Well, hello again, what a long time its been, I hope everyone is well and had a fantastic Christmas.

I think when I left you last I had just arrived back in Sydney after the road trip, I haven't updated this blog since, although it has been a great year I didn't think another day in the life of Lydia would be of much interest to you.

Just to quickly summarise, I have spent the past year working. With the working holiday visa which I have, you are only able to work for 6 months at the same company so I have had a couple of jobs. The first being a Technical Trainer for a recruitment agency, this involved me training all the new consultants across Asia Pacific on the company database. My next 6 months was spent waitressing in a bar/restaurant at Sydney Opera House, whilst wearing very questionable attire, small denim shorts a white tee shirt and trainers, all I was missing was the bum bag to complete the American tourist look. My final few months were spent working in a seafood restaurant in the posh new Westfield shopping centre by day, working in a lovely family run fine dining restaurant, Fare Nosh, in the suburb I lived, Summer Hill by night and a café on Thursdays also in Summer Hill where I learnt to make proper coffee, it is an extremely serious business in Australia and it would seem that us English are not actually that good at it..

Lisa and I took a trip up the east coast for 2.5 weeks as we had not been there during the road trip. We didn't have enough time to do all of it so we just picked the places we most wanted to visit, so we flew to Cairns and hired a car to drive up to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation for a couple of days. There we enjoyed some snorkelling off the Great Barrier Reef and horse riding along the beach. We then returned the car to Cairns and took the 10 hour bus trip to Airlie Beach where we spent 3 days and 2 nights on the retired racing boat 'the British Defender', sailing around the Whitsunday Islands. Once safely on dry land we did a 30kim trek around the Airlie Beach area, armed with the tent we camped up there for two nights and did not see a single sole the whole time. That was a thoroughly enjoyable holiday and a nice treat as after 2 years it was time for Lisa and myself to go our separate ways.

So, I waved a sad farewell to Australia, I had very mixed emotions, I was so excited to be travelling again, yet I had made some fantastic friends in Australia and it really is an amazing country. But on that plane I got and New Zealand I was bound. I flew into Auckland and had arranged to get on the Kiwi Experience. This is a bus that tours both the north and south islands, and you can hop on and off at the allocated destinations and choose the length of time you wish to spend there. I was slightly apprehensive about getting on this bus as I had heard from a number of people that it is full of 18 year olds and is just a big party bus, now I know I can get away with being extremely hip and trendy, but I am now considered an OAP backpacker. I needn't have worried at all I have met some great people of all ages and you can participate as much or as little as you want in things.

The bus began in Auckland and our first stop was to head north to a town called Paihia - Bay of Islands, here there are 144 islands to sail round and explore. There had only been one problem since arriving in New Zealand, and that was the weather. I had been in the country 3 days at this stage and was yet to wait for the rain to cease, it was not the summer holiday I had dreamed of! As we drove up to Paihia there was this mist covering everything and the water was brown due to the amount of rain they'd had and it coming from the river. Fly (our bus driver), did her very best to point out iconic spots but unfortunately we were unable to see them. That afternoon I did go for a walk, but I returned to the hostel a drowned rat. I only stayed there for one night as without the good weather I could see little pleasure in going for a boat ride or swim. Back to Auckland for another night, well that was the plan. We left Paihia just after lunch the following day and approx 10 minutes out of the town it would have appeared that we had broken down, oh no, it felt like being in Arthur again, except this time it was not my responsibility to make the saviour phone call. Split hose apparently. It wasn't a very good advertisement for the Kiwi Experience, the bus on the side of the road with the engine flap open and a bunch of bored looking backpackers sat there. Help was on its way though, a 5 star tour bus was on its way through to Auckland and had enough space to accommodate the backpackers. As I got on this bus I did have to laugh as one of the original passengers of the bus said to his friend 'Kiwi Experience, doesn't look like a great experience to me', anyway we got back and the bus driver was extremely kind dropping us off at our hostel.

The following day we were heading south, first stop Hot Water Beach, named so as at certain times of the day when the tide goes out you can dig holes in the sand and hot water comes up creating your own little thermal pool, we went there about 6pm to catch this. Earlier on in the day, we stopped off at a nearby beach and went kayaking. I thought this sounded like a nice relaxing activity, which would enable me to see a little bit of the coastline. Did I mention we've had bad weather here? As soon as the kayak left the beach myself and Katie my fellow passenger headed out straight as instructed, and myself steering at the back then put my left foot down on the pedal to turn in the left direction - and of course, to the right we went. After a couple of 360 degrees we were finally faced in the right direction, but also at this point we had nearly wet ourselves with laughter. The guide who was with us paddled up to our kayak and informed us that sometimes you get stuck in the wrong wind and that happens, brilliant not our fault we still had a slim chance of redeeming ourselves. The rest of our group were merely small dots on the horizon at this stage so the guide towed us to catch up with them. We stopped at a beach called Cathedral Cove, it was beautiful here. The two guides rather expertly made us all a much needed hot drink, one small burner and tea, hot chocolates, cappuccinos, lattes and all sorts were being created. We then headed back paddling through a cave which was pretty cool, and once we were close to the beach, the guide took two of the kayaks, mine and Katie's included, created a big sail from a large tarpaulin sheet and oars and we rather relaxingly sailed back to shore.

