NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 30 Jul 2008 | Views [137]
Wednesday 30th July I got up at 08.00 and made breakfast with the last of my groceries, happily putting the rest of the food that I wasn't able to use up on to the free-food shelf in the hostel. I imagined that this aspect of my trip – carrying ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 29 Jul 2008 | Views [129]
Thursday 29th July I checked out of the 'Dusky Lodge' hostel in Kaikoura and did a bit of shopping before I got on a fairly rundown minibus at 10.30. The weather took a turn for the worse as we made our way south along the coast, but there was no ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Monday, 28 Jul 2008 | Views [146]
Monday 28th July After a good nights sleep I got up feeling a lot more energised than I did the day before, and my mood was made all the better by the fact that the sun was out and the rain had disappeared. This was also the news I was waiting for ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 27 Jul 2008 | Views [130]
Sunday 27th July I must have had about two hours slight sleep before the alarm went off and I had to be up. I left the hostel just before eight, and the shocking weather of the night before had carried on to the morning. It was miserable, really ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 26 Jul 2008 | Views [137]
Saturday 26th July I got up to a beautifully sunny and clear day. Although I was happy to have a good day, I was also slightly disappointed that it had come a day late and I imagined it would have been a perfect day for getting a sight of Mount ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Friday, 25 Jul 2008 | Views [139]
Friday 25th July I left the hostel by 08.00, just as the sun was coming up. I started on the walk through Mount Cook village, and there were very few people about, just a couple of people who worked in the area. It was another overcast day, and ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 24 Jul 2008 | Views [154]
Thursday 24th July I woke up to find that the heavy rain of the night before had turned to snow, with the result that there was a blanket of snow covering the ground outside the hostel. I was due to get a bus to Mount Cook later in the morning, ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 23 Jul 2008 | Views [128]
Wednesday 23rd July A couple of us were picked up by the Magic Bus at 08.00 on another grey and cold morning. Along the way out of Dunedin on the road to Lake Tekapo, we stopped off at Baldwin Street, officially 'The Steepest Street in the World'.... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 22 Jul 2008 | Views [130]
Tuesday 22nd July I had a bit of spare time on my hands given that the hospital take care of my arm ahead of schedule the previous day. I spent the whole of the morning in an internet cafe uploading new entries for my online journal, and it felt ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Monday, 21 Jul 2008 | Views [125]
Monday 21st July After breakfast, I called the hospital as soon as I left the hostel to make an appointment to see someone about taking the cast off my arm. It had been four weeks since I had got it put on in Auckland, and I was hoping that it wouldn't ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 20 Jul 2008 | Views [123]
Sunday 20th July I had another early start and left the hostel at 07.45 and got back on the Magic Bus again, three weeks after I had been on it last on the journey between Lake Taupo and Wellington. After stopping off at the various hostels around ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 19 Jul 2008 | Views [149]
Saturday 19th July I was up at 06.00 for an early start to a long day trip to Milford Sound. The trip was included in the price of my Magic Bus ticket, and was worth about NZD130 if I had paid for it separately. It was going to be a long day, ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Friday, 18 Jul 2008 | Views [129]
Friday 18th July I got up to another grey day in Wanaka, but it wasn't too bad, a good day for the drive to Queenstown with Mark. I had decided to get a lift from him as it would be better to have the company and it didn't make sense to leave later ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 17 Jul 2008 | Views [144]
Thursday 17th July Given that I was planning on spending only a full day in Wanaka, I was keen to make use of that day – my birthday – to go on a hike of a local mountain, Mount Roy, which I had heard was a round journey of between seven and ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 16 Jul 2008 | Views [154]
Wednesday 16th July Danika and I got our stuff together and left Franz Josef with Mark on our tail, as we were all making a move towards the town of Wanaka, situated about three hours drive south of Franz Josef. We had heard from various people ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 15 Jul 2008 | Views [157]
Tuesday 15th July I was up at 07.00, got myself together and prepared my food for the lunch that day (you have to bring your own food on the glacier hikes) and headed over to the Franz Josef Glacier Guides office at 09.00 to get kitted out with ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Monday, 14 Jul 2008 | Views [132]
Monday 14th July Although we had to check out of the hostel by 10.00, I got myself and my gear together at a leisurely pace, had some breakfast and said our goodbyes to the group of people that we had been hanging out with in Punakaiki. It was ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 13 Jul 2008 | Views [133]
Sunday 13th July It was another very quiet day for me, as I carried on from where I left off the day before: more journal writing, relaxing and eating. I didn't leave the hostel until 16.30 when I went down to the beach with Danika and Deborah (a ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 12 Jul 2008 | Views [117]
Saturday 12th July The storm that had started before I had gone to bed continued through the night, the wind strong enough to blow open the balcony door at some ungodly hour of the morning. I had woken to find Danika panicking, not sure what ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Friday, 11 Jul 2008 | Views [146]
Friday 11th July I got up to find a grey day in progress and the cold shower that I took didn't do much to raise the temperture for me. Being a super eco-friendly kind of place, 'Rongo' worked off as little electricity as possible, and the water ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 10 Jul 2008 | Views [174]
