Our first stop after leaving Franz was at Lake Matheson for breakfast. We were there for an hour so I went for a walk with Amy. We then headed through the Haast pass and had our lunch break in Haast. We had a few stops throughout the afternoon at Ships Creek and the Blue Pools. Our accomodation at Makarora was quite nice, we were in little triangular chalets with nice heaters!! we pretty much had the bar to ourselves so had a birthday party for one of the gi...

Sat 2nd - We weren't due to leave Barrytown untill lunchtime so I treated myself to a lay in. A few people went off to do the bone carving which I would have liked to do but was too lazy to get up!! After leaving Barrytown we stopped in Greymouth for 30 mins to pick up some new passengers then headed to Hokitika for our supermarket stop. I checked out the Jade factory (where I got my original Greenstone 3 years ago) looking for a new Greenstone but didn't find...

After leaving Marahau we headed down the West Coast towards Barrytown which was our stop for the night. On route we made a stop at Punakaiki to look at the Pancake rocks. Seeing as it was raining quite heavily and I didn't have on my waterproof I did the walk in extra quick time then went and sat in the cafe to warm up again! Amy (see photo) had been on the bus ahead of mine but had decided to stay in Barrytown (very brave of her, there is not a great deal to...

Tues 29th - left National Parks and drove to Wellington. Had a lunch break at Bulls but most of the day was just spent in the bus. After checking into the hostel in Wellington, I went for a wander around the shops. After some proper Heinz tomato soup which I found in the English shop I had a nice quiet evening reading my book in bed.Wed 30th - Had to get up pretty early and catch the ferry across to the South Island. There was a shuttle bus from the hostel to the...

I was picked up by Stray bus and we left Taupo.� Jugs was my driver so I sat up front and chatted with him most of the way to the National Parks.� I was pretty tired after my night out so once I was checked into the hostel I went to bed.� The rest of the group had gone to check out the waterfall but I'd already seen it once so sleep was a better option.� We went for a group dinner at a local hotel which served massi...