Kia Ora! (A New Zealand greeting, wishing good health). We'd arrived! Let the adventures begin!

Sunday 22nd September

After a mammoth queue to get through border control (we were convinced we wouldn't get through!) and having our bags searched and x-rayed (normal protocol for people coming into NZ with 'outdoorsy' type luggage), we were in! We were being picked up by Colin and Sue, relatives of Cesca who live in Auckland. We were staying with them for one night. We had a lovely day, spent eating food and walking along the local beaches. The sun had come out for us as well. Sue cooked us an amazing dinner (which we devoured, knowing that in the next few weeks we would be eating anything and everything that we could get our hands on) and off to bed.

Monday 23rd September

The following morning, we were up bright and early, ready to start the next part of our adventure! We had to catch the Pine Harbour ferry over to the centre of Auckland, in order to meet the Kiwi Experience bus at 8.30am.

Once on the bus, our first stop was at Cathedral Cove, which is a beautiful coastal spot. The beaches were amazing and the sea was clear blue. But a little bit cold for a swim! Straight away we got talking to people on our bus and by the time we left the beach we had made a couple of new friends already.

Our next stop for the day was Hot Water Beach, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsular. Here, you can dig holes in the sand and lie in them, as the water that comes up is hot. This is due to the water which filters up through the sand from underground hot springs. Such a weird experience! But lovely, as it was cold outside. However, Ash and one other lad decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim in the sea...which was FREEZING and they'd been warned against it because of the strong tides. The other lad, Jonno, came limping out of the sea clutching his arm and knelt down on the sand...we all thought he was posing until he said 'Does someone want to call an ambulance?!' Turned out he had dislocated his shoulder, something he had done once before. Very painful! Fortunately for him, a doctor who was on the beach with his family saw what had happened and came over to help. Doctor Digby, our superhero! Crisis averted. It would have taken about an hour for the ambulance to arrive!

After that drama, we all walked back to our accommodation for the night. We spent the evening getting to know each other and playing card games. What a great first day :).

Tuesday 24th September

Today we were heading to Waitomo (meaning 'water cave'). On route, we stopped off at Karangahake Scenic Reserve, which is an old gold mine. We walked across swing bridges and up mini train tracks till we reached the mine opening. Some of the paths within the mine had been closed off so no public could enter them, but a few of them were not. A group of us decided it would be a good idea to see how far into the mine we could walk. Well, we chickened out long before the end!

Onwards to Waitomo. We were going 'Black Water Rafting' there - which is basically going deep into a mountain and navigating our way through the underwater rivers and streams. It was incredible. We both decided to do the 'Abyss', which involved aseiling down into the mountain through a tiny hole (a good 50m down). Once inside, we were clambering over rocks in order to reach the zip wire, which would take us down to the river. Bearing in mind it was absolutely pitch black inside. The mountains are famous for glow worms also, which created an incredible scene inside. We front flipped into the river with rubber rings and floated along slowly, taking it all in.

We reached a massive cave and our guide made us get out of our rings. He made us all stand in a circle and turn our lights off. He went a few metres away and performed the Haka, a traditional New Zealand ancestral war dance. It was incredible and extremely atmospheric. We were all stunned into silence, listening to his voice echoing throughout the entire cave system.

After this, we left our rubber rings and carried on through the mountain river system by foot. We were clambering all over rocks and swimming through the deep parts. All the while we were looking around, taking in what was around us. If you stopped still, turned your lights off and made an almighty sound, the glow worms would begin to glow really bright, which was amazing. It looked like a starry nights sky.

Parts of the route along the river were really hard. Towards the end, our guide asked us if we were up for a challenge, which we were. He was going to take us the hard route out, which involved climbing up two big waterfalls and crawling through a small hole to the outside of the mountain. There were times we were worried we wouldn't make it! It took all our strength to climb to the top of the waterfalls. We were sat behind one waterfall at one point which was incredible. Ash was made to go first to the top of one waterfall so he could help the rest of the group up to the top. What a responsibility! We all made it out safely of course. An absolutely amazing experience.

That evening, we celebrated the birthday of one of the boys from our group. Which involved a lot of alcohol and drinking games. A brilliant night as well.

Wednesday 25th September

We left Waitomo early in the morning in order to reach Rotorua. Rotorua is the Maori culture capital of New Zealand. When we arrived there, we decided to go Luging, which involves small go karts and a few big hills! It was fantasic fun. We got to go down 5 times, and there were routes with varying degrees of difficulty. Our favourite was the 'Extreme' route. No-one got hurt either!

