Arrived in Punakaiki for 2 nights, started feeling a bit rough, must have been coming down with something ! not surprising its been non stop for so long !

Did a Horse trek into the rain forest then down onto the beach with some of the group, they guy at the stables got me a spare Horse out as I was a late entry, he said it used to be wild but they had trained it up a bit...I could tell as mine was a bit frisky while all the other horses where half asleep !

Rawhide !

River crossing

anyway went treking for a bout 3 hours, had a great time, I could tell my horse 'Billy' was a wild one, as he kept running off and charging through the river crossings, such a good time really hope I get the chance to do it again!

Punakaiki Rainforest valley

Me & Billy at lunch

Riding off into the sunset !

Punakaiki Sunset

camp fire

Our two day stop in Abel Tasman Nt Park, was my last 2 nights camping on the tour !

The amazing backdrop of one of the best looking coastlines you will ever see !!

in addition to that I got to fly the Pitt Special a stunt plane that can do acrobatic stunts like loops, barrel rolls, and flying straight up until it stalls then free falling !!

Totally awesome ! even beats skydiving for pure adrenalin !

I did a 15 minute flight and it was just unbelievable as the pilot takes off and hands control over to you...he just says loop it, spin it, fly upright etc...

He said afterwards all you could hear on the radio frequency was me laughing as we did loops at 180mph

Anchorage bay

Close up

ACTION

Ready for take off

....Lift off

Shotover Jet !

85 KPH !!

Also got to go Bungy Jumping, AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge, really differnt feeling falling off the bridge compared to Skydiving ! id say scarier as you can see the river so close, My upper body even hit the water before the cord pulled me back up almost just as quick !

BUNGIEEEEE

Bungy Jumping, Kawarau Bridge

Queenstown gave us the chance for a massive night out, us boys had planned to go out dressed up as the rock band 'Kiss' but as ever the planned descended into chaos as we were all off bungee jumping, jet boating or river boarding or some other crazy activity right up until we needed to head out, so we just donned the wigs which made us look more like the 80% of the Jackson Five than anything else...

Afro night out !

Steve with some Hen party granny

We had a great time, got lashed and caused a lot of commotion which ever bar we ended up in next !

I requested Run DMC "Its Tricky" remembering a old night out from Uni a few years back and within seconds we were doing the "road trip dance" and had all the girls & a hen party up on the dance floor...talk of the town if only for a few minutes !

Some guy even bought us a round of drinks as we reminded him of his "crazy days" before he got married, not quite sure what he was on about, but we accepted the drinks never the less...Great effort !

View from above

Lake Wakatipu

On our final day we went luging which involves a cabel car up to the top of the moutain then several luging runs later we were tired and crashed out ! and went down into town for a burger !

...Just another tough few days at the office...

Pre Race Photo

...and its Rendell through the corner first

]]> Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=4877 0 -44.8333333 169.3333333 First few days were getting better, had had a few freebies too a ride on a jet Boat, a Maori concert ,the morning sand boarding...this jobs a doddle...

A flash of work and loads of freebies...fair enough the hours are long, Sunrise till well after sunset, but I'm loving it !

Spent a day or so heading down from the Bay of islands to get to Taupo, went via Coromandal and Cathedral cove, got to see them again this time drenched in amazing early morning sunshine !

Swam out to a rock just off the shoreline at hot water beach and collected a few mussels, sparked a trend as this group of girls spotted me, 5 minutes later they were, then 5 minutes after that everyone on the beach was gathering them, we cooked them in the evening, really fresh had them the next night too ! new fave food !

spent the next day at my one of my favourite spots, the kick ass beach Whiratoa, the amazing place where there was no one on the beach, I just ran down from the board walk...pulled of my t-shirt, and just jumped right into the sea, instantly deep enough to swim in, and clear enough to see with your eyes open...a true slice of paradise ! looking back as I float on my back all I can see are rolling green hills, and amazing cliffs covered in temperate rain forest...and a Golden beach with no one apart from the advancing members of our bus party !

Whiratoa

Does it get any better than this ?

Spent the afternoon Skydiving ! the ultimate perk...any future job must live up to this...this time I did 15,000 ft and it was even better than before as I could take it in from the second I left the plane, and had a longer free fall ! awsome !!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2nd time around

Dolphins - Kaikoura

Through onto the South island, the job is still going really well, spent some time in Kaikoura and went Dolphin spotting, ment getting up at 4.20 am...

but got to see over 150 Dusky Dolphins all playing in the water just off the shore, many jumping doing all sorts of back flips etc...

really cool to see them, in full flow at top speed !

