Labour Weekend...

So the last weekend was labour weekend out here, which was SWEET as it meant a long weekend, with school finishing at lunchtime on friday and no school on monday :)
So the fun started on friday night... When we had a little party at our flat instead of going out into town... trying to save money !! We had a few friends round and ended up watching films from about midnight ! Interesting end to the evening!
Then on Saturday we woke up bright and early (10am) and headed out to Waihi... Its a beautiful little town on the East Coast of New Zealand, where our friend, Hannah has a bach (holiday home).. We spent the day there lazing about on the beach and on the deck at her house... OMG... When i was quite innocently walking along the beach, i saw something in the distance, i ran (well kind of waddled) over and saw a sharks head ..... an actual SHARKS HEAD !! It wasnt very big, but that still means that there is something out there that is bigger that managed to remove the head from the body !! It was one of the scarie things ever, and if people think that i will be gettin in the sea at any point this summer, then there is goin to have to be money involved in it !!!haha... What a joke !! a sharks head :O
I even got my first New Zealand sunburn with factor 20 suncream on !!!! Shock horror.. After this incident, when i was complainin to anyone who would listen, i was told that there was a handy little hole in the o-zone layer right above New Zealand which is why i burned... As if havin red hair, freckles and fair skin wasnt just enough... This furthers my belief that there is NO GOD.. otherwise i would be gettin a break somewhere along the line... hahah.... Sorry mum :S
Anyway.. So saturday night we were all tired after our exposure to the sun... So we watched Disney films all night, much to Michaels dismay... Me and Laura thought it was the best thing :)
Sunday we went to Mout Maunganui... Its another beach area which is named after a little mountain that is right on the beach... Its soooo nice, the rich peoples playground by the looks of the houses out there... WOW...some of them were amazing...
Monday, we decided we had spent wayyyyy too much money over the weekend, and the weather wasnt great, so we stayed in the flat and just chillaxed... Much needed after the long weekend and the kids gettin back that night...

Love love love xxxxxx

What a Night...

Ok so last night was our friend, Amy's, last night in NZ... She is goin to live in South Africa with her boyfriend...
So we all went to her house for a huge house party, after that we headed to town...
Its a good night, everyone is havina good time, then Laura is pushed over by some loser guy who we dont know and she really hurts her knee... So i said, being the amazing friend that i am, that i would go home with her..
So one of our sober friends drove me and her back home... It was only then that we realised we didnt have our keys, they were in the flat, and the doors were locked... So me being th only non-crip, decided that i would scale the wall, and climb through Laura's open top window, to get the keys from her bed and then open the door for her...
Oh what a sight that was, im sure you can imagine... Just thank god i was wearin shorts!!
Anyway, so i managed it, but now... the morning after and i have a huge cut and a bruise on the back of my leg, and a huge bruiseon my bleg.... (mummy n daddy you know what i mean)...
Quite the adventurous end to the night i would say !!

Loves xxxxxxxxxx

Kiwi Experience... Part Three

Day 11- Poo Pub to Franz Josef Glacier

Today the bus left at 9am, and we had a long journey through the Southern Alps through to Franz Josef town. I had a killer migraine which was hell, so pretty much as soon as we got there i went to bed, hoping to be better by the time we were booked to do our glacier walk the next day. Not very exciting really.

Day 12- Franz Josef

Turns out i wasnt better in time for the glacier walk... There were a couple of people who didnt do the walk, so i wasnt on my own, but still felt bad cuz i couldnt do it, and i had spent the past 2 years of A level Geog learning about them !! Anyway, i just relaxed today and didnt really do much, did some laundry which desperately needed doing, and slept/read... The only good thing about where we were staying was that i could see the glacier from my window.

Day 13- Franz Josef to Wanaka...

Well its back to raining today... We stopped at a lake where we should have been able to see a mirror image of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman reflected into the lake, but because of the clouds being so low and the pouring rain, we couldnt see anything... There was an hour long walk that we could do here, only about 5 people did it, the rest of us sat in the cafe and drank hot chocolate/coffee trying to warm up !!

Once we had come in off the coast, and over the Southern Alps on the Haast Pass, the sun came out and it was beautiful... but still cold..We drove past Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka which were both carved out by glaciers...

