It was an early start to being my Kiwi Experience trip (7am pick-up) up to Paihia at the Bay of Islands. The bay of Islands are a group of 144 undeveloped islands on New Zealand’s north shore. They are also the place of the first European settlers where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the British and local Maori tribes. After arriving, Alex, Michelle (who I met on the bus) and myself went on a cruise around some of the islands and visited the ...

Question: When does a 3 hour flight delay not bother you in the slightest? Answer: When you know that when you finally board you will be turning left and joining the elite in first class. That’s right, it had taken 4 months but a charming smile and inquisitive nature had finally paid off at check-in. So after checking my bag in and exchanging my flip flops for my converse, apparently things are for the peasants, I collected my first class ticket to Auckland ...

Like saying goodbye to the family at Manchester Airport and Kieran and Jordan in a Bangkok apartment, leaving Brian and Laura was an emotional event. For some reason the latter was even harder than the previous. Staying at the flat was so comfortable and I realised what a good and close friend I have in Brian. This and with them being the last link I’ll have with back home before I return home lead to a lump in my throat that remained long into my bus ride to S...

I arrived in Melbourne after an uncomfortable 8 hour bus ride at 8am so you can imagine my frustration when I was told check-in wasn’t till 2pm! So I left my bags in the luggage room and had a walk round the city to waste some hours away. After calling home I met Brian outside the museum, emotional is not the word! Seeing someone that close to you (who I’ve known for over 10 years as it turns out), after being away from home for so long was great. After seein...

I decided to alter my plan and leave Australia a month early. This was for a number of reasons; I was running out of things to do, my wallet was starting to disintegrate due to it being taken out of my back pocket so much and I was eager to get to New Zealand. Because of this change I headed through Sydney to Canberra and Melbourne and would return there for Christmas and New Year. Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was created in 1911 after it was decided to b...