Hello there my intrepid followers. Apologies for taking so long to get round to writing my blog but been a busy little bee here in New Zealand.

So when I last left you I had arrived in Cairns and was not that fussed on my hostel. Well I decided to move hostels and it was the best move I ever made. I moved into Asylum hostel and met some great people who made my last stay in Australia very enjoyable, so a massive shout out to the Asylum crew.

Whilst in Cairns I took a day trip out to the Atherton Tablelands and it was stunning. Got to see the waterfall they filmed the herbal essence adverts and whilst taking a dip in the water a platypus popped up and swam with me. We took a trip into the rainforest and did some platypus spotting and managed to see 2 of the little critter's. Did you know that platypus's are venomous?? Neither did I.

I also took a trip back to Tully were I spent alot of time extremely drunk and banana picking on my last trip to Oz. Sadly the town had been devastated my a hurricane not to long ago and was not at it's best. But I caught up with my Aunty Daph whom I stayed with on my last visit, so that was nice and brought back some funny memories of my previous stay there with Kev.

The rest of my time in Cairns was spent chilling out and drinking goon every night with the Asylum gang and squeezed in a mad Monday pub crawl with everyone.

Australia was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me, but I still love the place. It is the only country I always feel safe in, has the most stunning sunset's, love the fact they have electric BBQ's everywhere to use and they all work!! Pretty much everything is dangerous and they just brush it of like it's nothing!! One day I hope to return again and this time I'm going to make sure I don't constantly get refused service every time I go out!!

Which brings me to New Zealand. I have to say this place has stolen my heart, love it here and have met so many friends and made so many great memories I'm gonna be sad when it end's.

I flew into Auckland and didn't really sleep on the flight and got in at 6am and was kinda gutted when I was told by the hostel I couldn't check in before 2pm!! I was forced to wander the streets of Auckland for hours on end!! Thankfully though I met up with Tina later that morning who is bizarrely my newsagent from home!! So we went out and had a few drinks and a bite to eat. The next day we were to begin our Kiwi Experience, Tina was heading up to the bay of islands and I was heading south and the plan was to meet up later down the road.

I was a bit apprehensive of the kiwi experience after not really enjoying the Oz experience. But with the world cup on the buses have been packed and the atmosphere here has been amazing. So I have thoroughly enjoyed the kiwi bus and met loads of great people.

The first day we headed to Mercury Bay. Along the way we stopped at Hot Springs beach, here you dig a hole in the sand and get down to the water and it is roasting hot and you can sit in it like a hot pool. I didn't go in because it was a bit rainy at the time. We then went on to Cathedral cove and we all got absolutely soaked on the walk. But it was well worth it, stunning beach and saw a rainbow people!!

That night we got into Mercury Bay and all headed out to the local bar to watch NZ vs Japan. It was here I met Dan Lee who has become a member of the family we have going over here. We all got pretty drunk and I had a local guy convinced that I was part of a football firm back home and kept trying to get me to fight some out of towner's all the time!! Obviously I didn't. That night I woke up desperate for the loo and couldn't get out the room, one of the guys had to get up and help me!!

I decided to stay an extra night there with Dan since I was waiting for Tina to catch up and I had more time than everyone else here. We checked out Mercury Bay and it was quite busy due to a scallop festival in town, but didn't go in due to it been ticketed. That night the Kiwi bus rocked up and snuck in a bottle of wine to the hostel and went out to watch Ireland beat Australia, it was great atmosphere in the pub.

I jumped on the bus the next day and headed to a place called Waitomo. f*** all in Waitomo except the glow worm caves. I booked on to do the black water rafting which basically is like caving but you get a rubber ring to float down the river when you can and get to jump off waterfalls in the dark. When you turn off your torch as well the cave ceiling becomes illuminated by 1000's of glow worm's, it was very cool. When we got back from the rafting we cleared out the cafe off all it's pie's and sandwiches because they said would have just chucked em!! It was on this trip that I met the boys Will, Ed and George, who are also part of the family. They happened to be waiting for a friend of their's called John who also happened to be on the bus with Tina.

Next day we all jumped on the bus, but due to an unfortunate slip by Dan he managed to injure himself quite badly and I had to give him 3 valium to knock him out!!

Got to a place called Rotorua, which stink's of sulphur due to all the natural hot springs. This is also the perfect cover for any inappropiate farting that you do!! I decided to stay here to wait for Tina since that was the plan the boys had.

Went to a Moari concert that night with everyone off the bus. They have recreated a village there and you get to have a wander round and see how the Moari used to live. Also there is a an all you can eat buffet of food that they have cooked in the ground, it was deadly and the seafood chowder was particularly good. We knocked back a fair bit of wine and on the bus on the way back ended up having a bit of a sing song!!

The next day we had a bit of a party in the dorm room and was playing drinking games before going out. Will managed to drink a litre of vodka and I had 3 litres of red wine!! This would explain why we both got chucked out the bar and I had to be carried to bed after falling asleep in the hallway!!!

Then Tina arrived with John and she had made friends with the 3 slut's Lucy, Skye and Hannah and that was the start of our little family. We all had a bit of party in the room and had some drinking games before heading out and gettting plastered.

Spent most of the time in Rotorua just chilling out and going for walks. On our last night there though we did go out to the lava bar again and the girls went to the Moari concert that night. When we went back to the hostel the kitchen was closed so the girls decided to have a picnic on the stairs!! After the picnic a rather drunk Skye managed to push Hannah down the stairs, it was funny I have to admit and thankfully there was no serious injury.

