THE VERY BEST OF MY TIME IN NEW ZEALAND - I was going to write the top 10 things that I loved the most about New Zealand but I kept going and have just about managed to control it to 20 (no order). Also threw a bundle of photos together from the top 20 (i had too much time on my hands on the plane) http://blogs.statravel.com/lou789/albums/new-zealand-top-20-or-so

1. THE BALL PASS and THE MUELLER HUT IN THE MOUNT COOK REGION - taking on the big challenge of a five day expedition on my own was going to be great, if not a little scary. The getting their was the first challenge, hitching two rides to get to the village, then hiring crampons and ice axes, finding out what walk I wanted to do (the Department of Conservation only gives out advice for easy walks and treats everyone like they have never walked before (which I understand) but this was a common theme for both me and other experienced trampers alike), this made it difficult to get advice on the harder, more remote walks). However, I can be thankful to one guy at the DOC office. Having made it all the way to Mount Cook in one piece, I soon discovered that I had not enough battery life in my camera. The guy, Richard at the office, kindly let me borrow his own camera.

The walk was, by far, one of the best I had ever encountered (along with the traverse of the Cullin Ridge in Skye). The memories from this trip were sleeping out under the stars at night and feeling as though you could almost reach them, hearing the rumbles of the avalanches from across the valley, seeing the Kea's play over mount Cook, crossing the glacier, sleeping in my tent, going it alone, and then meeting some lovely people in the mountain hut but also meeting an Austrian guy, who since I have become very good friends with - it was lovely to meet someone who shares similar if not identical believes and views about the world as I do and lastly accomplishing it all!

2. SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS - getting the 5.30am boat was the best thing we could have done as the sunrise over the ocean was immense. It was also amazing to be able to share this, with another amazing friend I met on the third week of my travels, Kirstin. Also for me snorkelling in the ocean was to be possibly one of the most challenging for me on the trip because I had barley snorkelled before and because of my lack of confidence in the ocean. This seemed to make it all the more rewarding for me and being that close to nature was just out of this world.

3. KIDS CAMP - this feels like such a very long time ago, since I arranged to do the camp back in July of last year. As soon as I got to New Zealand I was met by my couch surfing host, David Mason (for those not familiar with couch surfing it's where travellers go and stay in peoples houses while abroad to exchange cultural experiences and to get a bed for the night), camp was sensational! I learnt so many things, the people were lovely and I became an instructor in sailing, kayaking, bush walking, orienteering, camp and cooking skills, and archery. I learnt to play the ukulele (New Zealand instrument), met lots of the locals - including some of the players from the All Blacks squad, spend lots and lots of time outdoors, learning to sail an optimist. the list from this experience was endless!

4. SKYDIVE - one of the main things I wanted to do when I went travelling (as I thought I would never take the plunge in my 'ordinary life'). However although I had lots of opportunities to do it, I bailed so many times, just thinking about it was sickening! my friend kirstin wanted me to skydive with her but I didn't fancy it from where she was based and in the end the weather did not permit it. Instead I waited until the last week of my trip in New Zealand and it paid off. we got lovely weather, and I got to see the mountains and the ocean from the air. it was lovely to skydive with kirstin and even until the last minute I was bailing out. however, once I (finally) decided that I was doing it, I made sure I enjoyed every last minute.dvd at http://www.skydivefranz.co.nz/gallery/54?videoID=hx1bi94678i8sp0x

5. MOUNT TARANAKI/EGMOUNT - having flown from Auckland to Nelson near the beginning of my trip - I flew over Mount Taranaki, from that moment, seeing the cone shaped mountain with snow on the summit, I knew I had to climb it. It had also been one of the first mountains I had seen when starting my research on New Zealand all those many months ago. This hike took the form of a road trip with the Austrian, Mario. We took a few days to drive there, heading into the national park was lovely and that night we watched the mountain being smothered by a blanket of cloud - making for a really great photo! The walk was great, a lot easier than we had anticipated. At the top the cloud was thick, but after waiting for almost an hour at the top. While others retreated, the clouds finally dispersed making it the most spectacular place in the world to be for that moment.

