24th - 30th Nov

Been hectic as ever in NZ, recovered from the night before in Taupo by going and spending time chilling in the nearby lake, with amazing views of 'Mount Doom' from Lord Of The Rings in the backdrop.We moved from Taupo day after a moderate breakfast (peanut butter and jam on toast AGAIN!), to make our way to River Valley.We stopped on the way for some sensational views of Mount Doom, before going for a 'refreshing' dip in Taranaki Falls, which was so 'refreshing' I thought it was a natural way for a sex change?!!If you get my drift, luckily I warmed up after and found out I wasn't now going to be known as Nicola.River Valley was….well….in the middle of a valley with a river next to it (pretty obvious I know), with lush surroundings,and again another cold lake.

No activities here, however….I think I failed to mention at the Maori night we had to select a 'chief', our chief was a guy from Denmark called Jacob, who was a legend, but was leaving us tomorrow and so created the 'Chief Games', which involved lots of ridiculous games that he'd created, which was good fun, of which I think I came a rubbish 3rd or something, so now we had a ginger Geordie as our chief!Mr Bowman!Rest of the night was was spent with us lot singing songs in a wooden lodge (cliché I know), before having a mass sleepover (the matress' slept 8 people), which obviously involved a mass spoon!!

Next Day it was off to Wellington, New Zealand's Capital or 'Welly' as its known to the locals.Wellington is defiantly not only THE capital, but the cultural capital of NZ, lots of cool record shops, café's, bars etc.Also saw a 'Welsh Bar' there!!First night in Welly, we thought we'd sample the night life.This involved getting very cheap booze (being skint backpackers and all), drinking in the hostel till 10pm (even know we're not supposed to, seriously some of these hostels are like the Tesco's of hostels, just milk you for everything possible!), then eventually going out!Was a wicked night involving dancing like Alan Partridge, and of course the usual everyone loosing everyone scenario, but we all managed to get back safe and sound, spooning becoming a bit of a theme with us lot, those beds are not made for 5 people to sleep in!!This was an awesome bonding session again, growing ridiculously close with the group and everyone in it are awesome, very lucky!!Managing to find a cheap breakfast, we then in the afternoon went to the Te Papa Museum, which is just a general capital museum.It was absolutely MASSIVE!I spent a lot of time wandering around, getting amazed by the amount of people that have had to seek asylum in NZ, also getting a bit sad at the amount of wars that means there have been!!CAfterwards chilled for a bit at a view point, pondering life and everything else, as you do on these trips, wondering if I'll be any differentwhen I get back, I guess you will tell me!

Got up early next morning to watch the rugby, don't know why I bothered, watched it with 2 NZers and 2 Italians I think??Went back to bed!! Went for a wander with a Andy P that afternoon, as had to get out of the stinkpit that was the 6 boys in one room, with no window or air conditioning, in hot weather!!Saw the parliament etc, architecture was quite pretty, afterwards walked along the dock….(I'm making this sound a lot more romantic than it was)…we then shared a hot dog……only joking we didn't share a hot dog honestly!Went on a Lord of the Rings tour that afternoon (see pics),which was just a good way to see a bit more of Welly before leaving tomorrow.

Next day we had our ferry ride from North Island to South Island, which was pretty unique, the islands where stunning, with lots of different colour greens being offset in the sea and the islands, and was generally a nice way to relax.I'd also been getting very tired recently, and so Welly was a bit of a nice break as this is very full on!Got to Nelson, which was pretty chilled place, and we cooked Chili, for a quite a few of us, after a beer tasting session, at this independent hostel, that reminded me very much of a british pub, especially the owner, who had a very 'well to do' NZ accent, couldn't place it!?

Next day I was losing the gang, as they were getting straight on the bus to carry on, where as I was staying an extra night to do a day's kayaking today.Said my goodbyes then headed out to the Abe Tasman National park.My kayaking partner was a girl called Meza from Hong Kong, and not to warrant stereotypes, but she did take photos of bloody everything, even the individually wrapped sandwiches I had for lunch!! Bless her, she was always more than happy taking photos for me though, so defiantly not a bad thing.We had good fun rowing through this amazing national park, with breathtaking scenery and the usual lazy seals, posing for our photos as normal, and spending time on beaches that you can only actually get to by boat, so that was pretty unique.All in all was a massively good day and I'm glad I did it.Tomorrow is the new bus and new friends (cheese - sick)….I'm fully aware how far behind I am on my blog, and will try up date it when I get to Oz!