The month in New Zealand, the final stage of my adventure, has gone so quickly and been so much fun.

It started slowly, spending a week in Christchurch where I decided to wait for my friend Lesley to arrive whilst also finding a rugby team to play for. After a terrible training session with the New Brighton team, I arranged a couple of games with Sydenham, near to Christchurch city centre. Once Lesley arrived and we headed off to see Dunedin, the original New Zealand capital city, which includes the steepest street in the world, we made our way to the centre of the South Island and Mt cook. Not before we had visited the Speights brewery, a 'southern man's beer' - unfortunately we were the last tour of the day and so had to stay in the free bar, sampling until the guide decided it was time for bed!

Mount Cook was an incredible place, even though it was raining and overcast so we couldn't see the mountain itself. Alongside was the Tasman glacier, the most molten glacier of the southern island, leaving just shelves and pinnacles of ices sticking out of the lake resultant of the melting. The glowing blue and white ice was the first surreal sight we had of the sight island - in fact the murky overcast light gave the lake an eery feel.

Once we had returned to Christchurch, so that I could play another game of rugby, the adventure really began as I flew to Queenstown and had a more lively experience of whitewater rafting than that in thailand. The day after came the big one, a 12000ft skydive. I would be lying if I said I wasn't petrified, but it was honestly the most amazing thing I've ever done! Next time I'll jump from higher...

From the sunny skies of wanaka we crossed to the icy slopes of the franz joesef glacier on the west coast. Little did I know, the glacier is formed by snowfall on the mountains compressing settled snow into ice and slowly sliding down towards the sea. For us it meant a day of climbing, slipping, sliding and laughing as we explored the icy valley, caves and cliff faces that are changing every day - despite being within sight of the town and indeed the coast and in gorgeous sunshine we had a fabulous day slidinig around the ice with walking boots and crampons, which turned out to be potentially lethal spikes strapped to our boots but we were grateful how they kept us upright on the ice.

Unfortunately after Franz Josef the weather turned, edging towards the kiwi winter, and so our planned Kayaking trip on the coastal Abel Tasman national park was not possible. Racing ahead to the warmer north island, making the ferry crossing between the islands and passing through the incredible Marlborough sounds on the journey. We made the long drive to Lake Taupo where we took a 2hr horse trek through the forest. Along the way we emerrged at a place known as 'Craters of the moon' - our first sight of the volcanic activity that has shaped the north island. The rugged terrain was scattered with pillars of steam, the molten lava just under the surface heating water and so escaping into the air. This was the first time I'd ever ridden a horse and learnign to stay on whilst cantering was an interesting, and slightly painful, experience. Whilst Lesley and the guide were sitting easily in the saddle, keeping feet in the stirrups I was clinging on for dear life like on a bucking bronco! Eventually I got the technique though, much to the amazement of my fellow riders.

Our pinultimate stop was Rotorua which is even more volcanically active, with geezers, boiling mud pools and hot spas all around the town. After spending an afternoon relaxing in the hot spas, a series of 5 pools at temperatures 38-42C we spent the evening at a maori village experience. We were entertained by the Haka and traditional dancing and singing, before indulging in Hangi, a traditional maori meal cooked in an earth oven. The chicken and lamb that had been cooking slowly all afternoon was gorgeous!

The only problem with volcanic activity so close to the surface is the accompanying smell of Sulphur - waking up at 4 in the morning and the only thing you can smell being rotten eggs is not the most pleasant experience!

And so we headed to our final destination of Auckland for the last few days of the trip. Indulging on Lesley's last night staying in the Hilton overlooking Auckland harbour, before returning for my last taste of backpackers dorms for a while. Resigned to the fact I am going home, I simply spent the last few days buying souvenirs, looking round the city and making the most of the fanatacy of this rugby-crazed nation. It was nice to be able to watch the Ricky Hatton fight at a more sociable time of the day than the normal 4am starts back home, despite Hatton not knowing what day it was early in the 2nd round. I was a little suprised that the kiwi's in the pub were backing Hatton's opponent Pacquaio.

So I'm sitting writing this, filling the last few hours of my trip before heading to the airport for the 24hr marathon flight home. I'm not sure I'll really reflect on the last 5 months properly until I'm back home, but right now I'm obviously pretty sad that it's all over, whilst looking forward to seeing everyone back home. The one thing it has taught me is how accessible the world is if you can put up with the travelling time and so I really hope there's an opportunity to travel more in the future. For those of you still reading this, I hope you've enjoyed following my progress and I look forward to sharing my photo's and experiences when I get home. Until next time...