Happy Monday to you all.

I’m sure after last week’s long Easter weekend this weekend probably went quicker than anyone would have liked. The thought of only having two days off is starting to cause us sleepiness nights actually. The girls have started to have midday break downs too. I’m sure the closer we get to May 4th the worse it will get, but as it stands they’re only bursting into tears once a day. I just sob quietly into my pillow so that nobody can hear me….

“Why’s my pillow so wet? Uhm…Just sweat you know. It was boiling last night….ha…..ha….”

Right so I am going to attempt to wrap up our New Zealand adventures in this blog and then hopefully move on to Fiji. That way by the time we touch ground in LA we will have caught up and I can let you know about all the new movie roles they’ve offered me over in Hollywood. Bound to happen.

So we’ve left the stunning little town of Franz Joseph, carrying with us a truck load of lactic acid throughout every muscle in our bodies. Nobody was up for walking ever again after the previous days 9 hour trek to and from Fox glacier. Actually I forgot to mention the name of the glacier was Fox glacier. In hindsight we would have saved ourselves a lot of bother if we had just stood on top of a Fox’s Glacier Mint and taken a photo. We certainly wouldn’t have been lying when someone asked if we’d climbed to the top of the Fox glacier.

Anyway with all our aching muscles the last thing we were up for was an early morning hour long trek around a supposedly very special lake. But being the Kiwi Experience it would be silly of us to think we could go a single day without some sort of epic walk being forced upon us. So with all our strength we got out the bus and started our walk around Lake Matheson. We had been told that at certain times of the day you can catch a really good reflection in the water, which of course would be a great photo opportunity. We walked around and saw it was rather nice but nothing to really write home about. That is until we reached the other side. The view, as I’m sure you will agree, was absolutely amazing. In fact the photos don’t even do it justice. You honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the stillness of the lake and the sky above. It may have hurt, but the walk was well worth it.

Our next top was Lake Wanaka….there was a lake….

Moving on, our next stop was to be Queenstown. By far the single most eagerly anticipated destination on the Kiwi Experience agenda. Not for me mind. Queenstown is the adrenaline junkies heaven on Earth. Bungee jumping was invented here. It attracts people from all over the world to do something ridiculous that throws you way out of your comfort zone for, apparently, fun. You may have guessed I am not one for throwing myself off a cliff. However the girls are and so they were extremely excited to finally be there.

We checked into a Nomads hostel right in the centre of the city. Even through it’s so popular and well known, Queenstown is a very small place. We walked into our 5 bed dorm accompanied by our now best buds Millie and Kavita. Even though we had about 8 years on these girls they were awesome to be around, and it was a lot easier to keep them than to try and find new mates….just joking girls…we could have found new friends well easily…

Our room was amazing. It had a balcony that over looked the giant lake that the city sat on and the stretch of mountains that seemed to guard the city like a huge wall. It had an ensuite bathroom and all the beds were super comfy. Sure the staff treated us like misbehaving 4 year olds but you can’t have it all now can you.

That first night was like a massive celebration. As Queenstown is such a top destination for the Kiwi passengers, many people stay here for a long time. Therefore a lot of people move on and have to say their goodbyes to the friends they’ve had for the past 3 to 4 weeks. We went on a mini pub crawl, had a free BBQ and even got to see some fella (someone the girls had taken a huge dislike to) run as far as he possibly could with a bungee rope attached to him while wearing absolutely no clothes. Turns out I actually know his girlfriend from when I worked at Nizels. Interesting…

Our second day of our 4 in Queenstown was to be perhaps Soph’s most significant of her entire trip. She had been looking forward to this day since she saw a video of our friend Rachael about 4 years ago. Today the girls were going to do the Canyon Swing. For those that don’t know, and I don’t blame you for not, the Canyon Swing is a bungee with a twist. You simply jump off a 109m cliff, freefalling for 60m before being swung outward a further 200m, picking up ridiculous speed. I had the very important job of filming this event as Soph, Courtney, Millie and Kavita went down to the platform to gear up. It was scary, it was intense, it really was a high pressured situation. But thankfully I was able to hold the camera steady and get the shots the girls were all after.

I stood with all the other sensible people who had come along to watch. Many were worried they would miss their loved one jump, but there was absolutely no chance I would miss Soph and Courtney’s go. They screamed loud enough to make the American flag on the moon fall over. Paramedics were on standbye of course but they would have been to busy dealing with those with burst eardrums than to look after any serious bungee malfunction injuries. They squeeled all the way down as they were dropped upside down by the guys on the platform. The videos are up on the Backpacking Live Facebook page if you fancy seeing for yourselves. We’ll chuck them on YouTube when we get home too so you can all see. It was funny. So yes, well done girls. Much braver than me.

