Kia Ora

We got up nice and early to make the most of our only full day in Sydney. Our hotel had a viewing deck on the 45th floor, so we went up there to check out the view. The weather was amazing, again, so you could see for miles. We headed out to go and see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, it was only 830am but we wanted to beat the rush of tourists. It was a nice walk there through a few parks and it was odd to see everybody else rushing about trying to get to work. The Opera House was pretty cool, although it was smaller than I imagined, and the bridge is very impressive. We took a load of photos and wandered around the outside of the Opera House before deciding that it was time for breakfast! After some eggs on toast we headed for the ferry terminal. The Taronga Zoo had been recommended to us by quite a few people we'd met in New Zealand so we wanted to go there, didn't just want to wander around the city. It was a 15 minute ferry trip to the zoo, was great to get out into the harbour to see the city. As the zoo is on a hill, there is a cable car that you take up to the top and then you walk your way down through the zoo and end up at the ferry terminal again. It felt like we were about to go skiing again but cool to see the elephants from above. The zoo was brilliant, really cool to see all the native animals; kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, koalas and loads of others. There was also all the usual animals there as well, saw a seal show and listened to a talk about the elephants they had. We only ended up leaving at 1630, after 5 hours at the zoo! When we got back to the ferry terminal we walked to the harbour bridge and half way across it to see the Opera House and harbour from up there. Really good view, especially with the sun starting to set. I'm the evening we went to Darling Harbour to get some food. Very cool place, there are loads of restaurants and bars there where you can get pretty much any food that you want. There was even a night club that was pretty busy, at 8pm! We went to a restaurant called Criniti's, where they do 1m long pizzas (and loads of other amazing food)! We got a table on the balcony looking out over the harbour so that was nice. As it was our last night of travelling we thought we'd go all out and treat ourselves to one of the metre long pizzas, they let you choose 3 pizzas that make up the metre so that you don't get bored of the same toppings. We ordered a starter of olives as well, along with a warning from the waiter that this was quite a lot of food for two! There were loads of olives, couldn't finish them as we got fed up of them. The pizza was absolutely gigantic! It was great pizza and we tried our best to eat it all, quite a few people stopped by our table in amazement at the pizza, or to tell us we were crazy. We ate just over two thirds of the pizza, which was a pretty decent effort, before we had to ask for a doggy bag. We then headed back to the hotel, very slowly as we both had huge bellies. We had to do a bit of packing when we got back and then watched tv for a bit, too full to lie down and sleep!

We started the day at Raffles by having breakfast before checking out. We then sat by the pool until 12 before heading to the airport for our flight to Sydney. We were queuing up for check in, with loads of other people, when the screens flashed up showing that there was a 3 hour delay to the flight! Luckily they still checked us all in and took our big bags and even gave us $18 of vouchers as compensation, the downside was that Fiji airport is pretty small so within half an hour we had been through all of the shops. We bought some lunch and then just sat about for the rest of the time waiting. There were so many kids on our flight it was ridiculous, they were running riot in the terminal being so bored of the delay. When we finally got on the flight it turned out that to watch any in flight entertainment you had to download an app on your phone before hand, or pay for a tablet so we just read. We got to use our free vouchers to buy a meal on the flight; a nice pie, chocolate and a drink. We arrived in Sydney just after 7pm and were worried that we would have some of our souvenirs taken from us at customs (Australia are really strict). Luckily they saw we were only there for 2 days and just said we could go straight though! After buying a train ticket we got on the airport express into the city, felt like being in Holland because of the double decker trains. When we got to Town Hall stop we headed to our hotel. It was weird being back in a big city, so many skyscrapers around - our hotel being one of them. It was pretty late by this time so we just headed straight to bed.

