I've booked all my accomodation, flights (3), coaches (2) and trains (1) for the rest of my trip now- slightly OCD I know, but it's getting into summer in New York and Toronto so places were filling up. Tomorrow I'm on the coach to Rotarua to see volcanic stuff- hot springs, mud pools, geysers and the like- I've been wanting to do this since I ( Read more... )

It's extremly bloody wierd to think I'll be home in 20 days. I have about enough money left to do the journey home fairly comfortably, with most of the time spent in Wellington, Auckland, New York and Toronto. For the next week or so though I'll be crawling along on the magic bus up the east coast of the south island, NZ- although there's nothing ( Read more... )

Yesterday I climbed a glacier. A whole day thing, spending about 5 hours on the ice, reaching some spectacular ice structures as a trio of mountain-goat-like guides went on ahead and cut out ice-steps with axes. While I was at the top admiring the view the guide asked me if I was doing a bungee- he said I should, as it's "great to get out of your ( Read more... )

While arriving here is worth mentioning, I've only been here a day so there's not much to report. The flight went well, despite being the smallest plane I've ever flown on. We made some pretty alrming adjustments coming into (windy) Wellington- I leant over to the scared looking girl across the aisle and said "it's ok, they're just dodging the low- ( Read more... )

I sold my car! The car market in Kings Cross is a dank depressing hole of a place, I was glad to get out of there. Picture the basement floor of a multistory carpark filled with increasingly desperate travelers drinking away their sorrows as no buyers come to look at their cars, cooking noodles on camping stoves and playing the harmonica. After 3 ( Read more... )

There are a few questions that are always asked when travelers get together in hostel common rooms. Name? Where are you from? How long have you been in australia, how long have you got left, and where are you going next? After a while you get used to reeling all of this off- it's icebreaking even if it is repetitive after the 4th person walks into ( Read more... )

I'm in Melbourne. A day early, because I'm an arse and forgot to book the hostel in Apollo Bay- booked the hostel before, and after but not that one. Everywhere in town was booked up for a music festival so I had to backtrack to Lorne. Not a good day after 3 hours sleep on the ferry from Tasmania: a few hours drive down the great ocean road (pretty ( Read more... )

So yeah- the rest of the week was just like that- drive to the next national park, pitch a tent, go for a hike, come back to the site and drink cheap wine with the other random people doing the same thing. Every night there were people to drink and chill out with, and I picked up a couple of hitchers (young traveling people rather than old drunk ( Read more... )

Hobart is the smallest friendliest southernest city in the world- FACT. Spent a few days here dossing and drinking with assorted hostel-types, and planning The Great Tasmanian Tour (capitals very much deserved). It starts with a few nights on Cape Tasman doing bushwalks and the convict trail, then I follow the beaches and national parks up the east ( Read more... )

...is where I am. Those of you with a sense of direction (or a map) will realise I drove south- and the car didn't break! Hurrah! I've spent the weekend staying with a mate from college, seeing the city, catching up with other schoolmates who live here now, and getting horrendously drunk on vodka. Photos (from Zara's housemate's camera) will be ( Read more... )