In the evening, we were going to a traditional Maori village to experience a traditional Maori 'hangi', which is basically a feast. On the way to the village, we had to elect a 'Chief' from our group of around 30 people. So obviously, we chose Ash! When we got to the village, Ash had to prepare himself to be confronted by about 5 Maori men performing the Haka. You can't laugh or make any sort of facial expression whilst they are performing this to you, as they might take it as a form of retaliation, therefore you come for war, not peace. They take this very seriously. So Ash had to put a brave face on whilst 5 massive men approached him, performing the aggressive Haka. It was incredible, the atmosphere was amazing! Ash did very well, even though he admitted afterwards that he was a little scared! His duties didn't end there though, he was made to perform the Haka along with the other chiefs later on, and was asked to talk about himself to the whole group.

The Maori village was very interesting; they showed us how they lived, trained and how they entertained themselves. We were then invited for a Hangi - cooked the traditional Maori way underground with hot stones. The food was amazing! A bit like a roast dinner, but everything tasted quite 'earthy'. We had traditional Kiwi pavlova for pudding as well.

We got back to the hostel and all went to the bar next door. We had a few too many and danced till the early hours. All in all, a fantastic evening of culture.

Thursday 26th September

Today we were heading to Lake Taupo. First, we stopped off at Te Puia, which is a geothermal reserve holding New Zealand's largest geyser. It stank! We had a walk around, saw the geyser in full force, and then we boiled eggs in one of the hot pools. They were delicious!

Then onwards to Lake Taupo. It was during this coach journey that Cesca made the sponataneous decision (with a little bit of gentle persuasion from Ash!) to do a skydive. The weather was looking great and a few of the other girls were doing it.So Cesca got dropped off on route and headed to the local airfield and prepared herself for jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet! You'll need to see the photos and videos to see quite how scared Cesca was! Absolutely petrified but the best feeling ever.

In the afternoon, a few of us walked to the local natural hot springs, which were lovely. So nice to be in hot water when it's cold outside.

That night we all went out for a drink at the bar next to the hostel. We had an early morning the next morning!

Friday 27th September

We were up and ready by 6am, all set to walk the Tongariro Crossing! The walk in Tongariro National Park is one of New Zealand's most spectacular tramping tracks and is considered one of the most popular one-day tramps in New Zealand. And it didn't disappoint! It was cloudy to start, so we were climbing up not having a clue how far up we were heading. We survived the Devil's Staircase...which was hell! And found ourselves in the crater of an old volcano! Incredible as the clouds started to part just as we started walking through it. Then these almighty mountains just appeared either side of us! Amazing. Though we weren't over the worst of it. We had to walk along the ridge of one mountain, which was a bit of a scramble and quite dangerous in poor weather. But we had the sunshine now! At the top of that peak, we could look down to the Emerald Lakes, which were volcanic pools. The rest of the walk was more or less a gentle descent, occasionally through deep snow. At times, if we looked to our right, we could see an active volcano puffing steam out of it. We all had our fingers crossed that it wouldn't decide to erupt at that time! Amazing to see though.

Once back to the carpark, we all collapsed. Everyone was asleep in the sunshine, waiting for the bus to pick us up. The walk took us 6.5 hours in total, but what an achievement! We'd earnt ourselves a big pizza and lots of drinks that night!

Saturday 28th September

We left Taupo at a fairly reasonable hour (probably 7.30am!) in a bid to reach our next destination in plenty of time. We were heading to River Valley, home of the famous Rangitikei river. River Valley is home to some amazing landscapes. We were staying in the River Valley Lodge...which is probably the most isolated 'hostel' ever. Although beautiful, the people who worked there were all fairly weird. But it all made for a brilliant experience!

The Lodge was a large, stone built building. In the centre was a massive fireplace, with a roaring fire alight. Upstairs were two big rooms, each holding about 20 people, which would be where we were sleeping. We'd opted for the roast dinner that night, cooked by one poor lady. She was cooking for about 50 people by herself! But it was delicious.

With warm food in our tummies (it was pretty cold and wet outside!), we sat down for a good old game of 'ring of fire'. Probably the best game ever played! It ended in one of the girls picking herself (unknowingly) to give our coach driver a lap dance. The photos exist somewhere! A brilliant, boozy night. Then off to sleep in our oversized, over-populated bunk bed!

