Dunedin, Lake Tekapo, Christchurch, New Zealand

After a high paced few days in Queenstown I joined up with the Magic Bus once more to continue my journey around New Zealand with the next stop being Dunedin. The day got off to a crazy start when one of my fellow backpackers, a lad from the Netherlands did not show up for the bus at 8am that morning. After a heavy night on the sauce he failed to hear his alarm clock in the morning and the bus driver had no intention of waiting. Unperturbed he decided that he wasn't going to be left behind and proceeded to hitch-hike his way from Queenstown to Dunedin, completing the journey with four different drivers, an admirable effort. Words can't describe the look of amazement on everybody's faces as he arrived at our destination just one hour after the Magic Bus. This in fact wasn't the first time this happened. Earlier in the week an Irish guy did the exact same thing, only this time he managed to catch up with the Magic Bus before it even reached its destination. Very impressive hitch-hiking it must be said.

The city of Dunedin is a place with a large Scottish influence and is nicknamed "Edinburgh of the South". However despite the fact that there are some beautiful Scottish style buildings including the spectacular railway station the city in general is quite drab and does very little to deserve being mentioned in the same breath as Edinburgh, one of the world's most beautiful cities. There were however some highlights. Located inside the railway station is the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, an interesting museum dedicated to the greatest sports people the country has produced over the last century. Interestingly enough it was not the All Blacks rugby union team that received the most attention in this establishment but rather the country's greatest track and field athletes (in particular the legendary milers Peter Snell and John Walker) that got the most recognition, much to my own personal satisfaction.

Another great site which Dunedin has to offer is Baldwin Street the world's steepest street. 350 metres in length this road reaches a lung puncturing maximum gradient of 35% . Walking up Baldwin Street wasn't enough for me however, I needed to attempt running to the top and so myself and two others set off on a journey filled with insanity. The first 100 metres were fine with only a gentle slope. However it then got very ugly altogether with the gradient increasing rapidly reducing me to a pathetic looking shuffle. My legs felt weak and realising that I was barely moving quicker than walking pace I stopped running and decided on the method of transport that most normal people chose. Once the slope eased a bit I began to run once more and reached the top eventually completing the full distance in 3 minutes 7 seconds. Regardless of the sense (or lack there of) of running up such a steep hill it does not compare to the stupidity of one chap's decision to run down this street in bare feet. How he managed to stay on his feet is beyond me!

The next stop on our journey around the South Island was Lake Tekapo. Here I undertook a short 1 hour hike to the top of Mount John where I enjoyed a stunning panoramic view of this beautiful turquoise coloured lake. It certainly is right up there with Abel Tasman National Park and Milford Sound in being one of the most picturesque places I have seen in the country. After a relaxing couple of days here we continued northwards to Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island, a place with a very large English influence. The bus driver remarked that this city "is more English than England itself". While such a comment is completely false and nothing more than a pathetic tourist gimmick I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised at the beauty of this city. After being to Dunedin I was expecting another ugly city but to be fair to Christchurch it has a lot of beautiful old  English style grey bricked buildings, with the majority of these being churches. Walking around the town admiring these old buildings was a pleasant experience. It is just a shame that so many of them are surrounded by the not so spectacular skyscrapers which have ruined so many cities around the world.

The final few days of the Magic Bus tour were not quite so exciting and after taking the Interislander ferry back to Wellington on the North Island we proceeded to head towards Auckland in almost an exact reverse of the route we had travelled three weeks earlier when starting our trip, something which seemed completely pointless. The weather didn't help and since Christchurch it rained constantly making the final few days of my time in the country feel like I have been just sitting around waiting for my flight to Melbourne.

This leads me on to my opinion of the Magic Bus. There is no doubt that there are many positives to travelling with this hop-on hop-off bus company. Throughout this journey I have met many brilliant people and have had the pleasure of being able to travel with them for an extended period of time, something which rarely happens when you travel independently. During my time in South America I regularly had to say goodbye to lots of great people who I only got to know for two or three days but in New Zealand I was with many of the same crew for as long as two weeks.