6. BAY OF ISLANDS - sand boarding, driving along the 90 mile beach, cape reinga (the most northern part of the country), a great group of friends - but I so very nearly missed out due to a cyclone which had hit and blocked the road, we arrived just a day late

7. CLIMBING ON MOUNT MUNGANUI - I hadn't seen Matt and Sasha since the leaving do at the start of October, since then we had been on two very separate journey's across the globe. To go from having met and made friends over three years ago with the outgoing, adventurous couple when I first moved to Edinburgh, to meeting them on the other side of the world was a little strange, but so nice to see people that knew me before I went travelling, we couldn't climb that morning as it was far to hot so the beach was calling (I was surprised for the first time ever, I actually managed to lie on the beach for longer than 15 minutes)and then around 4pm we finally went climbing, although still too hot we did some nice climbs. then raced to the top of the hill to watch a magnificent sunset over the ocean.

8. HARWOODS HOLE - it is hard to describe how I felt about doing this because it was by far the most challenging thing I have done but the most spectacularly different thing I have seen in my life. I had never really considered caving, probably because the opportunity is not there in Scotland but also because the idea of crawling through very small spaces in a dark cave was not what my idea of the great outdoors was. However, I knew that this opportunity was coming and I tried to prepare myself. it was difficult, this was no 'ordinary' cave but a cave that just so happened to be one that people had lost their lives in and which had a dangerous huge abseil into, three hours to go through the cave and three hours out. should anything have gone wrong, (a slip or a fall) the results were likely fatal, on a previous rescue it took over 50 people to rescue an injured person, and the chance of getting out alive due to hypothermia was frightening - so i've been told anyway. I could not have paid for this experience, it is a cave many cavers can only dream off and I got the opportunity - was I mad! Anyway after many a restless night and through actually sleeping walking as though I was in a cave and trying to get out, I soon became to realise that life was too short not to try new things. The cave was incredible, I knew I could not be scared as I risked holding the team back and I went for it. it was the single most sensational experiences I have had out of my comfort zone in my life!!!! It was just so beautiful, abseiling down waterfalls, squeezing through tight holes, seeing the clear waters.

9. GLOW WORMS/ BLACK WATER RAFTING - I wasn't sure if I was going to like this, as I said before I'm not great with water and to me it seemed very touristy! but it turned out to be great as I was with friends that I'd made along the way. jumping backwards into a waterfall on a rubber ring really tested my comfort zone to the absolute limit. the glow worms were amazing, it was just like seeing a million bright stars in the sky.

10. ABEL TASMAN WALK WITH KIRSTIN- my first 'great walk'. We were lucky in that it was early in the session so the walk was very quiet. we 'by mistake' ended up doing the walk in 25 hours and so had the last day and a half to have fun on the beach, what a spectacular evening we had on the second night as we had dinner on the beach watching the sun go down and seeing a killer whale pass by.

11. TONGARIRO CROSSING - if you could get rid of the tourists and steps this would have to be the most interesting walk and jaw dropping walk that I had done. I raced in front of the crowds of people in the morning to make it up to the summit of the volcano we were told we won't have time to climb. It was sensational, I got such a shock at the top I was not expecting to see a massive red crater. Then came the emerald lakes, and the geothermal activity. I was lucky enough to have had time to wait the bad weather out for three days, and it paid off. I got great weather.

12. WIATOMO BOULDERING COMPEITION - I didn't go for the competition - I know I would normally be the competitive one, but this time I wanted to go to meet local climbers and go bouldering. like the mountain biking, I made a few contacts and before I knew it, the day before I had arranged to get collected by the organiser of the comp. so having already paid for the next nights accommodation I scraped those plans and got collected by Ben and his friends - I was pleasantly surprised to meet a lovely fit young lad that I became friends with. I was scared that the comp was going to be a wash out because there was a strange haze and fog over the mountain, I was afraid the whole thing had been a wrong judgement on my part. but then an hour into holding off the comp and me now in gum boots (wllies) and warm clothes and wet rock, the sun came out in true Kiwi style almost burning a hole in my skin. the bouldering was amazing that day and i got to chat to lots of like-minded people. now Ben and his partner are coming to Scotland not long after my trip will end.

13. ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS - from the moment I knew that I was going to leave Scotland and not be home for Christmas, I felt worried. for the past 25 years I had been with my family in our family home and I wasn't open to having it any other way. how could Christmas be Christmas without family, food, giving gifts, the cold weather..... Having came around to the fact that I wasn't going to be at home, all I wanted was a hot and sunny BBQ on the beach where ever that was going to be. I got what I wanted and more. even although I was not around my own family I had been asked to have Christmas dinner with kirstin's family. But despite a lovely day, no part of the day truly felt like Christmas. next year, I will definitely be making sure I have a traditional Scottish Christmas. Although the hot tube, and BBQ and nice weahter was appealing

14. MT ROY AND MOUNT ALPHA - WANAKA - this was a beautiful walk. I was keen to go before I realised that the start was way out of town, lucky for me a local farmer was in the tourist information shop when I was asking about transport and offered me a lift to the starting point, he had been over to Scotland before sheering sheep. it was a beautiful clear day, I don't recall any clouds in the sky, and I remember standing between both peaks with not a sound, nothing, just me and the top of this mountain. it was so peaceful. the views were immense, I had never seen views quite like it in my life.

25. KAYAKING MILFORD SOUNDS - if you are a tourist coming to New Zealand and have more than three weeks, it is likely that you will make the four hour drive to Milford Sounds from Queenstown, the hour and a half cruise and then the four hour journey back. for me however i hate being in a car or bus and i was not keen for the cruise. i wanted to kayak it, but it was not cheap! anyway, I had to do the cruise but I broke the driving down by staying at places overnight in my tent.

For a dry, clear day on Milford it is hard to come by, so I was lucky on the day I did it it never rained but they were going to cancel it due to strong winds.

16. STINGRAY FEEDING - it may have killed Steve Irwin but to see these creatures in the wild was really cool.

17. SUNSET OVER HOKITIKA BEACH - I never visited this beach the first time I came though because of the rain so the second time I came, a few months later, I went to see it but it was still torrential rain. it was really cool though. Hokitika has a competition each year to see how can make the best sculpture out of natural material such as drift wood and stones. a week later we passed that way again, this time was something extra special.

18. 42ND TRAVERSE - MOUNTAIN BIKE TRIP - after arriving in National Park, I met a guy who had a mountain bike t-shirt on, I asked him if he fancied doing a mountain bike trail that I was going to be doing the next day, and within five minutes of meeting this person we had planned a mountain bike trip for the following day. it was a perfect cloudy day so nice temperature to cycle in. a great day if not a little frustrating as feeling like I've lost a lot of fitness. since then we have met in Sydney, where he now lives have been biking one to two times a week.

19. NEW YEARS DAY - TE ANUA AND MOUNT KEPLER - although most people were partying in Queenstown I was glad when I was not able to get a hostel in the city, instead I went to Te Anua, a small town a few hours from Queenstown. I woke early from my tent and went and walked another of the 'great walks'. It was a boring walk through the forest but once above the tree line it was amazing. The reason for doing this walk was to visit a local cave up near the summit. The cave was great and I met some lovely people along the way.

OK SO MAYBE I WASN'T ABLE JUST TO STICK TO 20 EITHER, JUST A FEW MORE -

26. KAYAKING randomly in the east cape and capsizing due to the mental waves in the ocean. That morning when I took the kayak out, while people I was on a trip with were all in bed in the cottage, I remember by the time they were up I had taken a walk along the beach to watch the sunrise, taken out the kayak, gone for a swim and then racing up to the top of the hill behind the ocean to be met with a moon that was literally sat at the top of the hill, I've really seen nothing like it.

Others include - Penguins in Oameru/ ferry crossing from wellington to picton/ pancake rocks/ Karema arches/ night out in Paihia with friends I'd met/ Rotorua night/ kayaking to russell island with linsay/ natural mud pools/ geothermal pools/ bouldering at castle hill / Mountain biking Rotorua (not all about the biking but exploring the bush land). I went back to the hostel after the ride which I did in torrential rain, and I think I gave folk from the hostel a fright. Not sure they have ever seen anyone with mud from head to toe/ hitch hiking/ exploring caves/ picking and cooking mussels

the list has grown lots, and with each thing I remember, there are 10 other things that I did. It could become endless....... it has been nice to reflect on what i've done after a very active three months in Aotearoa, the land of the long white land.