I woke up this morning, my last in New Zealand, knowing that I was going to have to live through this day twice.  Hope I had enough sleep to manage it!  It was going to be a long drive and I wasn't really looking forward to it, but then Dan kindly offered to come along for the ride, which meant we could share the driving and have some ...

Hi Everyone, So Im finally off. Caught my flight from Whangarei this morning at 9am and im now at the departure lounge.  Im at an internet cafe waiting for my flight for Taipei thst leaves at 140pm. I will be in Taipei at 10:00PM local time tonight, yay long haul flight !!! I will update soon Riki

Kia Ora for the final time from New Zealand. So after a month of trekking, sight seeing, extreme activities and sitting aboard the Magic bus we're about to leave NZ behind. We'll miss the beauty and ever changing scenery of this beautiful country but we won't miss getting up at 6.30 a.m. every day to get into the shower before the Japanese and K...

I did take pictures today, although I can't get them loaded on this particular computer as it looks circa 1989. They aren't much to see because it is raining so hard and is so foggy. There is a large tower in the city centre, much like the Space Needle in Seattle. We were standing nearly right below it and could look up and not see it. It has po...

Kia Ora, ladies and gentlemen! This could be the last time I write you from NZ... Wow. Hard to believe I'm leaving to australia in 2 days! But it's for the best - time for some desert and beaches! :) Well, for the last few days: ROTORUA The main attractions in Rotorua are the volcanic activity in the area (the ground is only about 5 meters thick...

My flight from Fiji didn't leave until 03.30am in the morning so had a very long last day in Fiji. Flight over to NZ was only 4 hours but it felt like longer as I had been up since 7am the previous day. Arrived in Auckland on Wednesday 8th February, my taxi was late, Mr Munkley stuck in traffic allegedly. Personally I reckon he couldn't be arsed...

Auckland is really, really buzzing today - i thought yesterday was good but today the city really is red!! Had the morning mooching around a little. Breakfast with Will and Clare and then i went off and walked up Mt Eden - the highest extinct volcano in Auckland (its only 196m though!!) The view from the top was superb a full panaromic view of t...

New Zealand really is as beautiful and diverse as the scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies show - lots of tall mountains, volcanoes, pristine lakes, green forests and rugged coastline. It's quite a contrast to Australia. There are few native animals here - mostly birds and no snakes. With no predators, some of the birds kinda devolved and lo...

Hey everyone, So I've been away for 4 days now, anyone missing me yet...naw didn't think so! Well 3 flights and 2 days after setting off (24 hours of actual flying!) we arrived in Auckland. Deciding not to waste the evening, we set off in search and food and beer...food was easy to find, chinese and japanese restaurants are everywhere, however t...

Very late night last night, but I got up early as Jackie had offered to take Lisa and me around Auckland today and then drop us off at the rugby in the afternoon. I met Lisa and Jackie outside base at 9.30am we all piled into her car after a ciggie and chat and headed towards Auckland Museum, I hadn't seen this on my last stop here. For a $5 don...