They are so pretty!When we arrived in Wanaka, we just relaxed and walked around the tiny town to take pics etc... The snow capped mountains surrounding the Lake were just gorgeous... Tonight we just watched films..

Day 14- Wanaka to Queenstown

We arrived in the party capital of New Zealand quite late on in the day... Its a beautiful mountain resort... Sooo expensive though... Tonight was our last night with our driver, so it was a BIG night out!! So much fun though... Really love it here..

Day 15- Queenstown

Today we got a free breakfast, and as breakfast finishes at 10.30am, we set our alarms for 10.20 and stumbled down in our pjamas piling our plates high as they cleared away...We then all went back to bed until about 1pm... Then we got up, showered and changed and headed out into the town to explore... We found a really nice park to relax in and we all sat on the grass and ended up falling asleep in the sun! Tonight was a chillax night again, because its pub crawl night tomorrow night (and our last night in Queenstown)...

Day 16- Queenstown...

Today was a late start as well... We all got up and went to sit down by the lake and relax... Then did nothing for the day... Just relaxing outside in the sun all day really.. We came back and got shwered and changed etc then got ready for our big night out tonight on the pub crawl... Which was amazing... Loved it... Very late night !

Day 17- Queenstown to Christchurch

Today we had an early start which wasnt appreciated but hey... We had an 8 hour journey to start... We covered 500km! We arrived in Christchurch at about 5pm! We looked around the city... Its so much like the UK its wierd... All the places are named after places in the UK, like the main river that runs through Christchurch is called the River Avon... The street names in Christchurch are after towns n cities in England and there are suburbs called Oxford and Brighton! Wierd eh!?!?Well, after walking around for a bit, we got something to eat, and showered and ready for bed... Just sat about talking tonight... It was the last night for most of us... Including me n mike.. Tomorrow we fly back to Hamilton!!

The trip has been amazing ! I have absolutely loved every bit of it... Seen some amazing things and been to some amazing places that i will defo have to take mum, dad and lauren when they get down here...

Kiwi Experience... Part Two

Day 8- Wellington to Picton to Nelson

Well today was interesting... Like i said, very late night of birthday celebrations... When we eventually went to bed, we forgot to set an alarm, one fo the people in our room, woke up and was like 'Oh bugger' and then shouted at us all to get out of bed... We were meant to be on the bus, ready to leave for the ferry thismorning at 7, it was 7 now... We all threw everything in our bags and ran downstairs and out to the bus still in our pjamas!! We made it just in time... Phew!

We got onto the ferry and guess what its STILL pouring down... As we got on the ferry we found a place to make base for us all, in the bar!! There was Sky sports on TV, so we saw England beat SA in the cricket and then slept... we all slept the 3 hours it took to get from Wellington to Picton... We then got on the bus, picked up a few new people, and drove 2 hours to Nelson, a cute little city, the geographical central point on NZ.. We walked up a little hill there to the actual point that is said to be the centre of NZ... The hostel we stayed in tonight gave us a beer tasting activity... I hate beer, so i just went to watch, at the end the guy asked us a question about what he had been telling us and i was the first to answer and got it right so i won a free bar crawl in Queenstown (for when we got down there)... That was sweet as !! We then played darts, I cant aim, so i just threw them vaguely at the board and didnt do that bad at all.. I came 2nd out of 5 of us playing... Then we watched a film and went to bed...

Day 9- Nelson to Westport

We left Nelson, and drove through a load of glacial valleys to a random lake where we did a small walk... After that some of the guys decided it would be a great idea to jump in the lake!! Crazy Fools.... We carried on driving through glacial valleys until we reached a town called Westport, which was given the nickname 'wetport', guess what... ITS STILL RAINING!!

Day 10- Westport to Lake Mahinapua

Today we drove from Westport down to the biggest town on the West Coast, Greymouth. When we got here we all decided on a theme for our fancy dress party tonight- tight and bright! We raided the church shops and charity shops for random outfits and i managed to put together an outfit for $4!! Not bad i think !! It was definitley tight and definitley bright... and i didnt win!! What a joke!!

We carried on driving from Greymouth to a place called Punakaiki.. This place is famous for its pancake rocks..

We went on a small walk, which was really nice because the weather was sunny and quite warm today... So being the British tourist that i am down here i donned the old shorts and t shirt!!

