Well what can i say about Franz Josef? As u can probably tell, it has arguably some of the best scenery in New Zealand and it was right at my door step - literally! i spent 5 weeks working here at the Rainforest Retreat, doing stuff like bar work, kitchen/restaurant and housekeeping. it was great fun but to be honest the town is tiny and really expensive so on nights off there wasnt really anything to do except go to the bar or watch TV...which i did a lot of a...

So having left Wellington on a rather wet and miserable day we had to take a 3 hour ferry journey over to the south island. Which if u can imagine was not very nice in rough conditions. we managed to find some decent seats in the bar and tried to get some sleep to pass the boredom, but to no avail. instead we sat and drank/chatted the boredom away. The views into the south island are usually amazing, but on a grey day its pretty dull so i didnt bother even go...

Helloooo Well as you can see i have finally reached the southern tip of the north island! im in Wellington for a few days to do some sightseeing and stuff before i head down to the south island and to some work......i need to, im in need of some more cash! Slight dampener on being here is the weather. Its pretty windy and rather chilly at the moment and we even had a few days of rain! which were spent in the cinema watching chick flicks (namely 27 dresses and ...

What a tiring few days! After passing through Rotorua again for a night and down into Taupo (where i did absolutely nothing as the weather was krap and i was hungover practically every day) we headed into the Tongariro National Park which has a one day 8 hr trek that is classed as the Best one day hike in New Zealand. Well, not one to pass up on these opportunities i put my name down for the walk the next day (along with about a thousand others who had been waiti...

Well after leaving the sights and smells of Rotorua, i ventured off into perhaps what i would say is the best part of New Zealand....the bit where not many backpackers go - the Eastern cape. As you can see from all the pix i have taken its pretty much sun, sand and amazingly blue sea. Its also quite an isolated place so we had to stop off at Opotiki to grab our food and money as there isnt any other biggish towns on the East to be able to get this sort of stuf...