We spent one night there before heading to a town called Roturora. This town is also nicknamed 'Sulphur City', there is a great deal of geothermic activity going on underground here, and wherever you walk there is the putrid smell of sulphur. If you go to the park and various other sites in the town numerous thermal pools can be seen bubbling away. In the evening we all went to a place called Tamaki Maori Village, here we were to experience Maori culture at its finest. I was really excited to going to this, as although I am enjoying the activities and scenery in New Zealand, I also wanted to learn a bit about the history of the country, and the Maori people.

The lady bus driver that picked us up was quite a character, on the way there she explained to us that all of us in that bus was a tribe, and that there were other buses on their way to the same venue containing other tribes. What our tribe was missing was a chief, there was certain criteria required to become a chief. Firstly, only a male can fulfil the role of chief (bit of a shame that as I quite fancied myself as the chief), the chief also had to be wise, strong, handsome, brave and could be able to sing. Unfortunately, we had no males on our bus fitting that description, so after dropping a couple of the requirements, (actually all of them apart from the male bit), we selected Scott, an Irish man from Dublin as our chief. All jokes aside he did have an important role to play, as when we arrived at the village, the Maori tribe were to rein act what it was like to enter a Maori village for the first time. The men of the village would intimidate the visitors, using their faces to appear harrowing, wide open eyes and tongues out, also shouting and taunting moves. It is so important that the visitors do not laugh/smile/move, I think our chief did remarkable well as it was pretty intimidating. A fern was placed on the ground, the signal that the visitors were welcome. Are chief Scott, walked forward picking up the fern and they then touched nose and foreheads, a sign of trust and respect, then the head lady of the tribe sang and we were invited to enter the village in peace. Within the village there were demonstrations of various customs. I think the worst was being taught how the Maori people carried out tattoos, they dug right down to the bone - ouch, and they have tattoos all over their body. A couple of ladies were demonstrating some games that used to be played with sticks, I love a good game me so when they asked for volunteers up I went, I do feel however, that a little bit more practise is needed for that one. After looking around the village we were shown how our evening meal was being prepared. The various chiefs selected from the coaches began digging, and hey presto, under the ground was a massive container of potatoes cooking and chicken and lamb, oh we were to have a feast, how exciting. Before gorging myself I went to watch the Maori performance, where songs and dances were performed, I thoroughly enjoyed this and really liked the music. Then we all went into the main dining room for our dinner, there was everything there, vegetables, potatoes lamb, chicken and fish. Put a load of backpackers in the same room as a beautiful buffet and what do you get, big bellied backpackers and an empty buffet, we always eat for the lean times. All in all that was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative evening that I would recommend to anyone. The slightly crazy lady drove us back to Rotorua with a sing song and when we got back to the hostel I think it was the first time no one went to the pub as we were all too full to drink, gluttonous behaviour!

Our next stop was Waitomo, here I did a two hour guided tour around Ruakuri Caves which was very good, there are hundreds of glow worms inside which when you look up are like hundreds of stars in the sky. We stayed here for one night before heading to Taupo.

Upon arrival to Taupo I got transferred onto a mini bus and taken to the skydiving centre, yes I had signed myself up to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet. I knew this was going to be a great experience as when I turned up the plane that was going to fly us up there was hot pink, what possibly could there be to worry about! I met my tandem jumper (the expert), Chris who was very nice and talked me through exactly what would happen, it appeared that I didn't actually have a lot to do. We got kitted up and headed for the plane, did I mention that it was hot pink? I surprised myself, you see at this stage I thought I'd be a gibbering wreck in the back of the plane but I felt so calm, no nerves or butterflies. It took us approximately 20 minutes to reach the desired height. 5 minutes before we were there Chris told me to sit on his lap and he attached my harness to his, not quite sure how comfortable I felt sat on his lap at the front of the plane, but better that than us not being attached. We were last to jump out the plane so he slid us to the back of the plane then literally I was suspended over the edge as he sat on the side of the plane. The lack of nerves and butterflies I previously mentioned appeared then, I thought here we go! Then off we went and we were free falling, for a minute to be precise. I don't know how to describe the rush I felt all I know is that I had a massive smile on my face the whole time. The best bit was when I saw we were heading towards a cloud, I stupidly thought ouch this is going to hurt when we hit that, obviously it didn't and when we emerged out of the bottom Chris pulled the parachute and there we were casually gliding down. The view was brilliant, lake Taupo surrounded by the mountains. Apparently Taupo isn't the best place in New Zealand to do a skydive but it's the cheapest, well it was definitely good enough for me. We had a smooth landing, I simply had to lift my legs and when instructed to put them down, take a couple of jogging steps and there we were at a standstill. A bit of excited verbal diarrhoea later I was back on the mini bus on my way to the hostel. But WOW, what an experience, that can definitely go on the to be repeated list if I ever get the opportunity.

