People certainly weren't lying when they told us that Rotorua didn't smell great. In certain parts it really does smell pretty bad as the whole city is built over a crater and many geothermal parks surround it which we saw first hand. The evening we got there we were lucky to come across a free BBQ with any beer purchased, which we took full advantage of after our scout of the town earlier that day. The night was a pretty tame one although we did compete in the h...

When we arrived in Taupo we could never have guessed how crazy the last four days would have been. It all started on our first night as we entered the hostel's beer pong tournament, the first time we had ever played the sport, and won. For winning we received a bar tab at the nightclub in town which we of course took full advantage of. The next day, as we weren't able to go on the 17km walk through the mountains featured in the Lord of the Rings films, we explore...

So we certainly made the most of the "best bar in wellington", leaving our marks on the city and it's people, although it's probably fair to say some more positive than others. After feeling surprisingly fresh on both of the mornings after our nights in the city we discovered a passion for exploring, covering pretty much the entire city of Wellington in our three days there. Visting the sports stadium and New Zealand's governement we then even decided t...

Later blog entry than I'd planned but this is because we are now in Wellington. We left Queenstown with the intention of stopping over in Christchurch but found out it is so damaged by the earthquakes and constant aftershocks that going there would have been almost pointless. So we instead endured a 12 hour journey on the Kiwi Experience bus to Kaikoura. Not knowing what to expect we turned up at this, what seemed to be, small fishing village in torrential rain w...

Just a small blog to sum up our most productive day yet before we leave for the seven hour bus journey to Christchurch in the morning. We're feeling very satisfied with our days work despite both of us now seeing first hand how "thin the ozone layer is ", as a very wise pharmacist man told me earlier today, which at the time I thought nothing of. This now means we are borderline lobsters but at least we have the bus journey to soak in aftersun. Today st...