Kia ora and welcome to my sales pitch for the New Zealand tourist board! Yes folks, this place is that good! If you’re partial to a story with a bit of tragedy and perhaps a happy-ending, then this one’s not for you! Nope, this one is good throughout!

So….where do I start!? Well this post is going to be quite descriptive and informative and, for lack of a better word, I will likely be overusing using the words ‘incredible’ and ‘amazing’ just to hit the message home, so be warned! No jokes, just praise for one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful countries on Earth!

Well, the journey began in the town of Queens, yes Queenstown is THE extreme sports capital of the world; so I thought what better way to drop myself in at the deep-end and stick to my promise of trying everything once, than to immediately book a skydive! One day in and it had been on my mind all day so I thought I’d get it over with and boy was it worth it! 12,000 feet, 45 seconds freefall and my life entrusted in the hands of a guy called Jason! I was doomed. But, sure enough we landed safely after one of the most thrilling experiences ever….I’m now looking to join the nearest club back home! Incredible.

Although I spent a week in QTown ‘collecting my thoughts’ I kind of felt like I’d just wasted away 20% of my whole time in the country; but looking back I did a lot! I met up with Neil, an old school friend who kindly let me crash on his couch to save money! We walked up to the highest peak in the region (Ben Lomond) and in a customary tradition of ours, ate Baby Bells at the top (but didn’t smoke cigars), went hurling down the luge course at the top of the gondola overlooking the town and did a two-day excursion with Neil’s flatmate Lindi along the spectacular Routeburn Trek; all between moments of jamming in Queenstown’s beautiful gardens overlooking Lake Wakatipu and nights out sampling the local brew. Guys, this place is amazing.

From there, I finally bit the bullet and rented a car! A ‘95 white Nissan Sunny was going to take me from QTown to Auckland in less than 4 weeks. And so the road trip began. It was me, Neil and the road and nothing was gonna get in our way (not even three possums – the poor things!). From QTown, the quite spectacular drive to Milford Sound began. This place is beauty of the highest calibre. The drive, through a downward sloping tunnel and opening up into the Milford valley is awe-inspiring. The only mistake we made was to stop too many times along the way there and by the time we reached Milford it was dusk! Trust me, if we could afford the luxury we would’ve stopped every 100 metres! Guys, this place is incredible.

From Milford, the drive south began. A brief stopover to swim in Lake Manapouri, the gateway to Doubtful Sound (Milford’s less touristy sister sound) and then onto the Southern Scenic Route towards the Catlins National Park. Incredible. Ever-changing scenery and cliff top roads combined to make the drive quite extraordinary. The roads here are a dream. We arose after a night of camping to Hector’s dolphins jumping in the nearby bay. Guys, this is amazing.

From there we headed to the hip and happening university town of Dunedin! Coffee shops, pubs, classy bars….this place is on the cutting-edge of style….or so we thought! The students had all gone home for summer holidays and the place was DEAD! Haha, oh well we still had a great time - a visit to the world’s steepest street (Guinness Book certified!) Baldwin Street. Yes people actually live on it! I couldn’t resist throwing the car into first and driving up it, before taking ‘the plunge’ and falling off the edge on the way down to the tune of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’. Great fun!

Next stop on the list, the quite delightful Otago Peninsula. This place has numerous hidden treasures; small beach coves, swooping sand dunes, sea lions, seals, albatross and yellow-eyed penguins! Neil and I spent the best part of 5 hours on the deserted sand dunes of ‘Sandfly Bay’ playing guitar and taking album cover shots on the pristine dunes. Guys, this place is incredible.

From there, a drive north to Christchurch and onto the Banks Peninsula! This place was much larger than the Otago Peninsula and its mountainous terrain and windy roads were a dream to drive but added hours onto the trip! Oh well, time was one thing we weren’t tight for! We visited hidden private beaches where the turquoise water colour was quite spectacular. Akaroa, a small French village of all things, was nestled in a small lagoon. We took pictures of the sea-shaped coastline and reminisced of Mr Cloke’s Geography lessons in years gone by, noting endless results of the magnificent power of the ocean and geographical features from arches, stacks and stumps….well at least we learned something! Guys, this place is incredible.