On my second day in Taupo I did a walk called Tongariro Alpine Crossing, it has been ranked one of the top 5 most beautiful walks in the world and I can understand why the scenery was amazing. I do however think that it is one of the biggest physical challenges I have ever undertaken. The actual walk alone is 18.5km, and you are advised to allow 7-8 hours for this. There is also the option of climbing The Ngauruhoe Summit, to those Lord of the Rings fans amongst you, this is also known as Mount Doom, it felt like Mount Doom I'm telling you. It was quite funny, as quite a few people on the bus had put their names down to do this walk, but when we were informed that we were getting picked up at 5.30am the numbers dwindled substantially until there were just 6 of us waiting to be collected that morning, half of me wishes I'd stayed in bed. Four of us began the walk together but pretty quickly separated as we were going at different speeds. The first hour of the walk is very picturesque and flat, then on the second hour we started making our way higher and higher, I was pretty tired at the end of this second hour, but it was here I had to make the decision as whether or not I wanted to make the gruelling climb up Mount Doom. I figured I had come all this way and really how hard could it be, I consider myself moderately fit. You were advised to allow another 2.5 - 3 hours for this part of the walk alone. I began the ascent and rather quickly realised that this was going to be a little harder than initially anticipated, I was effectively walking up the side of a volcano which was completely covered in loose rock, so as you took one step up I slid three steps down. It was also rather dangerous as when people further up dislodged a rock it would come tumbling down and I just had to ensure that I got out of its path pretty quickly. The comradery up that mountain rather touched me, everyone helped each other out, those coming down giving advise on the best route to take when reaching the top, and trying to find the best path to take, as there are none marked out. I ended up doing most of the walk with a man called Dave from Brighton. As I got higher and higher when I turned back I could not see the walkers behind me as I was up in the cloud. Finally I reached the top, in the middle was a huge crater that I walked all the way around, it was pretty spectacular. I stopped for a brief and much needed lunch break before heading back down before the others, I was slightly concerned that I would miss the last bus at 4.30pm, and I knew that they would catch me up. That was a slight faux pas on my behalf, as I started making my way down I could not see a thing due to the cloud so could not tell the best route to take, and then just to top it all off I went flying landing on my bottom which has resulted in a rather nasty black bruise. I must admit that at this point I started to feel a little scared, I was all alone and could not see anyway down. I decided to wait for the others who were not far behind me and we navigated our route together. Once I got used to it, it was rather fun, you just had to make massive steps and basically slid all the way down the mountain. Just to top the whole experience off half way down there was a hail storm, as everyone stopped to get their waterproofs out of their backpacks I inwardly thought silly Lydia, you see all I had left in my backpack was a cheese sandwich, my bikini and a towel, now I do have a perfectly reasonable explanation for the latter two, I had planned to ask the bus driver to drop me off at the thermal pools on the way back for a long hot soak, however, they were of very little use at that exact moment in time. Dave very kindly lent me a bright orange plastic sack to wrap around me, there would be no more losing me. I felt a great sense of relief on getting to the bottom, that was quite short lived as I realised I still had another 13km to walk before reaching my final destination of the bus. Parts of this final walk were still pretty tough but it was so beautiful. With 6kms to go time was running out for me to get that bus so Dave and I began short periodic jogs, however at 3kms with just 10 minutes left drastic action was taken. I told Dave to run ahead, afterall he is a member of a running club so was a lot faster than me and there was no point in us both missing our buses, I asked him to look out for a white bus with black feet on it as that was mine and ask them to wait for me. With Dave gone I knew I just had to run as fast as I could, I'm not usually much of a runner but I think the fear of missing my bus and being stranded an hour away from where I was staying gave me that last bit of strength. As I emerged from the bushes and saw my bus I could have run up to it and kissed it but I was far too tired for that, so instead heaved my once healthy and functioning body on, apologised to the rest of the passengers for keeping them waiting and sat very quietly all the way home, I did though feel extremely proud of my achievement. The following day the kiwi bus drove past it and Steve the driver announced on the microphone that I was the only one (stupid enough) out of the group to climb it, and congratulated me. Looking back at it the following day I realised just how high it was. One to tick of the to do list and put on the never to do again list - check!

