We made our way to Franz Joseph with a night stop in Punakaiki (pancake rocks) on the way. This is in Paparoa National Park and nicknamed pancake rocks because they are made up of soft and hard layers of rock which have been eroded by the sea to leave formations that look like stacks of pancakes. It was a long bus ride here from Abel Tasman and because we'd done lots of little stops on the way for photos it meant we arrived in Punakaiki just in time for sunset. T...

Rebecca, Anna and I just hung out in the morning until it was time to leave. Anna and I were getting picked up at the hostel by our new stray bus at 11 and Rebecca was headed in the same direction but had a pass for Naked Bus, so after swapping numbers she headed off to find her pick up point. Soon enough our bus came swinging around the corner with a male driver with long hair waving frantically and signalling he'd be back in 5 mins. He soon returned after picki...

We set off about 9.45 in the morning towards the northern town of Picton. This is where you catch the ferry over to Wellington which all but 3 of us did. Myself, an American girl Jessie and a new girl we picked up from Kaikoura called Anna were to stay the night in Picton at a hostel called The Villa. Our driver Nat was really good because she always announced sights to look at out the window on the drive and gave random bits of information about whichever town...

Ok so my scheduled flight to NZ was on the 18th at 7.20 am, which meant I had to get to the airport for 5.20, and so aim to leave the hostel by 4.45. Another girl, Gwen, had an internal flight up to Cairns at 7am so we planned to share a taxi together first thing. HOWEVER, for some stupid reason we thought it would be a good idea to go for a couple of drinks seeing as it was our last night in Sydney... biiiig mistake. It somehow turned into a full on night out un...