Another benefit to travelling with Magic Bus is that they literally do everything for you. They bring you from location to location and book all your hostels and activities on your behalf. The only responsibility you have is to be able to drag yourself out of bed at the appropriate time. All of this combines to make travelling around New Zealand very easy. Too easy however in my opinion. What made my trip around South America so rewarding was that I did absolutely everything for myself, and 99% of it in my limited knowledge of a foreign language. This made making my way around such a large land mass quite a challenge at times, but that's what makes travelling so much fun in the first place. In New Zealand I felt like I haven't needed to think at all.

At times I have been quite unimpressed with the Magic Bus. Along with the fact that they wasted a couple of days bringing us back to where we had already been during the start of our trip there are also too many stops at random cafes which the company blatantly have alliances with. I want to be brought to nice scenic parts of New Zealand, not some rubbish establishment which charges 5.50 dollars for a scrawny sandwich. Also as the Magic Bus only travels from each place four times a week quite often we were given the choice of having to stay either one or three nights in each location when two nights was what was required. This is something which almost everybody was annoyed about.

Culturally New Zealand is not very different from Ireland and the UK and so my recent blog entries have been lacking the sort of crazy stories that made such regular appearances in my South American blogs. However there are a few slight oddities that I have come across:

1) For those who enjoy a game or two of pool you will be familiar with the "2 shot rule". If somebody fouls then his/her competitor is entitled to two shots as a punishment for his/her poor play. Not in New Zealand however. As long as the foul was an "honest mistake" and not deliberate then the unfortunate competitor has to continue on with just one shot. Pure madness but as it was not my country I had no say. I still managed to beat this local who explained the rules of "Kiwi Pool" to me anyway so no harm done!

2) Anybody who has been to the USA will be well aware of how strict bars and liquor stores are when selling alcohol and ID is almost always required to be shown before the transaction is complete. The drinking age there is 21 so this kind of makes some sense. In New Zealand the age at which somebody can consume alcohol is 18. Despite this the Kiwis are far stricter than the Americans. Yes it can be taken as a compliment if somebody thinks you look younger than you really are but there is no chance whatsoever that I look 17 years of age! What is worse is that they don't even feel stupid and embarrassed when they find out how far off they were in predicting how old a customer is. The shock on the face of a Dutch backpacker in my Magic Bus group when he was asked for ID was quite a sight. This man was 28 years old!

3) Christmas is fast approaching around the world with businesses and schools about to close in time for the festive period. In New Zealand however you would hardly know that it is the season to be jolly. There are very few decorations on the streets, very little Christmas music being played inside the shops and even less carol singing on the streets. I have tried hard to get into the festive spirit but it really just does not feel like Christmas down here. It is almost as if the New Zealanders are bitter that they will never have the white Christmas portrayed in the Hollywood movies and so decide to not fully embrace it as a result. I'm sure this is not the case and that the people down here enjoy this time of the year in their own way but it does at times come across like that.

Overall my time in New Zealand has been very enjoyable. I have seen some spectacular scenery such as Abel Tasman, Milford Sound and Lake Tekapo and I have met some fantastic people and had an enormous amount of craic. It has to be noted though that much of New Zealand's landscape is almost identical to that of Ireland. While this may be appealing to many tourists it is difficult for an Irish person to get excited about green hills and fields filled with hundreds of sheep and personally I found a lot of the scenery quite boring as a result. However there is no doubt that the South Island is far more impressive than the North and this is where you will find most of the country's stunning lakes, fjords, mountains and beaches.

So my time of travelling has come to an end for now and tomorrow I fly out to Melbourne where I intend to work for awhile. The last 14 weeks have been a wonderful experience. I have met so many great people (with the English and the Dutch being comfortably the most banter), seen so much incredible scenery and different cultures. It certainly has been a time I won't easily forget and I look forward to much more travelling over the coming year.