Dusky Dolphons

Kaikoura - 'Dolphin Friendly'

...and Hannah...there is no back seat gang this time, they aviod that part of the bus, must be sacred ground now...I'm up at front with JP now...
]]> Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=4617 0 -38.6833333 176.0833333 Paraparaumu & Wellington

Rolled on into Paraparaumu, the lonely Planet made it sounds like an idyllic location and the flyer made the beach sounds awesome...
I thought a few days R&R by the beach would do the trick , before I started work...

The beach was awful, grey sand, full of drift wood, and the sea looked less than inviting, suddenly 2 days here seemed too long...

until I met these 3 girls from England ! Liz, Lisa and Naomi who I got on really well with and had some beers and played cards with that night, had a good time,

saw them in the morning at breakfast, and as it was tipping with rain of biblical proportions, I thought a crap town is bad enough, a crap town in the rain is even worse !

So they offered my a lift into Wellington, jumped at the chance, and rolled onto Welly with them, even though it was grim there there's heaps more to do...

Wellington

Welly with the girls, went to the Museum, sat drinking tea while the rained poured down, but had a good laugh with the girls, went to the movies, went swimming with them, great crap weather mates !

Had a good time for a couple of days, cheered me up before worked started !!

The next day work started for the first time in 4 months !

Started by picking up the guys and driving onward and upwards through the North Island towards Auckland and then North towards the Bay of Islands and Pahia !

Had a brake down to cope with, but my first few days of work were going just fine!!

]]> Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=4476 0 -41.3 174.7833333 Glacier region on the west coast of the South island, the blog wont recognise the Fox Glacier we visited, so its mapped to the Franz Josef Glacier, only 30 mins away....

The Day before we got frosty with the Ice Glacier, we visited a small place called Hasst, a the town was a right dive, I biked into to town with Paddy and Aniss, cycling over 50 miles to get there....before that we visited the blue pools, an idyllic spot off the beaten track and had a stone skimming contest....

A bridge too far

En route to the Glacier

The we left the town as quick as possible and went to the beach, the weirdest beach ever, so strewn with an unbelievable amount drift wood it looked like some sort of mahogany apocalypse, enough tree trunks and logs to build 20 houses...Paddys bright idea was to take it all back to Ireland and sell it...

Rolled on into the town of Fox, to visit the Glacier, we walked 2 hours through some of the temperate rain forest to get to a spot where the Glacier is assessable, its one of only 2 places on earth where there is a Glacier accessible to the public like this, and the only place it is surrounded by rain forest !

The Fox Glacier

Ice cold !

The Boys... on the rocks !

Flying Kiwi on ice

the dirt you can see on the ice, is Stone and rock that is ground into a fine dust by the ice as it moves slowly but unstoppably through the valley...

Top of the Glacier

Appletree bay

Close up

Arrived at a camp site just outside of Abel Tasmen Nt park, ideal place...called Old MacDonald's farm...cycled the 40k into the camp with my biking buddies for the last time...we arrived hot and sweaty and jumped right into the river to cool down !

played volley ball in the evening until the sun went down! Oliver had my in stitches with his usual French laugh and stupid jokes while we were playing !!! the fact that Keith was hit in the face twice by his own team mates made it all the more amusing...

Anchorage bay

The swim around the island

Went out in the morning with Paddy and Birgeet !and got a water Taxi up to Bark bay, the most amazing beach I've seen on my travels, we dived right into the water on landing at the beach !

then started our 6 hour walk back to the camp...stopping a couple of times for a swim to cool off !

all got wet feet crossing the "low tide" short cut, Paddy got blisters soon after & carried on in bare feet...I mean who goes on a six hour walk with no socks...

Bark Bay - Paradise at last !

Diving around - Bark Bay

Got back to camp and went for a meal and drinks for the last time as a group !

The following morning we drove up to Picton where several of the gang got of the bus and went their separate ways...we'd had 4 quality weeks the best bits of my trip so far, shame to break it all up, but all good things have to come to an end!

Have been offered a job on the next tour though, as one of the guides, which I've accepted should be a great way of earning a few dollars...and beats sitting in an Office temping...