Sunday 29th September

We had decided we wanted to go white water rafting in the Rangitikei river, as it is world renowned. It is described as one of the world's top grade 5 rafting rivers. It was absolutely terrifying! The scenery was absolutely beautiful. But you could only see this when you weren't concentrating on trying to steer the boat out of the way of some 'death rapid'! There were a couple of times we had to climb out of the boat and walk a little way down the river, as that part of the rapids was too dangerous to raft. There were also rapids we'd go down, to be told once we'd reached the bottom that people had died there before!! Well, our hearts were in our mouths most of the way down, and we were glad to be alive when we reached dry land! We had the opportunity also to jump off of a cliff edge into the river, which we all did. The water was FREEZING!

The rafting was over by lunchtime, in time for us to board the coach and head to our next destination - Wellington!

We reached Wellington by late afternoon, just enough time to wander around the harbour. It is known as the 'windy' city, and windy it was! It was a lovely place with a lovely feel. We didn't have long to enjoy it though, as we were off early in the morning. But definitely a place we'll come back to!

In the evening, we took part in the hostel bar's quiz and had a few drinks. Then off to bed early!

Monday 30th September

We left Wellington early, in a bid to catch our ferry accross to the South Island on the Interislander ferry. The scenery on this journey is supposed to be really good, but the weather was not on our side. We couldn't see anything.

Once on the South Island, we picked up a lot of new people who were joining us on our coach. We all boarded, then began our journey to Kaiteriteri, which is part of the Abel Tasman National Park. It is beautiful, with loads of clean, clear, white sandy beaches and awesome mountains in the distance.

Once in our room at the hostel, we all decided to go and have a swim in the sea. We'd been warned it would be cold! That didn't deter us though, so we donned on our swimmers, and ran into the sea! And it was SO COLD! Quick dip in and straight out again.

That evening, we cooked sausages and mash for everyone...and someone cooked about 3 times more mash than we needed! We all felt fat and horrible after that! Which didn't bode well for an evening in the local bar doing the quiz.

Another day completed.

Tuesday 1st October

In the morning the sun was shining, so we decided to go for little walk along the beach to see what we could discover. We found a lovely secluded beach and had a climb on the rocks. The boys went to play crazy golf. It was a nice quiet morning, compared to the other mornings we had had!

Around 11am, we all boarded the coach to head to our next stop, which was Westport. Unfortunately, none of the activities we could have done were up and running, so we had some time to kill.

We were staying in a 'Unit', with twelve of us. It had its own kitchen and lounge area! We bought dinner for everyone that night, then headed down to the nearest beach for a bonfire and to toast marshmallows.

It was lovely down on the beach, it felt quite 'wild'. They'd had a storm a few days before so there was lots of drift wood all over the beach. There was also a dead goat - completely intact still! Although you could see where the insects had started eating him inside out. The bonfire was massive and we cooked marshmallows on it for hours. Once the sun had gone down, we got a glimpse of the stars above which were amazing.

We went back to our 'Unit' and spent the evening watching Forrest Gump. Cue Ash getting emotional! 'I love you jenny'.

Wednesday 2nd October

We were heading to Lake Mahinapua today, for the famous 'Poo Party'. En route, we stopped twice. The first stop involved a long walk to Cape Foulwind Seal Colony. It was called 'Cape Foulwind' for one of two reasons. The first is because the wind is really strong/foul. The second is because of the smell that the seals emit! In our opinion, both were accurate. We saw loads of seals! It was pretty cool seeing them in their natural habitat, swimming in the sea and clambering on rocks.

Our second stop was at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. The rocks looked like pancakes as a result of the erosion of the rocks, creating pretty impressive views. We had our lunch around there, took some photos then headed on.

Our final stop was in a small town just before Lake Mahinapua, where we were to buy our outfits for that night. Our driver had decided the theme of the fancy dress was a 'P' party - dress as anything that begins with P. Harder than you might think! We all went into this little shop which sold pretty much anything and everything you could think of. Hence why Ash ended up dressing up as a PORTALOO. I mean, where the hell do you think you would be able to find a 'urinal' mask?! Well, in this shop. He also bought a shower curtain to go round himself, a small 'mens' sign to stick on to it, a bog brush, a roll of toilet paper (both stuck to the inside of his shower curtain) and to top it off, a shower cap. He looked a right mess! Cesca (not being as imagiative as Ash!) dressed up as Peggy - pegs clipped all over her. Painful!