Thanks for reading up to now and Merry Christmas.

Abel Tasman, Milford Sound & Queenstown, New Zealand

After relaxing for a couple of days in Wellington I continued onwards across the Cook Strait to the South Island with Nelson being the first stop. This was used mainly as just a base while I went exploring the Abel Tasman National Park, located nearby. New Zealand is pretty nice but up until this point there was nothing I encountered that made my jaw drop. That all changed very quickly upon seeing this spectacular coastline parkland, the smallest national park in New Zealand. Beautiful sunny weather made for great views of the isolated golden beaches and the bright blue sea as I walked for 20 kilometres along hilly pathways that zig-zagged through a sort of tropical rain forest. The scenery on show here is as impressive as anything Hawaii or Isla Grande in Brazil has to offer. A thoroughly enjoyable start to my time on the country's South Island.

The next few days however were extremely unremarkable. First we visited Greymouth, the town where the New Zealand mining tragedy took place. With the exception of a visit to the Monteiths Brewery there was literally nothing else to do in this town and you would wonder why Magic Bus deem this place worthy of being included on their itinerary. After this we visited Franz Josef, the site of the Franz Josef Glacier. The weather was gloomy and to be honest the glacier did not look extremely impressive with it being quite dirty in places, unlike the incredibly clean white and blue coloured Perito Moreno Glacier I visited in Argentina. I made a judgment call to save my money rather than hike on a glacier that is less impressive than the one I have already seen a couple of months ago.

However upon arriving in Queenstown things were about to liven up in the most spectacular fashion. This little resort town situated beside Lake Wakatipu is the self declared Adventure Capital of the World with numerous high thrill activities available such as skydiving, bungy-jumping, white water rafting and so on. However despite the fact that there is so much to do the prices for said activities are extremely inflated, even by New Zealand standards and I took the sensible decision to bypass most of these.I did however attempt the luge. Usually when one thinks of a luge the Olympic Winter Games come to mind with hardcore lunatics sliding down an ice track at stupid speeds of 150 kilometres per hour. However the luge that Queenstown has to offer is very different and thankfully much safer... most of the time. Basically it involved sitting in a tiny little sled with a sort of bicycle like handlebars that controlled both the steering and the braking and sliding down a downhill track with some sharp turns and steep slopes. You have full control over how fast or slow you want to go and it can be quite exhilarating when you gather a lot of speed. Unfortunately such an activity attracts some people from the idiot population of the human race. As I enter the narrowest part of the track, through a short tunnel this absolute clown from England smashes into the back of me, almost causing me to fall out of the luge, something which could have led to a bad injury. After shouting vicious verbal abuse at this reckless chancer he merely looks around at me and laughs and starts making boo-hoo signs at me and tells me to man up. Some people are a liability to society and are better off stranded on Antarctica!

Queenstown is also the Party Capital of New Zealand with an endless amount of bars with numerous backpackers settling here to work. There is literally not a New Zealander in sight and the town has been taken over by people from all parts of the world, with everybody appearing to know everybody. In Queenstown there is no such thing as a weekend, every day is a Saturday night. There is always something going on around the town at night time. It is a cracking holiday destination to let loose and have some great nights on the beer before continuing traveling around the country. One memorable night was had in Fraisers bar where a good mate from back home now works. Here beers were practically being given away for the charitable price of 2.50 NZ dollars each (about 1.40 euro) with spirits sold at 4 NZ dollars (About 2.30 euro). Such pricing is dangerous and a hazy night was the end result. I don't think I could live here however. My liver would not be able to survive the level of hardcore drinking that goes on 7 nights a week.

