The day is finally here... I'd always wanted to do this trip and had a rough idea of where I wanted to go but what really made me get off my arse and begin saving was by definitely watching 'into the wild' which could be an odd choice but I just loved the freedom he had and how beautiful Alaska looked so that was when I decided to add Alaska to my trip and here I am, getting on a flight to Alaska!! I felt sick with excitement flying there and as we got closer yo...

From Christchurch I went to Auckland for one last day and got to meet up with Becca again which was really nice. We went for a drink, went to the cinema, ate food and had another laugh at the crazy German-New Zealand couple then I went to the airport and prepared myself for a 12 hour flight. The flight itself wasn't that bad apart from being next to some vegan anorexic girl who looked like she could die any second... I watched some films, napped and then it was ...

After my fishing in Kaikoura I said bye to lovely Lucy and then spent the whole day being super lazy watching films and eating rubbish. The day after, 20th August, I got the bus from Kaikoura back to Christchurch and met Alice who's lovely auntie and uncle said I could stay with them for my last few days in Christchurch. We went to their house, and it's unreal how nice it felt to be in a proper house with sofas and carpets and just being round a family felt...

Again, another early start but this should be my last one for a while so it's all good. It was a relatively short drive to Kaikoura and the hostel we were staying at seemed really nice and cosy: we quickly had time to make dinner which involved me burning myself with hot water making noodles... Culinary master, me! Then we dropped a few people at a dolphin encounter place, went to visit a seal colony and then myself, Lucy, Stuart and Val got taken to this old gu...

Today was the day I would finally get to Christchurch and should have been my final stop with the magic bus but Vale said he would take me up to Kaikoura and I would just have to get a different bus back down which was really nice of him. Anyway, we get to Christchurch and the first thing I noticed was how uneven most of the roads are and how many are just closed off altogether (for anyone reading who's been hiding under a rock, Christchurch had several earthqua...