Queenstown

10: On our way into Queenstown we stopped at the Puzzling World at Wanaka, I didn't pay to go in but was still able to go to the weird toilets. Then straight on through, everyone checked into the same hostel except for me; partly because it was crap and partly because I found one which had a cheap weekly rate as I knew I would be staying a while. We all met up in the evening and had a big party to celebrate arriving in Queenstown! We knew this would be the last place we were all together...

11: This morning began at 10.30 as the real men amongst us met at the Bungy Centre in preparation for what we were about to undertake... the biggest commercial running bungy jump in the world! 'THE NEVIS'! 134m and 8.5 seconds of freefall. We were taken in a 4x4 minibus out to the middle of nowhere and along a private road through the canyons which led us to the jump site. We put on our harnesses, weighed ourselves to ensure our ropes weren't too long so as that we would hit the ground and were allowed to the view point to see the jump in all its awe... then 5 at a time we were transported in a little cable car type thing along the wires out to the jump pod. This is suspended on 4 long wires stretching the length of the canyon, has a partial see-through floor and seems the equivalent of a needle in a haystack in size comparison to its surroundings! One by one people began to take the leap of faith, nobody chickening out. The jump order is from heaviest to lightest and I was 23rd out of 25 people so had to wait in this suspended pod for almost an hour waiting for my moment to come. It finally did; my name was called and a pad was strapped to each of my legs. I was let through a little gate to the jumping area and laid back in a torture styled chair, my legs resting in two ankle slots. I was all hooked up and attached, swung round in the chair to face the edge and pulled up. I began recording (I jumped holding my camera!) as I waddled to the edge and took a nice big look down. Quick wave goodbye to my friends, "3, 2, 1, BUNGY!" and I had taken the biggest leap of my life! I didn't know what to think, in fact, I didn't have the opportunity to think, I just fell and fell and fell. All the blood in my body rushed to my head, my eyes felt like they were about to pop out, the wind rushed past my ears, the ground got closer and closer... and then suddenly further and further as the rope reached its stretch limit. I flew around a hundred metres back into the air and as I became weightless at the peak of the bounce was given almost a split second to look around before the thrill started all over and I again soared through the air towards almost certain death had I not had 40 pieces of elastic bound together and tied around my legs! As I reached the top of my second bounce I had to pull a release cord which left me in a sitting up position, making the rest of the bounces more comfortable and actually being able to think and look around, taking in the amazing views. I was then hoisted back up to the platform and the ordeal was over.

So that was one of my lifes "to do's" ticked off the list. But who says bungy jumping is a once in a lifetime experience? Not me! After getting back into town, resting and sharing stories pictures and videos, and a quick swim in the lake, I met up with some friends again to go and do another bungy as I had decided that morning. This one was called 'The Ledge' and was at the top of the gondola overlooking the town, giving it the feel of being 430m high when in fact it's only 43m. But the bonus with this one and what made me do it is the fact that you can jump in any way you like. Most people just ran and jumped, one or two tried a backflip but I gave it my all and put myself into a forward spin to see how many times I could somersault. The guy working there told me he had only ever seen 5 and if I made that he would let me jump again for free, but sadly I only made 4 spins! Still, it was pretty intense just spinning and spinning, even after the bounce... I concluded that bungy jumping is definately my kind of sport! We were also told a couple of stories by the guys working there, my favourite being... one of the employees did the nevis jump, but pulling the cord wasn't working so he remained upside down the whole time. He was hoisted up to the top and when we reached the pod, in stead of pulling him in his mates let him fall again so he thought something had gone wrong and he was falling to his death! Not a bad practical joke, if not a little harsh.

12: (See photo's below for todays trip.) Today a group of about 10 of us went on a day trip to Milford. Although I'm glad I went and I did enjoy it's beauty, the trip was a big crappy in that it's a round trip of 10 hours on the bus for a 2 hour boat ride through Milford. There were several photo opportunity stops on the way including at the Mirror Lakes, a stream to fill up our water bottles with the freshest water around and some waterfalls. A funny moment was when going through a really long and dark tunnel the driver turned on some green lights and started playing Star Wars music though you had to be there! The views from the boat were quite spectacular, lots of waterfalls, a group of seals and surrounding mountains. On the way back we stopped off at an underwater observatory which was a a complete rip-off! We all gathered at the lake in the evening for our last night together as a complete group. After drinking there for a couple of hours we all heading to the bars and signed Steve's recently discovered broken foot (after trying to jump a fence at the Poo Pub party. He was told at the time it wasn't broken and found out a week later after we made him go back for a double check; he also had to have 28 stitches in his hand!)

