This morning we were up at 7.30am ready for our 8.30am departure, after a couple of brief stops we headed to the opposite side of the coast for the surf resort of Raglan. We arrived at Karioi Lodge, set in the middle of the bush, at 2.30pm. After a brief intro and a pumpkin soup lunch we joined some the group in the one hour bush walk loop on the side of the mountain. We enjoyed the steep up and down walk in the rugged terraine, encouraging a fellow traveller,...

This morning was another early start ready for our 7.45am pick-up. After a few more pick-ups we were finally on our way, around 8.30am, first stop was Mount Eden, an extinct volcano on the outskirts of Auckland. Luckily the bus (well our driver, Dodgy - aka Dave) drove us up to the top to enjoy some lovely coast to coast city and harbour views. We then hit the motorway for an hour and a half, taking the chance for a kip, before stopping in the town of Thames f...

We had a bit of trouble getting up this morning, we were still so tired and had a lovely nights sleep. We kept turning round to see each other still in bed and thinking - "if she's not getting up, yet, I'm not!" We eventually managed to drag ourselves, blurry-eyed, out of bed just after 8.30am (so still quite early!), showered, changed and left the hostel (Fat Camels) about 9.45am and headed straight for the 'Stray' office. Here we confirmed our bus ...

Yesterday morning we were up bright and early awaiting our bread for our free breakfast to arrive into the kitchen! We got ready and headed out for our last minute sightseeing of Sydney. For 'old times sake' we walked the long way round along George Street, calling in the occasional souvenir shop for a gander. Our first port of call was the Sydney Skytower, where we enjoyed some beautiful and final views over the city before heading back down to ride on the 'OzT...

Sunday we woke up to the vision of the German girl in a nearby bunk hoping off every so often to rush outside and be sick in the bin outside the door. Sarah soon realised that she had been more drunk than she thought - no recollection of getting back to the room (Laura literately carried her), or of chucking Laura's stuff off her bed and Laura yelling at her, but somehow she managed to scramble up to the top bunk!?! Sarah also later found out, from Alex (one of...