The drive from Taupo to Wellington was slightly longer than other drives, I think that's why the early start was needed. So we stopped at a little town called Bulls. The towns are a lot less modern and full of quirky buildings. This town had a real sense of humour and every shop had a play on words associated to bulls. The police station was called constu-bull and the other shops all had bull in their name, struggling to remember the now. On to Wellington and d...

We left Taupo at 7am to travel to river valley. We stopped for a 15 minute walk to a waterfall and then carried on the journey. To be honest I slept most the way which was surprising as the roads winding the whole way there. We arrived at river valley lodge which is located on the Rangitikei river and booked into my six bed dorm. This was after we had to walk down such a steep hill that the bus couldn't drive down. I wasn't looking forward to walking back up it...

arriving at the hostel in Taupo after not getting on the bus in the morning the hostel had no room for me either! They told me to pop across the road so I did and there was no one at reception of the place. I waited about 20 minutes after looking for someone and finally found the owner who showed me to my room. It was really basic but had a shower and a toilet in the room so that's better than a lot of hostels. I dumped my stuff and went for a wander. The town ...

As I waited for the bus to arrive I started chatting to a girl called Jeni. She was on the same bus as me so it was nice to meet someone before id even got on the bus. We sat near each other for the first journey as we went to a place called cathedral cove (which is where the pic is taken from). For those of you I haven't told I am on a bus tour of New Zealand called the kiwi experience and they take you to different places around New Zealand and it's mainly used...

So I woke up in Rotorua on my second day to find out it was absolutely chucking it down! Now when I was planning my travels it didn't cross my mind that it would rain at all whilst I was away so I don't really have sensible shoes or a rain coat, so I decided to spend a while in the hostel. So when it stopped raining I thought I would head out and look for a cardigan or a raincoat. I went with Leslie and Jen. Jen want off on her own for the day so me and Leslie ...