13: Saturday was the day of the Downhill MTB Championships, held at Coronet Peak. I went with a guy from my room at 1pm and stayed until 4pm when it began to rain. We took the bus up to the peak then climbed up alongside the track finding a few good spots to spectate from. To save money getting home we managed to hitch a ride with someone he vaguely knew through a friend of a friend which was handy! Had an early night after some movies tonight to catch up on some well needed rest.

14: Sunday, the final day of the National 7's rugby... a pretty relaxed day on the whole with a long lie in till lunch, then all meeting and going to watch the semi's. There was a couple of hours gap before the final at 6pm in which we went back to a hostel for some beers and a movie. Then we went back to watch the fancy dress presentation (Borat impersonator came 2nd!) and the final where Auckland pretty much thrashed Canterbury, taking the win for the second year in a row.

15: Another Queenstown style activity filled day today, jet boating and heli-rafting! Pick up was 12.30pm and we were driven out to the mighty Shotover River where we got off the bus, put our lifejackets on and within a matter of minutes were awaiting the arrival of our jet boat. Then we heard it coming through the canyon, it got closer and closer to the boarding deck without showing any signs of stopping or even slowing and at the last minute did a 360 spin, pulling up inch perfect from the deck ready for us to step aboard. Once we were all in the driver began the whole "This is my first time taking out customers, I've only been driving these boats for 3 days" and "I've only clipped the canyon walls a couple of times, I haven't flipped the boat yet so we should be alright" scenario. Despite the obvious mistruths it still un-nerved a few people. The ride was awesoooome, we sped through 10cm deep water at 80kmph, did numerous 360 spins, and most enjoyably of all passed through narrow canyons narrowly missing hitting the walls and to finish even did a 360 in the canyon, another inch perfect manouvere. Mum, you would have wet yourself. In fact I thought of you because the lady next to me reminded me of you, she kept shouting "Will you PLEASE stop filming and hold onto the BLOODY rail!"

Once back on dry land we were driven to a helicopter landing area where we were picked up (believe it or not) in a helicopter and taken over the mountains and again through the canyons. It was really cool, we dropped toward the ground a couple of times and went horizontally round the corners. Once dropped in the river (the copter actually landed in shallow water!) we were set up and briefed for our white water rafting. I was put in a raft with a group of Swedish people with an average age of about 60 so was a bit concerned but it turned out they were good paddlers and keen for the rapids! We were taught and practiced the different commands including "duck and hold" for when we went through the most extreme rapids. It was such good fun and we managed to stay upright the whole time. We went through about 5 main rapids up to grade 4-5, passed through a 130m long tunnel, and jump out of the boat and went through one of the smaller grade 2 rapids floating on our backs!

16: Today not too much happened; had a nice lie in then met up with about 10 others to go luging for the second time. Just as the first time it was carnage, the luge's go really fast and there's a mixture of straights, long windy corners, sharp corners, chicanes, drops... perfect for group races really! I won 3 out of the 5 races and crashed in the other 2! In the evening we went for drinks by lake, watching the sunset before going out. We didn't get back till really late and I fell asleep at some friends hostel and when I woke up it was 6am so I walked back down to the lake and watched the sunrise which I'm so glad I got to see.

17: So for the rest of the day I caught up on sleep and watched a movie or two with friends. Then again we went for drinks by the lake (it really is a great spot) but decided to also have a BBQ. It went quite well with the helpful provision of firestarters from some other BBQers and again we went out into town after, celebrating my last night in Queenstown!

Milford Sound

Happy Birthday to me!

Woohoo, I'm in my twenties! Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday in one way or another, much appreciated from everyone :-) I had a really cool day, which started off with bowling with 48 other people where I came third! Then I went to a police museum where I got dressed as a policeman, then onto a cafe for lunch. Once lunch had settled I headed out for a surf and ended up staying out for 2 hours, catching several waves all the way in. To finish off the days activites I went for a BMX on a local BMX track before coming home for a roast dinner and chocolate cake! But then it was time to party, we headed out into town and danced our way through to 4.30/5am when we finally made it to bed!

NZ part 4

NB: See new written post below these pictures!

