Anna and Helena were up early and left to drive the opposite journey to me up to Abel Tasman. Heiner was also up and left to meet his travelling companions for breakfast. I was last in the shower, but made it out the door by just after nine having phoned up about kayak hire. Richard…

I was up and out for the 9:15 full day hike on Franz Josef glacier. We were taken on a bus to the main car park and then walked in our group of 54 to the bottom of the glacier. We split into three groups for the first bit of the walk and then a…

I slept much better after yesterdays walk and woke up at half seven to glorious sunshine. Dave had woken up early and decided to get the 8 o’clock water taxi so we said goodbye. I got up and had breakfast, packed up my stuff and hit the road. I stopped off at Kaiteriteri whose beach…

Sunday 6th April 2008 I was up at ten to six after not really getting enough sleep. Dave started snoring at about half three and it took me a while to get back to sleep. At least the clocks went back last night so I gained an hour. I had my pre-prepared breakfast and got…

Saturday 5th April 2008 I was up pretty late after last night and so missed the home-made bread, which meant I had my usual fruit with yoghurt and muesli. Two of the guys from the hostel wanted a lift to Nelson and so I agreed to take them along with me. They had to help…

Friday 4th April 2008 After a good nights sleep, apart from the excitement of getting up in the early hours and feeling my way in the dark to the loo in the next building, I managed to pack up and leave shortly after nine. The journey was pretty uneventful with similar bits of road works…

I packed up my stuff and left the hostel shortly after 10am in the rain. I went down highway 1 and stopped at Nguruawahia to buy a proper road atlas, spring roll and use the high-tec public loo that played musak whilst I peed! I turned off onto highway 39 to avoid Hamilton and at…

After copping out last night with the curry I made myself a breakfast of fruit with yoghurt – not much work, but more than buying it as I did all through Thailand. I got a load of washing done and got a hire car booked for collection this afternoon. I also spent a fair bit…

We arrived into Sydney a little bit late and so I went straight to the departure gate for the Auckland flight. I only had to wait for about fifteen minutes before getting on the plane. I eventually got through immigration and customs since I had to declare that I had walking boots and had been…

After a lie-in till 8 this morning I went with Robert and Will to the Jim Thompson house and museum. The obligatory guided tour was actually good and pointed out the places we could come back and look around ourselves later. We did dopt the suggestion and looked around the grounds and smaller buildings and…