Day 3 and Courtney finally found a place that could colour in the roots of her hair. Both Soph and I had a sudden panic when she first appeared after having it done. She looked exactly the same as she did before she went in and we were starting to consider how long we could lie about the huge improvement compliments she was was hoping to get from us. Soph has a record of 4.3 seconds before someone realises she is telling a lie, so things weren’t looking promising. Thankfully as she came closer things became more evident and we could compliment her without having to fake it. Everyone’s a winner. Our third day was also a bit of an arts and crafts day. Thanks to a little tip from our friends Beckie and Ella we found a bracelet shop where you could make your own bracelets. We have been picking them up along the way in all the countries we’ve been but hadn’t found any in New Zealand until then. It was actually a really fun time waster and one I turned out to be rather good at. See…

Day 3 was also the last day Ziggy would be around as she was moving on a bit earlier so she could catch her flight to Asia where she could buy a 3 story house for 2 bottle caps and a slinky. To celebrate this and to say our heartfelt goodbyes we all went out for one last night together. It was a sad evening for Courtney as she was saying goodbye to her baby sister who she wouldn’t see again for a good few months. For Ziggy, she couldn’t wait to get away from her older sister and start living life like a princess in Thailand. Anyway it was another good evening even though we personally stayed away from the outrageously priced alcohol.

Then all of a sudden it’s day 4 and our last in Queenstown. As well as being a great town for adrenaline junkies and those looking for top notch nightlife, the city is also an awesome city for those who love frisbee. And I love frisbee. I treated myself to a new one that changes colour from white to purple when in contact with UV light. They also had a frisbee golf course around the outside of their main city park. So us 5 and the remaining lot from Ziggy’s group headed down to watch me smash the course out with my eyes shut. For me it was a super day as I hadn’t really played any sport in about 5 months, and it was made even better by the girls tagging along without having to be knocked out and dragged down there. So thanks girls. I had a great time.

Unfortunately, as it is almost every night in Queenstown, our last day was to end in another evening of goodbyes. We were moving on sooner than Millie and Kavita who were shooting off to the deep south of New Zealand. We had really enjoyed hanging out with two kids who if you messed them around would happily knock your teeth out, yet they could complete a rubix cube before most people could get one row. It was sad but we would see them again in San Francisco. So see you then girls.

We left Queenstown and stayed in a small lodge on the side of yet another lake. Lake Tekapo was also home to some of the best stary skies in the world. We had the chance to climb to the top of a near by hill and visit the planetarium and massive telescope that the place was famous for. We didn’t want to spend much money but I was really up for this. I’ve got a bit a geekish attraction to anything space related so would have loved the opportunity to look through the telescope. Unfortunately it was so expensive it would have been cheaper to buy a spaceship and go to the stars ourselves than to look at them from a billion Miles away. Never mind.

There really was nothing else here. I did climb to the top of that hill but just to see the view. The girls had started to fill a tad ill after all the late nights in Queenstown so stayed at the bottom by the lake. It’s more of a detox destination than anything else.

We left the next morning for our last destination on the Kiwi bus. The slightly eerie city of Christchurch. Back in late 2010 Christchurch was hit by a pretty nasty earthquake. Thankfully no damage seemed to have been done and the injury toll was kept to a minimum. What the locals hadn’t realised is that this earthquake had weakened many of the buildings in the city and left them, pretty much, hanging by a thread. When a smaller and much weaker earthquake hit later in 2011 there was nothing anyone could do. The city collapsed and many lives were lost as a result. As we drove in the normally larger than life bus driver completely changed his attitude. He became quiet and very sincere with everything he did say. It was clear that this natural disaster not only impacted Christchurch but it rocked an entire nation. There are on going efforts to repair the city but these apparently have a completion date somewhere after 2025. I’ll be 37 by then and that doesn’t even bare thinking about.

We were catching a flight that evening back up to Auckland so didn’t need a room to stay. Very kindly our friends Beckie and Ella allowed us to use their room as a place to store our bags while we ventured round the city together. We went to the museum and the old cathedral, which as you can see is in ruins now.

We visited the new cardboard cathedral and also took a look at their makeshift shopping centre. They had come up with the idea of turning shipping containers into shops and stacking them up on one another. To be honest the girls didn’t really like Christchurch and I think that was because of the sad feeling the place had. It does sound weird but as you walked around you could feel that something wasn’t right. That the people of Christchurch were still mourning that dreadful day when everything changed. Some top American magazines have actually voted Christchurch as one of the world’s top cities for the future. Basically because they now have the chance to restart a fresh. Although I’m sure it must be difficult knowing that this could happen again at any moment.

We left for the airport at around 8pm even though our flight wasn’t until 6am. We decided spending the night on the floor of an airport would be much more financially beneficial than paying and leaving a hostel before 4am. Something we all deep down regretted. We were all feeling pretty under the weather and just wanted our own beds. Instead we had to endure the worst flight ever. Courtney was a mess by the time we reached our hotel in Auckland. Her ears would not pop midflight so she was feeling the agony I felt flying from Perth to Melbourne. Not nice at all.

Back in Auckland we were lucky enough to find ourselves a hotel that was cheap enough to hold all three of us in a private room. We spent the days trying to recover by watching Harry Potter films in the evening and eating chunky soups. We did walk around a few times but the weather was atrocious to say the least.

We were actually meant to be travelling up north to the bay of islands but due to us all feeling like death was just around the corner, we decided to stay in bed instead and see a bit more of Auckland. Thankfully we were moving on to the land of constant Sun and smiling locals a few days later. If that doesn’t fix you up nothing will.

So that’s New Zealand in a rather large nutshell. Tomorrow I shall give you the full lowdown on our amazing time in Fiji. We actually leave for Los Angeles on Wednesday at 9:40pm Fiji time (10:40am GMT). I’m off to sit by the pool. Enjoy your day.

Thanks for following x