Left Napier at 9.15am and got on the Intercity bus to Wellington, arriving about 3pm. The weather was awful - grey and raining, so the scenery didn't seem that great, so had a kip on the bus. Am staying in the Worldwide Backpackers, 291 The Terrace, which is quite close to the centre of Wellington. Was given a dorm room with 5 other people, 3 blokes and 2 girls. The room absolutely stank. It was gross and also the curtains which were right by my bed had mil...

Today I went to Marineland. Arrived in time for the 10.30am show. First up were two common dolphins called Kelly and Shona. They did a load of tricks, like jumping up to hit balls etc. Next was Makea the Californian sea lion. He was massive, but he could also jump very high! After the show I had my photo taken with a Little Blue penguin called Onion. Onion had an ear infection and kept trying to nip me. I saw the other animals being fed, including two ott...

Arrived in Napier today - the Art Deco capital of New Zeland. Left Gisborne and headed towards Napier - it was quite a long drive - not in distance but in the fact that the road was so windey and hilly. Reached Napier about 1.30pm which is where I got off the bus. Napier is a really cool place. The city was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and had to be completely rebuilt. So they did it in an Art Deco style. The hostel I'm staying in - th...

No suprise that I didn't manage to get up - my alarm went off at 6 and I switched it straight off. Had to get up at 8.30 thought to go on a two hour horse ride. It was amazing - we went along the beach - I had a nice long canter, although when I tried to get my horse to go in the surf she just bolted (I think she was called something like 'Just Juice' but I could be really wrong there). We also went up into the hills along so quite steep bits with big drops!...

After leaving Te Kaha we headed towards the most easterly part of New Zealand. The scenery was amazing, and it was great just to chill out in the bus, look at the scenery and listen to music like the Chili's and Blur. Climbed up to the East Cape Lighthouse - 742 steps - I was absolutely knackered when I reached the top. But it had amazing views and was the most easterly point (except for a few little islands) in NZ which was kind of cool. Stopped off at a litt...