We travelled on from Taupo to River Valley, this is an adventure lodge nestled in the mountains offering activities such as white water rafting and horse riding. I didn't do any activities here as I have had to prioritise. Activities are available at all the destinations but they are all quite expensive so I have had to decide what I really want to do on this trip and stick to those and pass up other things. We also went to Wellington for a night, I am going there on my way back up to Auckland so will spend a couple of days there, but what little I saw of it looked like a lovely city.

That part of the north island was complete and it was time to take the three hour ferry trip to the south island. The ferry that took us over was apparently one of the old ferries that used to do the Dover to Calais route. It was Christmas eve on this day, once again for the third year running I did not feel at all Christmassy. We briefly stopped at a town called Nelson to purchase some Christmas supplies. We all put $10 into the kitty and luckily with a chef on board we were going to feast on a fine turkey dinner the following day at Steve the drivers house.

We spent Christmas eve night in a small town called Kaiteriteri, which boasted a beautiful beach. Wanting to enter into the Christmas festivities we all hit the bar and Christmas had begun. It was lovely on Christmas morning, I woke up and opened the presents the Ward family had given me when I left Australia, it was killing me carrying them around not knowing what they were, then hit the beach for a couple of hours, bliss. You have to be careful here as the ozone layer is very thin and it is incredibly easy to get burnt, even more so than Australia. After my relaxing time we drove the 4 hours to Westport where the celebrations were to take place. It was quite unusual as we got to Steve's house as all the men were in the kitchen cooking whilst us ladies were outside drinking and chatting, I like the way things are done over here. The meal was absolutely delicious, well done boys and if I couldn't be at home with my family on Christmas Day that was the next best thing, we had such a fun time.

On Boxing Day, obviously none of us feeling very sprightly we all piled onto the bus in a rather subdued fashion, we were heading to a place called Lake Mahinapua. On the way we stopped at Punakaiki where there is a good walk amongst the pancake rocks and blow holes, that was good to clear the head. We went onto a town called Greymouth where Steve announced that we had an hour to look around the town and organise an outfit for a fancy dress party that was taking place that evening. That is all very well Steve but the options were limited, I could have worn a closed sign and gone as a shop on Boxing Day, the town was deserted. Luckily there was a warehouse open so although it wasn't going to win me any prizes I got some card and made some horns, a tail and a 3 pronged fork, teamed with my red dress hey presto I was a devil. The party was very good and some people had used far more imagination than myself, however I do feel that a few of the lads seemed to enjoy dressing up as a woman a little bit too much. We stayed in an old West coast pub there, the owner Les has been the longest standing landlord in New Zealand at the ripe old age of 86, and trust me he is quite a character.

It was then time to head to Frans Josef, I was looking forward to this as I was going to do a heli hike over the glacier. This is the fastest moving glacier in the world and I was going to have me a little walk around it. We literally had time to check into the hostel before we had to go for our tour, they had recommended that we do it that day as the weather was due to turn for the worse, I'm pleased we did, as although we didn't have perfect weather conditions the group doing the 8 hour trek the following day got drenched. We had a 20 minute helicopter ride to the top of the glacier, once again this was beautiful and when we flew over the mountains and saw the glacier for the first time it literally took my breath away, we landed on the top and were to commence a 2 hour hike over the top. At the office previously we had been supplied with some industrial walking boots and a bag containing crampons. These are metal spikes that fit onto the soles of your shoes so that you can grip on the ice. These took a little bit of getting used to initially and we were advised to walk like John Wayne so as not to trip over your own feet. We walked over the glacier getting higher and higher and Tori our tour guide carved steps out of the ice with her pick axe to make the way easier for us, and would attach her rope to different surfaces to enable us to get up and down crevices, it really is an amazing structure, I was slightly alarmed though as parts sporadically crumbled away, it sounded quite dramatic but Tori assured us that it was just an illusion and the falling bits were actually far away. We then got the helicopter back to base. We had been told to wear layers on top and either shorts or thin trousers, so off I went in my shorts, well really you wouldn't actually wear shorts in the snow at home would you? Well nor should you in New Zealand, my legs resembles that of a plucked chickens by the end of it.

I am on the bus on the way to Wanaka at the moment where we will stay for the night then off to Queenstown, adventure capital of the southern hemisphere for New Year. I have literally 2 minutes ago signed myself up to do the AJ Hackett bungee jump tomorrow, oh my goodness I have butterflies.

I cannot emphasise enough what a spectacularly beautiful country New Zealand is, I love just looking out of the bus window and admiring it all. In one scene you can have a river surrounded by green mountains with a snow capped mountain in the background. This is certainly the life.

Well all in all I am having a bit of a ball for myself, met some great people doing some fab things and hopefully all going well tomorrow will still be able to type to update you again on here.

Lots of love to you all, have a wonderful New Years and I wish you all happiness for the coming year.

Until the next time.

PS, Mia, Freda is a life saver!