The boat took 3 hours which was quite surprising as we thought it is only a short distance between the North and South Island. the weather was horrible when we got off the ferry it was raining and cold. the driver took us to a winery on the way to Nelson, Sam and I were still feeling the effects of our night out in Wellington so passed on the wine tasting. Nelson is very popular for its water sports such as kayaking and its walks as it hosts the Abel Tasmin Nati...

Known as 'windy Wellington'. This is the capital of New Zealand, 'Base Backpackers' is probably the most popular hostel but it is quite expensive so we decided to look for another one. we found one called 'Downtown Backpackers' which was 21 dollars a night and a 20 bed dorm. this hostel was a little walk from the centre it took about 15 minutes which was fine. We had three nights in Wellington and were told that the night life is very good so we decided to go out...

The next drive was to River Valley where we would stay the night. The drive was very long and like many jouneys on the Kiwi bus the driver will take you to different places or attractions i.e Lakes, waterfalls, rivers and forst walks. On this particular journey the driver took us to a place called Taranaki Falls which is in the volcanic region. we took a nice walk here and admired the scenery , it was explained to us that this area is where alot of scenes from 'L...

After arriving and checking in we went for a short walk to the supermarket, the weather wasnt looking to great so we were hoping for better weather the following day as Sam had her Skydive. Our fellow bus travellers all decided we should get together in the evening and have a few drinks seeing as the reception to Base Backpackers (where we were staying for 2 nights) gave us 2 for 1 vouchers. we had a great night with everyone got to knoe one another a bit better...

We started the drive to Waitomo at 8:30. New Zealand is famous for its adventure sports and waitomo in particular is famous for 'Black Water Rafting' which includes sitting in a tyreshaped thing rather than a boat and going down the river through pitch black caves etc where you will see glow worms. unfortunately we didnt do this activity purely because everywhere you go in newzealnd on the kiwi bus they offer you activities and they are quite pricey for backpacke...