The bus coming to a halt on a riverbed.

The interesting toilets at Puzzling World, Wanaka.

Some of the team in Queenstown.

Lake in Queenstown with 'The Remarkables' in the background.

Me and Pete.

View over the town from the top of the gongola - check out the rainbow.

Biker heading up at the MTB downhill championships.

And one on his way back down!

The harbour in Queenstown.

South Island's West Coast

Christmas day! We had a bit of a lie in and left to go back to Tracey's house at 11ish. That was the latest I've ever slept on Christmas day but I guess there wasn't as much excitement for me. We had a really nice lunch of roast chicken and ham with vegetables, some the same but some different to back in England. It was a really nice lunch (though nothing can compare to mums!) and I think the first roast dinner I'd had in 10 months. After stuffing our faces as has to be done every Xmas lunch, me Trace and her bro crashed out on the sofas for the afternoon whilst watching Futurama. By the time we woke up it was pretty much time for dinner! Cold meats with potato salad, rice salad and cheese etc, again much the same to home. After dinner we opened presents, I had a card that Mat brought over to Oz and also got a bar of chocolate, a box of chocolates and a kiwi fruit! Then went to the beach for a walk, despite the pretty crappy summer weather. But it's still the first Christmas day I've been to the beach! The evening was lazed away watching TV before bedtime, so it was pretty much a day of eating and sleeping but aren't most Christmas's?!

I had a few more days to spend in Pram for which I'll just list the stuff I did...

- Went to Wellington Zoo
- Went to Te Papa
- Went to the beach
- Went to a friends house drinking and having a BBQ one evening
- Went to a little beachside cafe a few times where a few of Tracey's friends worked
- Played Tony Hawk on PS2!
- Watched a couple of movies

And that's about it. Then on 30th I moved into the city for New Year, all of the family were going away for it. On New Years Eve day I took the famous old cable car up the hill and didnt' do much for the rest of the day. In the evening I met some people in the hostel about 10 minutes before we decided to go out! We stayed in an Irish bar till about 11.30 and decided to go somewhere else to see the New Year in so went to Shooters (I've been in 4 Shooter's bars now and still don't know if it's a chain, does anyone?) Saw the New Year in with tequila shots and powered our way through jaegerbombs for the rest of the night. When everywhere had closed at 5am I knew of one place still open. A club called sandwiches, I had nearly bought a ticket for it in advance for $40 but decided not to. When we got to the door they still wanted $20 for entrance but after a bit of smooth talking on my part I got us all in free! We stayed there till 7.30am and then stayed up the rest of the day next day too, finally collapsing into bed at 10pm!

The day after that I just rested and in the evening went to see Borat which was absolutely hilarious and made me cry! Then it was time to get back into travelling mode for about a week...

3: Wellington - Nelson. Took the ferry at 8.30am and didn't feel too well on the journey, tried to sleep most of the way. Upon arriving in the south island we stopped off at a winery for some wine sampling and I managed to get double for chatting with the guy there! Had a really nice chicken pie there too, my second best in NZ (NZ'ers are big on their pie's if I hadn't already said). We also stopped at a bridge and a few of us had a swim in the river beneath where there were also a few rock jumps. That night we stayed at the Prince Albert hotel which was very posh but had a backpacker section, still posh but at backpacker prices so that was cool. Upon arrival we had a beer tasting session and a jazz band played in the bar that evening, so we stayed for a few beers and had quite an early night, just starting to get to know each other on our new bus.

4: Nelson - Westport. We stopped at the Nelson Lakes National Park for a picnic lunch by the lake which was so beautiful (see picture of me swimming surrounded by mountains.) The only thing we had to avoid was the massive eels sharing the water with us! At the hostel I cooked a nice meal with my new buddies Shannon and Caitlin aka Team America which was followed by a game of footie in the park. We all jumped back on the big green bus in the evening and drove down to the beach where we built a big bonfire. Once it was going a few of us ran down to the sea for a quick dip, then it was back around the fire to warm up. I was the only prepared person, having bought marshmallows earlier in the day, though everyone else had remembered their beer luckily. So we all sat around the fire for several hours and really got to know each other, it was a good bonding session!

