When we got off the ferry we joined a new bus which already had some people on but Josh our driver came with us so it still felt like our bus. There was now over 30 of us in the group. When we arrived in Nelson we had the usual tour of the town. In Nelson there is a hill and at the top of it is the geographical centre of New Zealand. We stayed at Fern Lodge, it was a very nice hostel as it used to be a hotel. In the hostel they had some wooden stairs built in fro...

We stopped in a small town called Bulls for a quick snack before arriving in Wellington at about 6pm. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. It would only be a short visit as we needed to catch the ferry the next day. We put our bags in the room and had some food. We then got ready to go out! We drank some wine in our room before going downstairs to the bar. It was a really good night everyone had lots of fun! It was quite hard getting up at 6:15am as we had o...

Before arriving at the River Valley lodge we went for a walk in a National Park. This park is featured in the Lord of the Rings films. We were doing a walk to a waterfall where we would have a picnic lunch. It would take 50 minutes to get there and 50 minutes back. When we got off the coach it was very dull and quite windy so we all put jackets on and started the walk. The landscape was green hills and forests. There were snow capped mountains in the distance and...

The morning we left Rotorua we stopped off at Te Piua a thermal activity park. We met Carla our guide and first she took us to see some wood carvers. They were busy making statues and ornaments with hammers and chizels. Next we went to see some weaving. Carla showed us how they make rope from a long green leaf of New Zealand Flax. The rope was really strong and only took a minute to make. We then went to see some traditional buildings. We saw a food storage house...

We left the hostel at 9am and went to have a walk through the forest where the caves were. The walk lasted about half an hour and involved walking through a few tunnels as well. We then headed to Rotorua. We arrived at lunch time and checked into the hostel. We quickly unpacked and then headed out to do some lugeing. A luge is a bit like a sledge and a go-cart combined.We made our way to the top in a cable car called a gondelar. From the top you could see the wh...