After this, our destination was a little pub/hostel in the middle of nowhere. This place is run by the oldest publican in the country, Les age 86! The place is called 'The Poo Pub' and is notorius to all backpackers in NZ... Here we had a huge meal.. Steak, veg and venisen casserole ! YUMMY!! After eating, we went to get ready for tonight!! The pic on the right is me and Mike, the other guy who works at the school with me!

Kiwi Experience... Part One

Ok, so most of you know that I have been away on a trip called the Kiwi Experience.. Its been amazing! Basically, for those of you who dont know, its a huge road trip covering both the north and south islands of New Zealand... It took us 17 days, and i thoroughly enjoyed every single day, even when i was ill !!!

Day 1- Auckland to Mercury Bay..

We got picked up in Auckland at 8.30am and set off for the Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped after about 2.5 hrs and had lunch in a small ex mining town called Thames! This was much needed as we didnt have time for breakfast thismornin due to our early start... When we arrived at Mercury Bay, we went for a little walk down onto the beach, we stayed there for a while, the weather wasnt great, cloudy and miserable... But we still managed to paddle in the Pacific Ocean, which was pretty sweet, seems really exotic! Once that was done we walked back to the bus and drove for about half an hour to Whitianga where we stayed for the night.. After tea (spag bol) we went to a place called the Lost Springs which is a man made natural hot pools. I know that seems to contradict but what i mean is that the natural hot mineral water is under the ground, the guy just built the hot pools... Hmm whatever...

Day 2- Mercury Bay to Rotorua..

We left Whitianga at 7.30am, which wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. A long day on the bus lays ahead of us. We stopped for a little leg stretch at the Karangahake Gorge, and went for a little walk through the old gold mines there, which was nice apart from the fact it was raining.

This was just enough to wake us up, before we were back on the bus. Our next stop was in Matamata for lunch, which was made famous for being the setting of Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings films.

Then it was back on the bus for the last hour of our journey into Rotorua. Once we were there i headed down to the lake and read in the sun for a bit.

Tonight we went to a Maori Experience Night. It was amazing, we ate a 'hangi' a traditionally cooked Maori meal, which involved all of the food being buried underground in a pit with boiling rocks around it, for a couple of hours, and then served up for us to eat. It was sooo nice ! Then we were entertained by the Maori family that run the place. We saw dances and other activites that the Maori people used to do.

Day 3- Rotorua to Waitomo..

If you have read my blog before then you will know that i have already been to most of these places, but thats just cuz im really cool. Once we get a bit further south in the north island, we get to places i havent been before. Haha..

So today we drove from Rotorua to Waitomo, the main activity here is caving and black water rafting, not many people did this, however the ones who did absolutely loved it. I chose not to because one of my friends has a voucher for 2 people to do it, and she has asked me to go with her, so that means that i wont have to pay the $120 that all those who did it today had to pay!

Tonight i decided i wasnt going to drink, so i became judge of all the drinking games! It was so much fun.. I loved it !

Day 4- Waitomo to Taupo..

We had a late departure today which was nice. Then we had a three hour drive to Taupo! I love Taupo, its one of my favourite palces in New Zealand. It poured down the whole journey there, its miserable, we havent had any sunshine yet! We explored Taupo in the rain, before going back to the hostel, getting showered and changed before pre drinks in our room, before heading to the local Irish bar (love it)... Had an awesome night there, not much sleep, but we have 2 nights in Taupo, so can sleep in tomorrow.

Day 5- Taupo

After a lay in, waking up for lunch, it was still pouring down, getting worse throughout the day, so we stayed in and played board games all day !! Haha... Fun.. Tonight there is a pjama party in the bar next to our hostel, so we got ready for that...

Had an awesome night ! Loved it !!

Day 6- Taupo to River Valley

A long drive South today to River Valley. Everyone slept most of the way, we arrived in River Valley at about 4.30pm. The lodge we stayed in was in the middle of nowhere, there was no signal, and it was so close to a river that we could here it from our rooms. Most people used this as an excuse for an early night because there was nothing to do here.

Day 7- River Valley to Wellington

After lunch, we left River Valley on our longest drive yet, 5.5 hrs to the capital, Wellington. Again, most people slept on the bus, we arrived in Wellington in time for tea. After that we all went out because it was one of the girls birthday.. So that was fun.. Back to the room for 5.30, due to leave on the ferry at 7!!!