So, my last entry was about 10 months ago so I have a lot to catch-up on! For 9 of those months I was living in Wellington, and 8 of those months were spent working at the Bank of New Zealand call centre. I didn't write an update partly because I didn't get round to it, but also partly because I don't keep a journal at home so didn't feel the need to write on here whilst I was working!

I absolutely loved Wellington. It's a really cool city with loads of culture, bars and shops. I loved it from when we first arrived and went for a walk along the waterfront (which became my daily walk to work) in the beautiful sunshine. Then it was the International Rugby 7s weekend, which involved thousands of people dressed in stupid costumes getting drunk all day long in the sun. Needless to say, Wellington was a hit from the start! After 3 months of living in a hostel (which was OK, then awful, then I became numb to sharing a room with 5 people and akitchen with 200), I finally moved into a lovely little house in Mount Victoria with Rachel, a girl I worked with, and her boyfriend Mike, her friend Han, and her friend Skye. By the end of my 6 months in that house, we were like a little family and I definitely landed on my feet there. As for work, it was credit card collections, but not actually as bad as it sounds. Unfortunately I was doing split shifts (10-2 and 6-10) every day, which was very grating by the end, but I earned good money so can't really complain! The people I worked with were great, I made some amazing friends and am so glad I got the job (which I actually found out about by chatting to a very drunken witch from the Wizard of Oz in the pub at the 7s, who turned out to be a recruiter for BNZ!) because everyone made me settle in really quickly. Winter in Wellington wasn't fun - it's known as the 'Windy City' and after living in a wooden house with single-glazing, no insulation and no heating that shook in said wind, I will never moan about the Scottish winter again (maybe!). Once I became settled life in Wellington was just like life at home, only on the other side of the world. Drunken nights with friends, hungover movie days, shopping trips, and the odd sports match (I now have rugby, rugby league, football, test match cricket and 20-20 cricket under my belt!), along with a St Patrick's Day broken toe due to a falling barstool, made up the last 6 months.

Sadly Chris didn't spend much time in Wellington with me. She stayed til April, but because of a lack of work she went up north to Whakatane with some Irish friends we made in the hostel to work at a kiwi fruit factory. She then travelled the south island and Thailand before going home in October. It was sad to say bye to her, and it's certainly been weird not having her around, but there are no hard feelings and it just makes me realise how lucky I was to land on my feet in Wellington! We did have a reunion in June though, when we went to Rotorua in the North Island for a couple of days. We did a thing called The Swoop which involved flying through the air in a giant sleeping bag 40m above the ground! It was terrifying, but a good hangover cure! We also did luging which was great fun, and just chilled out. By this point I had been in Wellington for 5 months so it was nice to escape for a weekend!

For the last 3 weeks I have been travelling round NZ. First, I went up north to Taupo, where I did the Tongariro Crossing - a 19km hike through the mountains where some of Lord of the Rings was filmed. It was hard work but the scenery was just spectacular and very diverse - snow-capped mountains, and then steaming hot pools, then emerald lakes, and then forest! The next day I did a bungy jump which was 47m high and absolutely terrifying! It took me about 10 minutes to actually jump, after lots of persuasion by the instructor, and I hated every second of it! I am glad to have ticked that off my list though. I then went back to Wellington for one last weekend, which was of course filled with alcohol! On the 7th November, we had a BBQ at the flat for my leaving party, and they gave me a book filled with photos and messages from all my friends there. It was a great night, but I was regretting the alcohol the next day as my ferry was at 7:30am! It departed from right outside the BNZ building I worked in, so several tears were shed as it pulled out of Wellington.

The next 2 and a bit weeks were spent travelling round the South Island. It really is just so beautiful here and there is loads to do. I was travelling with a company called Stray, and I met 5 girls who I became good friends with whilst on the bus (one of them is from Kennoway!). Our first stop was a place called Marahau, just beside Abel Tasman National Park where we stayed for 2 nights. We did a half day sailing trip around the bays, which even in cloud were very pretty, and then did a 12km walk back to our hostel. We were staying in the middle of nowhere, and got eaten alive by sandflies, which I have discovered are even worse than mosquitos!