From here a drive inland to the highest peak in the country - Mount Cook! Before you even arrive at the peak, the drive in takes you alongside two of the most beautiful, picturesque water features the world surely has to offer: Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Glowing turquoise blue waters that shine under the sun, the lakes gain their colour from the rock-on-rock action of the glaciers that carved out the lake beds centuries ago. The lakes almost appear milky as their surfaces are inpenetrable by light. And in quite an extraordinary stroke of luck, as the rain lifted, a beautiful full blown rainbow appeared before us over the lake….another picture opportunity presented itself! Then to Mount Cook - snow covered peaks in the region, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to see the mountain itself from all the clouds. But sure enough they cleared and two well worthwhile treks to the bottom of both the Hooker and Tasman glaciers yielded more photo opps. Icebergs that had broken from the glacier bottoms and drifted down river were incredible to see and gushing glacial meltwater flowed nearby and gave rise to an opportunity to fill up our water bottles! The water here looks dirty - it’s not! It’s as pure as nature intended. An American couple emerged from the horizon and told us the Sherpas in Nepal drink this stuff and live to be 100+ from all the mineral goodness (which gives it its cloudy colour) - well that was good enough for us! But man was that water ever cold! Guys, this place is incredible. This may well be my favourite place in New Zealand, although that’s tough to say!

From Mount Cook we had almost completed a loop of the southern south island and so from there, it was back to Queenstown. A brief yet worthwhile stopover in Wanaka led to further Kodak moments….this place is like Queenstown but a fraction of the size. The lake is extraordinary and the water so calm. There are SO many lakes in New Zealand, every corner heralds another more beautiful than the last. From here I said goodbye to Neil and started a week trip with his flatmate Lindi who wanted a ride up north. We headed to the glaciers Fox and Franz Josef, camping out of town next to a picturesque lake. Here was the place for another adventure activity: ice climbing! You get to carry (and I quote Paul from an email he sent me) ‘big f*** off axes’! and smash the ice! A guy’s dream. We tackled 30 metre vertical wall faces and overhangs too! So much fun and, yes you guessed it, incredible.

It was north from here and a stopover at the Abel Tasman National Park for a spot of scenic tramping (that’s trekking to you and I!). Unfortunately a low pressure system came our way at this point and that threw most of our plans out the window, but nevertheless we managed a few hours of the route and saw some beautiful coastline, beaches and waterfalls.

I had a couple of days left until my ferry departed to the north island and decided a drive to Kaikoura on the opposite coast was in order. This is THE place for dolphin and whale watching. Well considering my shortness of funds, I opted out of the tours and took a 3 hour walk along the coast to a seal colony and harassed them with my camera for a while. I’d heard the ferry to the north might well give me a decent dose of oceanic lifeforms, so I held out for that. On my walk I sampled some mouth-watering local crayfish which was gorgeous.

That night I left Lindi in Kaikoura and drove to Picton where the ferry departs. From this point on, I was all by myself….but had the company of my mates Mick and Keef blaring out of the speakers. A small port town on the north coast, Picton doesn’t have much, but you can drive (I was lazy!) up to a few lookouts spotted around and watch as the ferries come in. Actually the landscape here is particularly beautiful and there are moutains covered with lush green vegitation rising from the water, creating beautiful waterways that lead to the open sea. I ate some food at ‘Shelley Beach’ and had a beer with a few German travelers, before resting my head.

The next day I boarded my ferry and about ten minutes into the journey I spotted 3 jokers drawing fake moustaches on each other….bearing in mind two of them were girls. Sure enough, they were Canadian. Well I spent the ferry journey with them and missed all the dolphins, but what can ya do! When I arrived in Wellington I decided to splash out on a hostel for the night. It had been a while and was beginning to feel estranged from society….I wondered if I would be accepted back into the backpacker circle? No. The only two hostels in town with parking were either full or had no parking left. Oh well, I decided to start my journey to the centre there and then. It was a good job I did. A few hours in I stopped for directions to a campsite nearby. I ended up with my own comfy double-bed, hot food, endless wine and a bloody good night’s entertainment for free! I was invited to stay at a guy and his wife’s place who lived in the old converted town bank. After politely declining I thought what the hey, this is what travelling’s about! The place was huge and was kitted out beautifully - I couldn’t believe my luck! We had dinner and they told me their stories of how they traveled overland from London to South Africa in the ’80s. They were off to Vietnam soon so I gave them some tips. Thoroughly didn’t expect that kind of treatment and I now hold Kiwis in very high regard! Oh and don’t forget my first hot shower in the morning for a loooong time (okay, first SHOWER in a long time!). Incredible.