While in Queenstown myself and four people from my Magic Bus tour group rented a car and visited Milford Sound, located in the spectacular Fiordland National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The national park has a number of stunning lakes surrounded by snow peaked mountains. The famous fjord Milford Sound is the undoubted highlight of what I saw however. Here we took a 1 hour 40 minute cruise ship which brought us deep into the fjord offering spectacular views of high steep cliffs, and powering waterfalls. The weather was absolutely beautiful which enhanced the scenery the place had to offer. We were extremely lucky however as supposedly Milford Sound gets 180 days of rain a year and a cloudless day is about as rare as an England rugby victory over Ireland these days.

There was an unfortunate tragedy however while I was in Queesntown. Two young French men drowned while kayaking in dangerous choppy water in Lake Wakatipu. Advised by coastal guards that the water conditions had reached unsafe levels these two men ignored advice and insisted they knew what they were doing and refused to come back to shore. A tragedy that could easily have been avoided!

Tomorrow I begin my journey back up towards the north of the South Island, with the first stop being Dunedin. But before then there is still time for one more night, a chance to say goodbye to Queenstown in style.

Talk soon

Waitomo & Wellington, New Zealand

Next up on our Magic Bus journey was a trip to the Waitomo caves. It was here that I got the opportunity to experience black water rafting. While not a high speed thrill attraction like its white watered cousin this particular activity was very unique and a bizarre yet enjoyable experience. After dressing up in the most uncomfortable wetsuits imaginable we entered the dark caves with just a tiny torch preventing us from some serious head injuries. Inside here we witnessed the phenomenal glow worms, a type of insect that lives in these caves and which glows brightly in the pitch darkness of its surroundings as a method of catching its prey. Once we descended far enough down into the caves we were greeted by a large deep stream of water, at which time I proceeded to sit into a small inflated ring. In pitch darkness we were dragged around in the freezing cold water while sitting in this blown up tube with the odd jump and slide thrown in every now and again for good measure. It was good fun trekking through such terrain even if the short swim in 10 degree water was not something that was welcomed by the group.

Next was a trip to National Park Village where we stayed for one night. This little town sits beside the Tongariro National Park, the site of the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing, known as the best one day hike in New Zealand. To undertake this trek one needed to stay an extra day at the village. Unfortunately the Magic Bus schedule did not allow this, meaning that if you wanted to stay you needed to take either two extra days or forget about it! Unwilling to unnecessarily waste more time than was needed almost nobody from the group stayed behind at National Park with everybody (myself included) sacrificing what should have been a great adventure with some awesome scenery. This was something which led to widespread dissatisfaction among the group and perhaps Magic Bus should rearrange their schedule to allow the possibility of staying just one extra day here. It seems crazy that in order to do a one day hike you have to take two extra days!

After this disappointment we continued onwards to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It is a pretty little city with some beautiful views of the skyline available from the top of Mount Victoria and from the cute little harbour area. This city has a few interesting attractions such as "The Beehive", the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings. It is so-called because its shape is reminiscent of that of a beehive. Wellington is also home to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa which is a great place to spend anything from a few hours to a couple of days. Generally speaking I am not particularly interested in museums and I find a lot of them quite generic and uninspiring but this one is quite an exception. This interactive state of the art facility is dedicated to numerous aspects of New Zealand, such as how the land was formed millions of years ago, its wildlife, the Maori culture, its famous artwork and its modern history. What is particularly impressive about the museum is that it is completely free of charge, a refreshing change from the usual high expense of travelling this country.

Wellington is nicknamed "The Windy City" due to its location on the southern tip of the North Island. When the wind funnels through the Cook Strait (the body of water between the North and South islands) it blows straight into Wellington harbour. Despite the fact the weather was incredibly sunny here and the temperatures were warm I still felt incredibly cold walking around this city due to these relentless winds. If it feels like this during summer then Wellington certainly isn't a place I want to be during winter time!

Tomorrow morning I take the short ferry ride across the Cook Strait to Picton and then swiftly onwards to Nelson where I will stay for two nights to begin two weeks on New Zealand's South Island.

Bye for now