Before we started to party, we all had dinner together, which had been cooked with the help of our coach driver. We had big, juicy steaks, accompanied with roast potatoes, pasta and salad. Yum. And it was a good idea to line our stomachs!

The party that evening was incredible. The Mahinapua Hotel, where we were staying, was famous for the 'Poo Party'. (Fortunately, it had nothing to do with poo.) Unfortunately, the legend, Les, who ran the hotel, had died a few months earlier. He was that much of a legend that there had been a TV programme about him just before we got there. His family had carried on his hard work. Ash had been to Mahinapua Hotel a few years before, in 2009. He had met Les, and said he was quite a character! They also take a polaroid photo of each group, and Ash was able to find the picture of him and his bus. Amazing!

The drinks were flowing and everyone was in the mood for a party. It was a brilliant night, some excellent fancy dress ideas and lots of laughs! The coach driver was judging the fancy dress outfits all night and trying to choose who should come first, second and third. The first prize was a canyon swing, which went to a guy dressed as a period (gross). The second prize was photos and video for the Kawarau Bungy, which went to our one and only ASH! The third prize....ahh it doesnt matter!! Some pensioners won whatever it was.

Thursday 3rd October

There were a few sore heads in the morning! But onwards we must go. Today we were heading to the famous Franz Josef, home to the Franz Josef Glacier.

On our way, we stopped at a little place called the Bushman's Centre. It had apparently been made well known by Billy Connolly, who had visited there on part of his tour of NZ, and absolutely loved it. I'm not sure we all hold the same sentiment! They give you an insight in how people make a living on the coast with helicopter deer recovery, old timber-milling techniques and possum trapping. 'A good possum is a dead possum'. It was a weird little place, there were even letters on display which people had written to the man who ran it, saying how disgusted they were. The centre was a bit strange, it had lots of funny, sarcastic comments everywhere, about the British, the weather, shoplifters etc etc. You could see how some people could take offence! But we just found it funny. We had some breakfast there (some people indulged in a Possum Pie!) and then headed on.

When we reached Franz Josef, we went straight out to do some kayaking on a nearby lake. The weather wasn't very nice though and it was cold. Still, we went on the lake and spent a few hours there. It was lovely! The water was absolutely freezing though, and obviously we were splashing each other. After a while your body goes numb and it feels like warm water hitting you. The wetter the better. Things got a bit of out hand and we ended up drenched!

The route took us to some very quiet creeks, where the water was so still it reflected all the surroundings in it. It was beautiful. It was a long journey back when you're cold and wet! But we had a lot of fun, and lots of it captured on camera.

When we got back to the hostel, we jumped straight in the hot tub, which was very welcome by that point! After this, we got ready and headed to the bar at the hostel for pizza dinner. All you can eat pizza! Amazing.

Friday 4th October

The weather had brightened up, all ready for our trip up the glacier! You used to be able to walk all the way up to the glacier, but the front end fell away fairly recently. That means that you now have to get a helicopter up there. Yay! We got suited and booted into our warm clothes and headed to the helicopter pads. We got into a helicopter and up, up and away! It was incredible. Helicopters are pretty cool!

Once on the glacier, you had to put crampons on straight away; it's slippery! Being ice and all. We then began our three hour walk to the top and back again. We saw some pretty cool formations. The wind and rain can really quickly change the glacier. Some walkways that were able to be used the day before were all of a sudden not usable the next day. Our guide told us that the glacier moves at a rate of approximately 5 metres per day, and that in 40 years time, the glacier will have disappeared. Crazy.

The photos are pretty good! It was an amazing experience, and one which is pretty rare. We are lucky!

We spent one more night in Franz Josef, enjoying the local bar and its people.

Saturday 5th October

Today, we needed to go from Franz Josef to Lake Wanaka - usually a straightforward journey along the Haast Pass, taking only a few hours. However, unfortunately there had been a massive landslide on the road, killing two Canadians. The road was too unsafe to drive along. Now, if we were in the UK, that wouldn't have been too much of a big deal...there would have been a similar alternative route. Well...not in New Zealand! The result of the closure of the Haast Pass was a 12 hour journey over to the other side of the Island and then back in to the West Coast! To finally get to Lake Wanaka! What a drag. And to top it off, we had managed to only get seats at the back of the coach, away from all of our friends. That was a very, very long day.