My next stop was the Tongariro National Park; site of reputedly the ‘best one day walk in New Zealand’: the Tongariro Crossing. This walk takes in beautiful landscapes shaped by volcanic activity. Well, it wasn’t MY best walk in New Zealand as the rain failed to give in all day, yet a worthwhile tramp nonetheless. I did the trek with a couple of Danish guys I met and overused the little Danish I knew - ‘Skål’, the equivalent of ‘cheers’! For those of you reading who are unsure of where Danish people come from, that’s Denmark, NOT Holland, as one American girl we met seemed to think, much to our amusement.

After the trek I followed the road and ended up in Taupo - skydiving capital of the world! As much as I would’ve liked, I didn’t jump again, but was pretty satisfied with my two days here. Taupo is the centre of geothermal activity and this gives rise to hot springs all over the place. I bathed in some and boy are they hot! They can get up to 80 degrees C upstream! Two hot water washes in as many days, amazing. The day I left was the day of the N.Z. ‘Iron Man’ competition. Athletes compete in three gruelling events and basically kill themselves….a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike ride followed by a 42km run! Unbelievable. I watched some competitors from the road before the rains moved in. Amazing.

I then drove north to the next major town of Rotorua and I couldn’t resist having another hot bath in some springs along the way! There I spent the night in a hostel and prepared for my journey to the city of sails the next day, where I was set to meet up with Pesky for a few nights! The journey to Auckland took me along the coast of the Bay of Plenty. Unfortunately bad weather moved on in so I decided to cut this route short and head straight to the city. It was great to see Pesky and his friends were very welcoming….even with my beard. No, I didn’t shave the whole time in N.Z., much to Pesky’s shock. I did something about that before a night out on the town and I felt like I had lost a friend.

Just a little more to go guys….well done if you’ve stuck around!

We chilled in Auckland for a couple nights before Jamie left on the bus….my last day was spent walking aimlessly around the city in the rain in search of the Harbour Bridge Bungy Jump before finally arriving at 4:30 to it being closed, despite assurances from a certain guide book that they were open until 6 ‘rain or shine’. Oh well….I took a ride to the top of the highest building in the southern hemisphere and walked over glass flooring instead. Amazing.

Ahhhhhhh *catches breath*….so that’s that! What a journey and what a post….it’s taken me days to write it in which time Jamie has plagiarised my opening line, ha! But that just about sums up my story of New Zealand, all 6538 kms / 4062 miles of it! Every day a new adventure. We had no plans and made the whole trip up day-to-day which worked great! I could write all day about these places and there is so much more….places we stopped along the way, stories, people we met….but honestly I’ve written one dissertation in my life and for the time being at least, have no craving for writing another. But I hope this inspires whoever reads it to get to N.Z. and find out these things for themselves, because it’s well worth it. Oh yes and the car! Well….she held up pretty well! Only one flat tire, one dislodged door and a rattling muffler/exhaust - not too bad after all that driving I guess! Considering most were the result of the need to capture that perfect picture/people’s lazyness/my stupidity….just don’t tell the rental company! It was great having my own wheels and it allowed me to dodge the herds of tourists - can’t stand ‘em (I’m a traveler - there’s a difference!)!

It’s worth mentioning the sky in this part of the world: again, incredible. From the bright stars in the night sky to the vivid blue of the daytime, it was worthy of many pictures. The ever-changing landscape - my eyes drifting from the road at every opportunity! Great walks, stunning drives….for those who think it’s too good to be true, well, it is! Not a bad word to say! But if you REALLY need some fuel to fire your justification for not making New Zealand your next holiday destination then here it is….I went through the whole of Asia without so much as a nip from the mozzies there, while the others truly went through hell with them! Well, they got me back here that’s for sure! The sandflies in parts of the south are relentless! Not a chance I’d let it come in the way of doing anything though! It’s a minor inconvenience.

So the beard has gone, the bags are packed and the journey continues to yet more ex-British colonial lands….yes, to Fiji, land of skirted men and cannibals called Friday. So that takes us up to speed. I’ve been here in Fiji for the past 5 days and the good times continue!

So there you have it, wild New Zealand has been tamed! There’s only one thing left to say: Go to New Zealand….it’s ’sweet as bro’.

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