Our next stop was a placed called Taupo. We stayed in quite a nice little hostel and were here for 4 nights. It was here that we discovered burger fuel and myself, Tina and Hannah did a sky dive from 15000 feet. I had done one before in Australia back in 1999 and that is on a video tape, so felt a need to get a more up to date version. I have to admit I absolutely loved it and is such a fantastic experience. However, I probably shouldn't have stayed up till 5am drinking vodka with Will and Ed for Will's leaving so the night before. I got picked up at 9:30am and the smell of stale ale was noted on the plane on the way up!! Glad I did it, by far my favourite experience so far.

After the sky dive though I got a very interesting call from Will who had left for Auckland that morning, he had left hs passport in his drunken state when leaving the hostel. Due to the fact he didn't have enough ID he couldn't rent a car, so I did and me and the girls went on a bit of a road trip to Auckland and back. I must admit I even impressed myself by not getting lost once and finding my way there. Thankfully we got the passport to him and he got his flight home, good work team.

Next day we went to watch Skye do her bungy and she did great, although she did let out a bit of blood curdling scream!! We also visited the natural hot spring, the Huka falls and the prawn farm were we had a go at the driving range were you can win $1500 for getting a hole in one. I sucked and so did Lucy, Tina and Skye, but Hannah did really well and only just missed a few times.

After Taupo we headed to River Valley, which is in the middle of nowhere, but is stunning. Here you stay in what is called the orgy room, which is one massive bed that we all slept on. Here we had a chill out in the hot tub over looking the valley and a bit of a sauna. Although the sauna wasn't hot enough for my liking. The next day I was talked into trying yoga for the first time and I was pretty darn good at it if I say so myself, there is a bit of stretch in the old bone's yet!! I did however fall asleep snoring away during the meditation bit at the end, oops!! Later on we went for a hike up the valley. You have to cross the river on a pulley system which was quite cool, however Skye did let out a little scream when I jumped on with her.

Then we headed to my favourite city so far Wellington. I had the best time here as well and will always remember it. The fan zone there was were we spent most of our time. We had a wander round Te Papa which is a huge free museum there, very cool. And just checked out the different parts of the city. We wanted to stay for longer and celebrate Tina's 24th birthday here, but due to the world cup we couldn't get any accomodation and they wanted a kings ransom for anywhere that was available. So I managed to blag an apartment in Island Bay which over looked the valley, it was lovely. We booked it for 5 people, but snuck the lads in so it ended up being 9 of us there. So on the Saturday for Tina's birthday the girls made her a tyvex suit with 24 dares on it, the girls did a greatjob. That day they had a naval day or something so we saw a parade and then went for a bit of a wander before checking into the apartment. The weather was great so we had a BBQ and a few beers before heading out in a bit of drunken state to Wellington to watch the England vs Scotland game and to celebrate Tina's 24th. To be fair she did manage to do all 24 dare's but she was pretty drunk at the end and had to be carried out the taxi and up this huge hill to the apartment. Good day and night had by all I would say.

The next day we did sod all but laze round the apartment and then went out for a few beers since the little family was splitting up.

We then headed back into Wellington for a few days, but the weather took a trun for the worse and it bucketed it down for the rest of the time we were there. We got soaked when we walked up Mount Victoria!!

I was sad to leave Wellington, I mean the city has free wi-fi!!

We then left the North Island and started our south island adventure. We stopped in Nelson for 2 nights and just chilled out here basically. We went up to the centre of New Zealand and then to see a graffitti exhibition called 'oi you' was very cool. Plus the debate raged on over who was taller, Skye or Lucy, personally I still think Skye is taller!! Oh it was here that we made 2 amazing meals, I did chilli con carne one night and Skye did bangers and mash the next, which was amazing.

Next we stopped at a place called Kaiteriteri, whcih is in th Abel Tasman national park. To be honest with you I thought it was pretty s***.

We then headed to a place called Westport for the night and we all watched Ireland Get beat by the welsh and sadly the French f***ing won, I still hate the f***ing French with a passion. To make it worse there were 2 very drunk French girls who wouldn't shut the f*** up. I was a bit drunk that night because when the girls came back we cracked open a packet of tim tam's I ate my naked in front of them!! Oops.

Next day I felt a bit delicate and we headed to see a seal colony and the pancake rocks. We then headed to the legendary Poo bar (forgot how you spell it!!). Here you have to wear fancy dress and our theme was tight and bright or black and white. I decided to go dressed as a French Maid and think it is scandalous that I never won the prize for the best outfit!!

After that we headed to Franz Josef and the bad weather began. We did out glacier hike in the pissing rain which kinda took the shine off it and couldn't really take many pics. It was a good experience though. I did s*** my pants though when after lunch I stood up with my cramp on's on my feet and didn't dig my heels in properly and fell over and then started sliding backwards down the glacier!!! Thankfully I got snagged and was okay, but apparently my face was a picture. Plus I got soaked after water ran down my legs, so spent the rest of the trip feeling like I'd pissed my pants!!

We then headed to a little ski town called Wanaka, very cool looking place. That night we went to the Wanaka cinema which is very cool and wish they had one like that at home. All the seating is old chairs and a morris minor!! Plus they still do an intermission and you can have cookies fresh from the oven or home made ice cream.

Next day we went to puzzle land which was quite good, nearly got lost in the maze. Then a nice little town called Arrowton, I had the best pie ever from the bakery there.

Which brings me to my current location Queenstown. This is a crazy town and full of bars or cafe's. It is also the advnture capital of the world. I did the Nevis bungy the other day which is 134 metre's high, that is taller than the Eiffell Tower!! I wasn't nervous till I got to the edge and I bricked it then!! I do remember letting out a manly scream when I went. Plus I couldn't get the release to work so came in upside down instead of in the seated position. So cool though and would love to do it again.

Also had a ferdburger the other day, so nice.

Sorry for leaving the blog so long peep's and hope you enjoy it. My time is nearly up and I'll b home soon.

Sweet as,

Mup