I've had to sacrifice something else in Australia for that and have had to let someone down big-time...but the lure of a job was to great when Im pretty much skint after over 4 months without working...& its not every day you get offered a job without applying for it, so I couldn't walk awayfrom this opportunity! plus its a pretty cool job touring NZ hiking, camping, swimming in the sea etc...and the occasional sky dive for free wont go a miss...
]]> Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3923 0 -41.1333333 173.0166667 Punakaiki for 2 nights, had 2 great nights in the pub playing pool and having a few beers...

saw the Pancake rocks...and did a mountain bike trail with Dagmar...we rode up through a track in the forest to a place called Cave Canyon...one of the most unbelievable sights I've seen this trip...

The canyon was deep down beneath two sides of the valley, and only fills up during a flood, so it was a dry river bed, that had become overgrown with some of the stunning flora and fauna from the surrounding forest. it was cold as it was shaded from the sun, so even on a red hot day we could see our breath in the air..the place was errie and very mysterious..could easily have been used in a film...there was a plaque warning that 10 people drowned here 12 years before from the flood water raging through the caves then into the canyon...so we didn't hang around too long...

]]> Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3922 0 -42.1 171.3333333 Hokitika on our way to Punakaki, on the way through we saw the valley full of mist and low lying cloud, with the sun shining through...

11am

Village in the Mist

Mirror Lake

The Start !

Hollyford Valley

we stayed in these huts that were just concrete tents ! we had to carry everything, sleeping bags, gas cookers, food you name it we carried it !!

the best waterfall yet !

Me at the Darran Mountains

Everyone looked the part, apart from Paddy who looked like he was running away from home rather than going hiking for three days !

Amazing view of the Darran Mountains

Lake Mackenzie Hut

got some guy who I passed at this 80 meter waterfall to take my photo !

Reached my hut chilled out !

In the morning it was lashing it down with rain, I just waited around for the others to catch me up who stayed in the previous hut, they were pretty wet, but we set off...loads of mist and humidity but no more rain for now...So hiring that Gore-tex jacket was a waste of time !!

Jenna on the track

Me @ the waterfall

Hollyford Valley

Crossing the waterfall

We reached the hut !!

Spent the night in another hut, with only a 2 hour walk the following morning to finish off !

had a really good laugh in the hut all huddled round the fire ! trying to burn all our rubbish as we had to carry everything out of the route, so our bags were starting to stink !

Clear Skies

Morning glory

Final day greeted us with awesome sunshine from daybreak, although it was still a bit cool until mid-morning !

Bridal Veil Stream

The sun rises over Routeburn Gorge

The Final Morning

The Finishing Post

]]> Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3787 0 -45.4166667 167.7166667

Fiordland National Park

Fiordland National Park

the Backseat gang !

River runing through Murchison Mountains.

Murchison Mountains.

Murchison Mountains.

The Bikers !

Murchison Mountains.

Murchison Mountains.

on the Homer tunnel down hill ride !

We biked down to the Sound, and took a boat cruise on the water, the only way to fully see the scenery, really amazing and totally un-photographable, brilliant weather too, considering this is the wettest place in NZ, We had great sunshine !

Me Aniss and Paddy After the 12k downhill !

Mitre Peak - Muilford Sound

Sounds good !

Milford Sound

Carol, Cat and Jenna

On the Milford Sound !

Jp and Paddy...Arch enemies !

Waterfall

]]> Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3786 0 -45.4166667 167.7166667

On the road

one of the Indiana Jones swing bridges

Mt Cook

Me and Paddy on the bridge

Hannah, Emma, Me, Jenna and Jolanda in the icy lake !

Happy feet !!

A frezzing Paddy

Me, Paddy and Aniss

Rangitata sunrise

Early Doors

Had breakfast, packed up my tent, and went up to the hut with the others to go Rafting !

They explained it was a two hour trip coasting down the river at first going through, grades 1-4 then climaxing with two grade 5 rapids, the highest grade rapids you can take people down on commercial trips !

Full speed!!

the trip was awesome, and we managed to stay afloat the entire trip, at one point we were seconds from being sucked into a grade 6 which would have meant certain "flippidge" and everyone going overboard !!

Riding the grade 5 rapids

Survived !!

We had seen grade 6 rapids at the Hukka falls the other day, and I love ferice water but I wouldn't have wanted to go though that on a boat !

after the trip down the river we went for a short hike around part of the Tekapo Lake, with amazing views of the Alps and the first look from long distance of Mt Cook...

All the gang hiking in Tekapo

Lake Tekapo

after the Hike, a few of us biked the rest of the way in to camp, as this was a bush camp and had no showers, so we dived into the lake when we got there to cool down!

Swimming in lake Pukaki !