5: Westport - Poo pub. We had quite a long walk on our journey this morning which led us along the sea side cliff tops, eventually reaching a seal colony. The seals were really smelly and quite noisy but it was cool to see, they've sure got some grip on those rocks! Not long after we stopped for another walk, down onto a beach with little waterfalls flowing down to it and cool rock jumps and then yet another walk to the 'pancake rocks' which showed a resemblance but didn't look tempting enough to take a bite. Another great bonding session took place this evening in the form of a fancy dress party at the infamous 'Poo pub' - not sure why it's named so but is actually quite famous having apparently appeared in a few films and adverts. We had a brilliant meal beforehand cooked by the landlord (the oldest in NZ - 81) and Cheese our bus driver, steak, venison, pasta, bread, vegetables, etc. Then everyone in my room - Team America, 2 English girls Jess and Briony and Brazilian Bernado - helped each other get ready and I somehow got persuaded into dressing as... a girl. Anyway, everyone loved it and we all had a hilarious night of dancing, singing and drinking games so it's all good.

6: Poo pub - Franz Josef. No walks or stopovers worth mentioning today, just straight through to Franz where we booked our ice climbs for the next day. After that we got a group together of about 15 of us and went paintballing! We played 4 games of capture the flag and our team won all 4 - we kicked ass! There were some good shots and bruises resulting and we all went home completely drenched from the rain and smelling from rolling around in the mud! Luckily the hostel had a 30 person spa so we all jumped straight in :-(

7: Franz Josef. The day of our ice climbs. An early start at 7.45am and my group were first onto the glacier that morning. This meant we had to cut our way through parts of the glacier as a result of the nights glacial activity and we had to watch where we were going more than the other groups. Exciting! The climb to the top involved walking along some narrow ledges and up some steep stairs, where there were normally ropes to hold onto. There was also a bridge, well actually a wooden plank, over a big crevass which freaked some people out. Once we got to the top the guides set up ropes in 4 different places and we were briefed on how to ice climb. Then we got straight into it! It was really cool, something I'd never pictured myself doing... at times it wasn't possible to dig your boots into the ice wall (they had two spikes on the front as well as on the bottom) so you were simply relying on hanging your body weight from the ice picks, and on top of that hoping they wouldn't slip out! You had to really dig the picks in for them to stay and it got really tiring by the last climb. After we made our way through some caves and on the way back down enjoyed the amazing views. We were also very lucky to have a nice sunny day for it. Once we got back to the hostel we had some beers and played a game throwing beer caps into a glass for several hours, it's suprising how fun it can be! Then we all went to the bar in the evening.

8: Franz - Wanaka. Our first stop off today was at Lake Matheson for breakfast with a view of snowcapped Mount Cook - the highest mountain in NZ. Later in the day we made an unplanned stop in a river bed! I was asleep as the situation was progressing, until we suddenly hit a massive rock and became grounded on it! I was suprised to say the least when I looked out the window to see a river rushing past next to us, god knows why we were even there! So we wedged some rocks out and gave the bus a big push and we were on our way again. That night in the hotel turned hostel we had a big group game of flip cup, with Team America helping our team to victory!

Then we moved down to Queenstown which I will write as a separate post, having spent over a week there and taken part in many an extreme activity! Until then enjoy the photos above...

Kiwi Bus - the whole crew!

Long awaited Oz pics from... Yongala shipwreck!

Sea snake - one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.

The fallen wreck.

A turtle that swam to the surface right infront of us.

Stingray similar to the one that killed Steve Irwin.

Crazy cool fish with part of the wreck covered in coral.

Wreck swarmed by fish.

Turtle eating from the wreck.

Purple wrass - the biggest fish I've ever seen - bigger than me though you can't tell!

School of barracuda.

Franz Josef glacier and ice climbing

1km from the base of the glacier.

Making our way through an ice cave.

The ice climbing itself...

...and from below...

...and reaching the top!

At the highest point we reached.

NZ part 3

View over Wellington from the top of the cable car route.

Swimming in the Nelson Lakes National Park - bloody cold but amazingly beautiful.

Bonfire on the beach one night with all the crew.

Visiting a seal colony.

A bit of rock jumping ;-)

Me, Shannon and Kaitlin at the pancake rocks.

Bin liner themed (we're travellers on budgets!) fancy dress party - I probably shouldn't be putting this one up :-s

Paintballing!

