politely declined. Caught the star ferry across Victoria Harbour and slowly navigated my way towards the Peak Tram terminal. It seems almost impossible (even for me) to get lost in Hong Kong. As all the buildings are so tall there is always a tip of a building somewhere which can help you navigate. Passed the HSBC ...