The next stop was Barrytown, a tiny West Coast village with nothing but a pub (not unlike Craigrothie actually!). The drive to Barrytown was spectacular, and we did some coastal walks to admire the views. Barrytown involved a very random drunken evening dressed up as a boyband! The next morning, we did bone-carving - we all made necklaces with Maori designs and meanings. It was interesting, but hard-work with a hangover and reminded me of being back in Tech at school! After that, we got in the bus and headed to Franz Josef where we spent 2 nights. We did a full-day hike at the Franz Josef glacier, and it was absolutely incredible. The weather wasn't the best, but we walked across the glacier (with crampons and ice-picks!) and walked through ice caves and crevices and learned loads about the glacier.

We left the next day and headed to Makarora, which has a population of 65! On the way, we stopped at Lake Matheson and the Blue Pools for some photo opportunities, and when we arrived in Makarora we just relaxed in our little cabins in the woods! That night, we did karaoke at the local pub, and 2 of the girls won a prize for their YMCA dancing which was amusing!

The following morning we headed to Queenstown via Wanaka, where I did a skydive! I jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet and it was absolutely incredible. It was a 60 second freefall before the parachute came up, but it felt like about 10 seconds! The views were amazing and it was so much fun, I loved it and would do it again right now if I had the money! After a quick call to Mum and Dad to tell them I was alive and in one piece, we headed to Queenstown where we stayed for 4 days. Queenstown is the adventure capital of NZ, and there is so much to do there but it is also pretty expensive. Because I had done everything I wanted to do, I just relaxed for 4 days, but I did see three of the girls do a bungy, which made me feel sick just looking at them after having done one myself! Queenstown is also a huge party town, so needless to say that's where most of my money went, and on Fergburgers, a burger place which sells HUGE burgers which are very very tasty and famous amongst travellers in NZ!

After 4 days in Queenstown, we headed to Milford Sound where we did a cruise in the rain! It's a shame it was raining, but it did mean the waterfalls at the Sound were a lot bigger so that was good. I would like to go back and see it in the sunshine though! We spent that night in a place called Gunn's Camp, which was where workers stayed in the 1930s whilst building a road in that area. The cabins hadn't improved much since the 1930s - power went out at 10pm and it was heated by a log stove! We only spent one night there and then headed to Invercargill, where we just spent the day in the park because it was sunny and then watched dvds at night in the hostel. The next day we headed to Dunedin up the coast, with lots of stops along the way. We saw sealions, seals and a penguin on the beaches - I was very excited to see a penguin in the wild! Unfortunately we arrived in Dunedin too late to do anything, so we went for dinner and some drinks at a place in the city centre.

We had an early departure the next morning to head to Mount Cook. On the way we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders - huge spherical boulders on a beach - where we took lots of pictures. We arrived at Mount Cook about 2pm and I loved it straight away - our room had a balcony which looked out over the snow-capped mountains. We went on a boat trip around the lake of the Tasman Glacier, which was definitely a highlight of my trip round NZ. We went round the lake and passed loads of icebergs. We learned a lot about icebergs and about the glacier itself, and the setting was so pretty. We had steak for dinner and then I had a bath, purely because there was a bath in our room which is a total novelty in hostels and I have not had a bath since I left home over a year ago!!

On Monday morning we left Mount Cook and headed to Christchurch, where I am now. It's a pretty little city, but there was a big earthquake here in September and there is still a lot of damage in the city. Apparently there are 60,000 houses and buildings which require more than $100,000 worth of repairs, so it was badly affected. Monday night was my last night with the girls I was travelling with, so we went out and I said goodbye to them on Tuesday morning. I've just spent the last 2 days getting my things ready for going to Australia tomorrow, and have also enjoyed the sun in the Botanic Gardens! It's hard to believe after 10 months I am leaving NZ tomorrow and it makes me sad to think about it, but I am excited for Australia and the rest of my trip, as well as my eventual return home!