Dec 16: Arrived in Auckland really tired because of the night flight and time changes meaning I only had about 2 hours sleep so after checking into my hostel I had a nap. When I woke up I went for a walk around the city and had my first New Zealand pie which didn't disappoint. By this time it was getting dark so time to find a bar, the Globe Bar in fact. This would become my hang out for the next few nights. I met an English guy called Higgy and we ruled the pool table together and impressed some Swedish girls with our skills!

17: After waking up it was time to find the supermarket for some groceries. I got some microwaveable baked bean toasties which were totally gross and also had my first yoghurt in ages. There was a park right behind my hostel so I decided to go in there and read some stuff and having still not properly caught up on my sleep I ended up falling asleep in the sun on the grass... but the sun didn't last long and I was abruptly woken up by the rain! I ran back to the hostel for some dinner and headed out to the bar again. Turning up at 7pm on a Sunday wasn't a great idea (empty) but at least Higgy was there and there was free punch! We stayed all night, meeting other interesting people including a really weird English guy and a big American guy who had won $40 million on the US lottery. He was buying shots by the dozen. Actually 5 dozen at a time! When the bar closed we went in search for a Chinese and ended up eating burgers and hot dogs from the biggest takeaway van I've ever seen lit up with fairy lights. We also met some German's who were going for a picnic (it was 4am) - very odd.

18: Another disturbed morning with the whole room being awake and out and about by 9am (I only met one of them, despite it being a full 12 bed room) meant I was up by that time too. So I went round the city, seeing the Sky Tower (tallest in the Southern Hemisphere) and other sights of which there weren't many. It was however the last day of the current Ashes test so I met up with Higgy and co. We were watching in one pub and left when we were 8 men down. By the time we got to the next pub we were already 9 men down and it quickly went to lunch. As play continued someone said "I'm gonna get another pint" to which someone else responded "I'd just get a half if I were you!" to which the England cricket team responded by having their last man bowled out and us losing the Ashes. So off we went to the Globe Bar. We stayed till it closed again and this time decided to check out the 24 hour bars we'd heard of. We found an Irish one which was in fact full of Irish people and stayed there until 6.30am when it closed. I was catching a bus at 8am so decided there was no point going to bed so went and used the internet till my bus was there!

19: The bus first drove to the top of a volcano on the outskirts of the city to take a look around by which time I was already fast asleep spread across the back seat! Then we made our way to Hot Water Beach which was as the name suggests. It takes a bit of work though, having to dig a hole big enough for everyone to sit in. And you have to dig in the right spot (which we struggled to find) to hit hot water, but when you do it really it boiling, often too hot to touch. We were staying in a quite nice converted house style hostel where I played lots of games with my new pal Anthony. These included pool, darts, boules, that game where you hit a ball around a pole (and I hit the ball too hard so that it went through the bat and the broken piece of bat hit and cut me in the face!) and yahtzee. Oh yeah!

20: My second early morning, activity filled day on the Kiwi bus began with a visit to a massive quarry, just because it was on the way and interesting to see. Soon after this we stopped off again for a tramp through the bush, as the Kiwi's would put it. The path followed an old mining railway track and went through some really small and some really long tunnels through the mountains which was pretty cool. We also got to go over, and shake, some old swing bridges high above the river. We made one more stop this day for a quick photo opportunity in the town of Hobbiton, where much of the Lord of the Rings was filmed - of no interest to me havign never read any of the books or seen and of the films but I got my picture anyway in case I do some day. We finally arrived in Rotorua and after checking in heading straight back out on the bus just outside of town to go zorbing. That's rolling down a big hill in a big inflated ball filled with water for those who didn't know. Our bus driver had never done it, despite the fact he gets all activities for free, so I convinced him to join me and a friend in our ball. Three people in one of these balls turned out to be madness and we all left with a few bruises and absolutely soaked and shaken up, well worth it! My evening was spent in the bar at the hostel where I made friends with someone who worked there but was on their day off cueing free drinks and I also ruled the pool table!

21: On our way out of Rotorua we visited 'Te Puia' - a site of geysers and mudpools. It was good to see, especially the largest of the geysers which shot steaming water out of the ground about 20m into the air. But it was a bit of a rip off and stank of eggy farts from the sulphur being released! Our walk of the day today was into some caves in Waitomo in preparation for our caving the next day. The walking track went round in a circle and once we'd completed it the driver told the people at the front to carry on walking and made his way to the back to see if they had been paying attention to where we had gone. Me and two others caught on but the rest of the group continued walking; meanwhile we got back on the coach and drove off leaving them walking the same track! There was nothing in Waitomo so we played a drinking game in the (really nice) hostel called beer pong. It was great fun as anyone who knows it will know, if not maybe we'll play one day!