The Alps (mt cook)

totally knackered, Rafting, Hiking, Biking and Swimming all in one day !

JP and his pancake !

pancakes!

we topped the day off with Pancakes, a cold beer and the best sunset I have ever seen.

The Southern Alps at sunset

Sunset at lake Pukaki

Nice little City, has a look of York, and is the most English of all the cities in NZ so far ! has a real student vibe too as the University had just kicked off for Fresher's week !!

Christchurch

the River

had a great afternoon after we left Christchurch I biked along with Paddy Aniss and a couple of others the 30k to our camp by the Rangitata river, with stunning views over the Alps !

Rangitata

while Biking tot he camp, we must have spooked some deer, as a heard of deer galloped over a small hill out of view then back into view as they came up the other side, amazing thing to see...think Jurassic Park... but we were the ones doing the chasing !

]]> Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3710 0 -43.5333333 172.6333333 Wellington for the crossing over to the South Island spent the day here, chilled out, during the day then crossed over on the ferry !

Great views at sunset !

Top Deck

Sunset crossing

Spent the morning driving down to Kaikora, went to the beach, not as nice as the North Island beaches as beach was stoney, and the water was extremely cold, a shock from the warmer North Island...still warm sunshine and great views of the Alps if you spun around so not all bad!

The Beach !!

The Alps

Cycled the afternoon into the beachside campsite, did some Irish Gallic Football training with Paddy...that finished me off after our biking!

Football by the camp

Fire starters

Spent the evening on the beach with a campfire...!

Bushfire fairytales

Campfire

Morning view

Give us a wave JP !

at the beach with Annis !

ganbg on the beach

Swam in the sea, best beach for swimming so far in NZ, went for a run with Aniss, Paddy, and Chris, did a mile down to the caves and back !

Had lunch then shot off to Rotorua, which stinks...no not like Grimsby...but because its a thermal area that has an volcano in the town, don't think its active, not sure my tent would withstand boiling lava !!

Whiratoa

Does it get any better than this ?

Olie

About to shoot off and ride the remaining distance about 20k to the campsite...tonight its a bush camp so no facilities at all !!
bye for now
]]> Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3588 0 -38.139822262275 176.246967315674 Auckland momentarily, to pick up some new people, 2 guys & 3 girls...

I was dropped off with some others and we rode a grand total of about 30Ks to camp, not before taking a couple of stop offs at Hot water beach and cathedral cove, before eventually free wheeling 2K down a hill almost directly into our campsite...again right by the beach !

The ride was excellent, great weather, blue skies and 25C warm sunshine !! started off on a hard uphill, but got some awesome views of what was to come further along the trip.

View from the bike ride

River at Hot Water beach

Hot Water beach

Cathedral cove

the "cathedral "

sting ray bay

JP & John our guides

the gang at dinner

Quite a hike to the top but worth it for the ride down...this is becoming a trend in this place!!

Climb up....flydown

sandboarding...hitting the water !

Saw Tane Mahuta the largest tree in NZ...pretty cool forest, so green ! full of Kauri trees the same type as in Walpole in Oz.

Tene Mahuta - biggest tree in NZ !

Kauri Forrest

Us boys couldnt get enough of the Black hole water slide, and kept going back for more action ! shame I couldnt get any pictures of the place..

Awesome view the following morning over the sea

Good morning !

Sand boarding dunes

]]> Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3585 0 -35.5 173.4 Auckland set off on the Flying Kiwi bus...We set of to the Bay of Islands in the north region know as North Land !

as we get on the bus I see to be the only bloke, the driver laughs and says "its you and the ladies this trip mate" Immediately I think cool ! but actually no that might be pretty annoying ! turns out we picked up two other guys round the corner who have girls names ! and confused the staff ! so it turns out to be 3 guys and about 10 girls ! that's more like it...some one to play beach football with !!

Bay of Islands Hills

Bay of islands...from a moving bike

Just 8k today, to ease into it !!

Get to the campsite...pitch up...cook up some food ! and have a beer or two !

More of the bay of islands

Near our campsite !

thats me driving !

Russell

Start to really see some of NZ's great scenery from the ride, shame it was a bit over cast, wont make for the greatest of pictures, very green and great looking down atythe water from up the top of the hills !

Beach at Russell...first capital of NZ

bay of islands harbour

Its a great start, really enjoying the trip !! great people too !]]> Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blogabond.com/TripView.aspx?tripID=522 http://www.blogabond.com/CommentView.aspx?commentID=3521 0 -35.2833333 174.0833333