Hello everyone! Im writing this now in Bali with only two more days left! Time is going far too fast....Anyways before i start going on about Bali, ill fill you in on the rest of New Zealand...

New Zealand was awesome basically! From Wanaka (the last place i wrote my blog) we went to Queenstown which is pretty much the party town of the South Island. I stayed two days there and did a 109m canyon swing! You basically get harnessed in and then fall straight down into this canyon at 150kpm and then swing up the otherside! Was incredible! I bought the dvd of me doing it so you can all have a laugh at how much im s***ting myself! From Queenstown I went back up to Christchurch for one night and sadly had to leave the 4 lovely girls id met! Was a really sad day - even though id only known them for like a week but we had go to know each other so quickly it was gutting to leave them. On my bus up to Christchurch i met a 2 girls from exmouth and ended up staying in a hostel with them for a night which was pretty cool!

The following morning we drove to a place called Kaikoura where i swam with 500 dolphins in the sea! Was the most amazing yet quite sketchy experience! You had to entertain them as opposed to the other way round so we were told to swim with in circles and to sing to them! I found singing Barry White worked best?! hahaha..the dolphins loved it! A few days after that i did a skydive in Taupo! You had the option of doing either a 12,000 or 15,000 so i thought may aswell do the highest! It was such a weird feeling because you lose all sense of perception when you're up that high and it apparently takes your brain about 20 seconds to realise that you're falling out of the sky! I was so scared in the plane but loved every second of it! Cant really describe it, its just something you've got to do!

The following day we went to Rotorua which is probably the smelliest place i have ever been to! In Rotorua there are loads of hot springs and spas so the smell has something to do with the amount of sulphur in the air and that, that part of the country is closer to the earths core than the rest?!...either way it stank of rotten egg and farts - not nice! I had a nice chilled out day though and macked out in one of the hot pools! ahhh...what a life it is being a backpacker, ay? good times!

The last place i went to in New Zealand was Auckland where i spent 2 nights and managed to meet two really nice girls in my room who were on the same flight as me to Sydney the next day! We had a pretty surreal experience in Auckland as we were sharing a room with two female strippers who were working in the bar down the road. They said they worked at this bar called "Mermaids" but it wasnt till they started practicing their "tricks" on the poles of the bunkbeds that we realised it was THAT kind of bar! They said they could get us in free so me and about 10 friends who i had met on the kiwi experience bus decided to go down for a laugh. Plus one of my friends was leaving the next day so we wanted to give her a good send off! (PLus the guys that we had met obviously werent complaining!) We got there and most of the people i had met were my age and we were completely horrified at what we saw! We thought it would be funny and at least a bit interesting seeing all the interesting tricks they did but instead we couldnt believe how many dirty old men there were in there and also professional looking men too! Oh well..another new experience i guess and it was pretty funny to be fair! Anyways, we moved on swiftly to a local backpacker bar where we felt a bit more at home...

I flew to Sydney with my friends Megan and Nancy (who funnily enough are going to Exeter Uni in the Summer) and then got a connecting flight to Bali. I was pretty shell shocked when i got here because id been in two really western countries for the past 2 months so landing in Asia came as a bit of a shock. Also it didnt help that when i arrived my taxi driver dropped me off at the wrong hotel so i had to search for it at 2 in the morning! Not good! I soent the first day exploring the area and then met two girls (Amy and Amy) from Birmingham at my hotel. They are a bit older than me (27) but i have spent my whole time with them in Bali - its been such a blast! The first night i met them, we went on a night out to Kuta which is the main touristy area and got very very messy! Put it this way, it was free drinks at the bar from 10 til 12! oh dear! Worst bit was i had to get up at 7am the next day to do a trip around Bali! I was so ill, i had to ask my driver for the trip to pull over so i could be sick on the side of the road. I think he thought i had the notorious "bali belly!" Anyways we went to Kintamani Volcano, traditional markets and a Monkey Forest. One little b***** crawled up my leg to grab a banana off me - i actually shat myself! I also got to see a traditional balinese dance which was really interesting with all the bright colours and weird clangy music.

Since ive been here ive just been chilling out and have also had a cheeky go at Surfing! Both me and the two Amys have managed to find a really nice Balinese man who rents surfboards on the beach to teach us for 2 pounds an hour! Cannot argue with that! Im so crap at it but im fully addicted..its so much fun! We did another tour together today and went to a water palace and were also lucky enough to see a traditional hindu ceremony at this amazing temple. The temple is positioned in front of this cave that has over a million bats living in it! We got to see a cremation ceremony where they go to worship about a month after the cremation has been done. We found out that it costs Indonesian people so much to get a body cremated that they bury the body first and then usually 2-3 years later dig it BACK up and then cremate it! It only costs about 100 pounds to do it but thats how long it takes these people to save up!

Im pretty sad to be leaving Bali as it only feels like ive just got to understand the culture and get settled in here. For such a small island on the map, there is so much to see and do here and the places ive visited have been beautiful! One of my highlights was last night where we went to this amazing restaurant on the beach. You just pick fresh fish out of this counter and then they cook it for you on this bbq and then serve it up on this beautiful beach. All you can see are just loads and loads of tables all lit by candlelight and the fish was lush! Im not a massive fish fan but the flavour was lovely!

Anyways...im off to Thailand on Wednesday which is very exciting! Ive booked a tour for the first two weeks so i can see the north part and some of the islands and then hopefully i will get to meet some nice people who i can spend my last 2 weeks there with! Should be great! Amy and Amy have just spent 5 months in Thailand so im getting lots of advice from them! Right enough nattering. Jesus this is bloody long! Happy Reading! Love to everyone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps. home in 5 weeks...cant believe it!