When we reached Wanaka, it was a big relief. We settled ourselves into the hostel, then ventured out for food and drinks. Some of the lads entered a beer pong competition but none of them came close to winning. We then had a couple of nice, cold beers to end a long day!

Sunday 6th October

On our way out of Wanaka, we visited Puzzling World. There was a massive maze, as well as lots of interesting illusions and puzzles. It was pretty cool! And a little puzzling...

We were on the final leg of our journey to Queenstown and we were all very excited! However, we both had the daunting task of a bungy jump to complete...in tandem.

We stopped at the Kawarau River bungy jump, the first AJ Hackett bungy to exist commercially. It's 43 metres high and you jump directly into the river. You have the choice of being dunked in as well! Which we didn't choose, as it was freezing cold. So, we paid up, and then headed along the bridge. We chatted with the men there, both feeling quite comfortable (Ash more nervous than Cesca at this point!). We were tied up together and instructed on what to do. We shuffle our feet out onto the platform over looking the river. Then the countdown...3...2...1... then Cesca shouting 'NO, NO, NO!' and Ash shouting 'YES, YES, YES!' as he pulled Cesca off of the platform to impending dooooooom!

But what an achievement, and how amazing to be able to share that experience. We had the whole coach cheering us on from the sidelines. It was great!

And onwards to Queenstown once the adrenalin had begun to subside. We were so close now.

And finally we rolled in! The views were incredible. Snow capped mountains, rolling hills, turquoise lake shimmering in the sun, and an incredible atmosphere to top it all off. Fantastic.

We had made it!! There were times we weren't sure we would. Times when our lives flashed before our eyes. Times where we risked our lives by doing silly things like skydiving and bungy jumping! But what an experience. We had the time of our lives. Not only did we have all these experiences under our belt, we had made some incredible friends. We'd had some brilliant laughs, shared some amazing experiences together and became inseparable. It's amazing how well you get to know someone when you spend 24/7 with them for weeks on end. We were so lucky to have met the people we did. The experience wouldn't have been the same without them.

But the fun wasn't over there! We had a fantastic night out on the Sunday night, which all got a little bit out of hand! Which only makes for brilliant stories to tell and memories.

Monday 7th October

We had arranged to do the Shotover Canyon Swing in the afternoon, which Ash had done before. We had decided to do this separately rather than tandem, although this was an option. We both opted to do the swing in the most 'extreme' way possible. This was by standing on the ledge sideways on, with your hands behind your back. You then had to leap out sideways and maintain that position whilst free falling down the side of the cliff! Absolutely terrifying. They say this is the worst way to do the swing, as it makes you feel the most vulnerable and you can see the ground coming to you very quickly. We both did it without much hesitation! What an achievement, again! Why do we keep doing these things which scare us so much?!

'Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone'. This is too true.

We then spent a little bit of quiet time in Queenstown the following day, sorting things out. We had a big day the following day, and it was lovely to just be able to chill out for a little bit.

Wednesday 9th October

Today, we were going on a coach journey to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a fjord within Fiordland National Park. It has been judged the world's top travel destination. It is about a four hour journey from Queenstown, and the scenery there is indescribable. But this was nothing compared to what we were going to see further in. The journey passes through unspoiled mountain landscapes before entering the 1.2km Homer Tunnel, which was created using a lot of dynamite straight through the middle of a mountain, which was pretty cool. The road we were on was prone to avalanches, and you could see where these had been, some very recently. Quite a scary prospect! There was still a lot of snow around also.

When you reach Milford Sound Visitors Centre, you can get on a boat and take a trip down the fjord out to the Tasman Sea. Which we did. This was incredible. We had chosen an amazing day weather wise and the skies were clear blue. It made for an amazing backdrop for the mountains. We saw sea lions and two penguins on the trip. We took many photos of the scenery whilst on the ferry, although they don't do it justice. It's hard to describe what we saw! The scenery was out of this world, you need to see it for yourselves.

The rest of the week was dedicated to (besides a lot of drinking), searching for a job and a house. We'd decided to stick around Queenstown for a couple of months, as it is such a beautiful place, with lots going on. One morning, Cesca was searching desperately on the internet for work (whilst Ash went for a run!), and happened upon a job described as 'Mothers Help'. Scrolling through, this looked like the perfect job, especially as they were renovating a house at the same time. Cesca emailed her straight away. It was just by chance that the 'mother' was in Queenstown that day and would like to meet us.

By that afternoon, we had a job and a place to live.

To be continued....

Life in a New Zealand Community...