Thursday 10th July We were up and out of the hostel pretty early, having got out of bed well before the sun had risen. We organised our food for the trek and drove about fifteen kilometres north of Karamea to the start of the Heaphy Track. We ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 9 Jul 2008 | Views [157] | Comments [1]
Wednesday 9th July We left the 'Yellow House' hostel before 10.00 and took the State Highway 6 westwards towards the town of Westport. The snow continued to lie on the ground and we passed by some whitened fields and mountains in the distance.... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 8 Jul 2008 | Views [140]
Tuesday 8th July I was up at 06.00, woke myself properly with a shower and got changed before heading down into the cold of the kitchen to make some breakfast and prepare my lunch and a few snacks for the days trek. Most of the hostels we had stayed ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Monday, 7 Jul 2008 | Views [124]
Monday 7th July I was up at 08.00 and had breakfast – including some of the sweet fresh bread that sat on the kitchen counter every morning – before I packed the rest of my things. We left 'The Bug' at 09.30, went to the supermarket to stock up ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 6 Jul 2008 | Views [146]
Sunday 6th July I had a good, comfortable nights sleep and got up feeling well. It was another beautiful day in Nelson, and the claim that it is one of the sunnier towns in New Zealand rang true. After breakfast, I sorted out my stuff from the trek ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 5 Jul 2008 | Views [158]
Saturday 5th July I woke up in the cold of the Anchorage dorm hut to find a much better, sunnier morning than the day that had been left behind when darkness fell the previous evening. It had been a better nights sleep than I had expected and the ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Friday, 4 Jul 2008 | Views [148]
Friday 4th June We got up to much better weather than that of the night before; the sun was out and the rain had disappeared. The other guys in the hut all left before we were ready, but we made it out by 09.30 and headed off on what we had expected ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 3 Jul 2008 | Views [149]
Thursday 3rd July I set the alarm for 06.30 and got up almost as soon as it went off as I knew I had a lot to do, and we were on a tight schedule that morning. I made breakfast and some sandwiches for lunch that afternoon, packed my bag and we eventually ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 2 Jul 2008 | Views [128]
Wednesday 2nd July We checked out of the hostel, got back in the car and returned to Picton to pick Thomas up from the ferry. Danika and I had met him in Bamber House hostel in Auckland and he had taken the bus from there to Wellington, and got ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 1 Jul 2008 | Views [151]
Tuesday 1st July We got up to a beautiful day, with the sun shining outside and a nice surprise of freshly baked bread sitting on the kitchen counter. It was just another little perk that guests in 'The Bug' are treated to each day, and a nice ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Monday, 30 Jun 2008 | Views [137]
Monday 30th June I had managed to get some sleep despite the fact that the room we were staying in was situated directly above the pub that was attached to the Nomads hostel, and the music was loud enough for me to hear it through my earphones. ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 29 Jun 2008 | Views [139]
Sunday 29th June After a decent nights sleep, I was in pretty good form ahead of our start towards Wellington. The driver picked us up about half an hour late from the hostel and we headed off around Lake Taupo, taking in the sights of this volcanic ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 28 Jun 2008 | Views [139]
Saturday 28th June I got up, gathered the last of my stuff together and had breakfast before the Magic Bus picked me and few others up from the hostel at 09.30 (slightly on the late side). We did a whistlestop tour of Rotorua including an old church ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Friday, 27 Jun 2008 | Views [155]
Friday 27th June I didn't have anything planned for the day and so had a good lie-in, something that has become a rarity over the course of this trip. Really, I have become such a morning person, and it's been due to the fact that I have to be up ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 26 Jun 2008 | Views [123]
Thursday 26th June I got up and saw that it was another grey, wet day hanging over Rotorua, just like it had done since I had arrived in New Zealand. Even though I had only left Auckland the day before, I still needed to get a few chores done, ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 25 Jun 2008 | Views [251]
Wednesday 25th June My alarm went off at 06.30 and I hopped out of bed, got some breakfast and gathered my food together, got a shower and packed my bags before heading out to wait for the bus across the road from the hostel. The Magic Bus picked ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008 | Views [138]
Tuesday 24th June There was no football on for another few days so I had a great lie-in, not getting up until 10.30. The room felt like a furnace as all of the heaters had been kicked into action, but it felt good as it was starting to get very ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Monday, 23 Jun 2008 | Views [140]
Monday 23rd June The last of the quarter-final matches – Italy versus Spain – got me out of bed at another early hour, and it was starting to become a bit of a chore to be getting up at 06.30 when I didn't really have to. But, I wanted to watch ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Sunday, 22 Jun 2008 | Views [145]
Sunday 22nd June One of the tastiest games of Euro 2008 was on this morning: Holland versus Russia. Both teams were young, gifted and had played some of the best football of the tournament. It was a decent game and the Russians caused an upset by ... Read more >
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 21 Jun 2008 | Views [137]
Saturday 21st June I was out of bed and in front of the TV in the hostel living room by 07.00 to watch the second quarter-final of Euro 2008: Croatia versus Turkey. It was a fairly dull game until the last couple of minutes of extra-time when it ... Read more >
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