22: This morning we took exploring the caves in the area to the next level by the form of black water rafting. This involves climbing own into them, through parts of them and for the rest of the time floating along in a rubber tube or jumping off waterfalls in the tube. We had lights on our helmets to see but in parts we turned all the lights off so that it was pitch black and we coul see hundreds and hundreds of glow worms on the ceilings. The pitch black also provided the perfect opportunity for tipping each other! On our return we were given free soup and bagels which was a very welcoming meal helping recovery from the freezing cold water. Round the corner we went to see a rabbit being sheared which was a bit weird, the rabbits are strapped into what looks like a torturing machine for the process! Then we made our way own to Taupo in the afternoon, stopping at the Huka Falls which were pretty impressively strong an illegal to go down, despite the fact that some people still do, not always living to tell the tale. Continuing the activity filled day, upon our arrival at the hostel I decided in a spur of the moment decision to do a skydive! I was going to either o it in the south island or on my way back north, but it was a nice clear day and all my friends were doing it so I decided it was time. We arrived and signed our lives away and instead of going for the cheap 12,000 ft dive with no vieo or photos I went for the 15,000 ft ive with video and photos. I'm really glad I did though, it was a brilliant experience despite my parachute getting caught! We edged our way to the edge of the plane and I hung myself off, dangling in the rushing wind. I think the guy strapped to my back said something to me but I wouldn't have a clue what because I didn't want to wait for the moment we began our fall another second. You can see this in the video from the massive smile on my face! Then I felt a push and leant back slightly putting us into a backflip. Once we leveled out he pulled a cord letting out a line to keep us level. He then put us into a spin for several revolutions before balancing us out again, when it was time to pose for the cameras whilst trying to take in the views - something very difficult to do when the wind is passing through the gaps in your goggles at 200 kmph! Before I knew it I felt ourselves heaved back up into the sky as the parachute was opened, an then spinning again as the parachute tangled. The guy said to me "I'm just gonna try and sort out this tangled parachute so that we don't have any problems... how are you?" to which I responded "Never mind me, I'm fine, how's the bloody parachute?!" It turned out okay though and I was ale to take off my goggles and properly take in the views as we fell at a much more casual pace. But even the 5 minute descent went past like lightening and after a couple of spirals and turns getting us to the landing area we landed smoothly on our feet and I walked away unscathed. It had been an amazing experience and all that was left to do was jump in joy for the camera!

23: I changed buses today, skipping ahead a day so that I would be arriving in Wellington on Christmas eve and not Christmas day. We stopped at lunchtime near Mount Doom for a tramp through the bush and along the rivers to a waterfall. Then we travelled some very windy roads down through the mountains to a place called River Valley. Believe it or not, there was a river and it was in a valley and it was a really beautiful place. Across the river was a cool little platform on a zip wire, you were able to jump off in the middle or travel all the way to the other side and jump off the rocks there. Once in the water it was a case of swimming as past as possible back to the side to get out, absolutely freezing! Me and Anthony invented a game called benchy, a version of curby in stead involving benches. We also played a game of seeing who could hammer a nail into a log quickest with one swing at a time.

24: Today I got my first decent lie in in nearly a week, till 10am. We didn't leave until 1 after some lunch, stopping in a small town called Bulls where they had comedy signs on all the public facilities and some shop names such as 'NON RETURN-A-BULL' at the post office and 'RELIEV-A-BULL' at the toilets. I jumped off the bus an hour before arriving in Wellington in a town called paraparaumu aka Pram, where I was picked up by my friend Tracey from my days back in 'Nam. We went back to her house where I met her family who I would be spending Christmas and the next week with and they were all really welcoming :-) After settling in to my new home and enjoying the previously unappreciated delights of carpet and baths among other things we went to her brothers house which was in the centre of Wellington to go out for Christmas Eve. We drank for a while at his house with his housemates and then made our way into town in one of his friends vans which had the number plate 'PIE ETA' - how cool! Town wasn't very good though, only one bar was open so we stayed and played some pool then went back to her brothers house where we stayed the night.

Sorry for bad updating but I've been really busy and not around internet much and when I have been it's really expensive! This is all I have time for now but will crack onto getting up to date ASAP :-)