We got up early today to make the most of the last few hours that we had on the island. Ate a huge breakfast, because stupidly they don't include lunch on your last day, but after 4 plates of breakfast I was feeling pretty full! We then had to pack up and check out for 10am, we kept our snorkels so that we could use them during the day. Out big bags were being looked after by the porters, but we had to keep a hold of our little bags - so we just sat on a lounger on the decking to stop everything being covered in sand. It was a bit cloudy in the morning, but by midday the sun was out again so we went and did a last snorkel session. When we went to get our deposit back for the snorkels, the guy in the office asked if we had tickets for the 3.30 departure that we had been booked on, which we hadn't been told about and didn't have because we'd arrived on the resort boat. It turned out that we'd been booked into the 11am departure, on the resort boat, but had been told that we were leaving on the island hopper. Luckily they could just give us a ticket, otherwise we would have been a bit stuck. It's one of the only problems with Octopus, they're a bit too stuck in Fiji time that their organisation is pretty horrible. At 3.30 we left the island in the little boats, some staff performed the leaving song and waved us off. We then got onto the Yasawa Flyer island hopper, a big yellow catamaran. It took about 2 hours to reach port Denarau on the mainland, yet it was quite interesting to see some of the other islands and resorts (South Sea island was tiny!). We then took a free coach to Raffles Gateway, got into the hotel at around half 7. We were pretty tired so just quickly had dinner, some more fish, and then headed off to the room to watch tv.

I got up at 730 today, left rach to lie in, as I was going on the mountain peak hike. Had a quick breakfast before heading off with 5 other guests and our guide, Murray, at 8. We started off by walking across the hill into the opposite bay, which is where the local village is based. We wandered along the beach until we reached the mouth of a small river, this is where the hike properly got started. After crossing the river we started our ascent of the mountain - not via the usual method of cutbacks, but the simple and efficient method of walking straight up the mountain. Even though it was early in the morning in the heat was still very intense, which made the hike so much more difficult. The parts where we climbed sheer rock faces were also pretty challenging! It was so rewarding though to make it up to the first peak, at just under 500m the views were amazing. Murray was doing the hike barefoot so made us all feel pretty bad that he hadn't even broken a sweat. After a quick fruit break we headed off towards the highest peak at 500m. This had even more rock climbing, some pretty sketchy areas, but it was so beautiful at the top. The hike down was almost more difficult than the way up, mainly as it was constantly getting hotter, I ran out of water around half way down which was horrible. In total it was around a 3 and a half hour hike. Back at the resort we just chilled out at the beach, did a bit of snorkelling and ate. It was our last full day on Octopus and our lunch and dinner - the food was amazing as usual. We had grilled matimati for lunch and dinner was another fish with mashed cassava. I'm the evening it was time for the International Crab Race! We both picked a crab and placed them into the race pot. We then got ready to cheer around the race circle! It was a 3 heat event, with the option to bribe your crab back into the race if they didn't qualify. Crab 12 failed in the first race so we bribed the judge to put him back in, but he didn't get anywhere near qualifying for the final so he got chucked to the beach. Crab 13 made it to the final easily but couldn't pull off the win. It was a really fun evening.

View from the top of the mountain peak hike!

Got up at 8, Rach was a bit hungover after almost zero alcohol which was pretty impressive! We grabbed 2 loungers on the beach and just chilled out. The tide was out really far with bits of the coral sticking out so we couldn't go snorkelling in the morning. At 11 our friend Rachael, who we'd met on the kiwi experience bus, turned up on Octopus. She'd been kicked off her island for the day because someone had hired it out for the day! We had lunch together, had the Fijian dish of chicken and rice which was delicious, 2 whole thighs as well. In the afternoon we got a bit of snorkelling done and just sunbathed. There wasn't any yoga today, nothing happens on a Sunday as it's a day of rest, so we just sat around the coconut bar to watch the sun set whilst waiting for the shell to blow for dinner. It's funny how the shell blowing is your biggest worry on the island! It was seafood night tonight, so there were loads of different sea food dishes on the tables. Me, Rach and half the San Fran couple had a whole tables portion to ourselves (the family filling the rest of the table got their own servings because they had young kids) so we had a proper feast. The food was amazing as usual, we struggled to finish it all between the 3 of us though! Tonight it was movie night, we had a choice of 3 films; Cloud Atlas, Tower Heist or GI Joe. Everyone got convinced to vote for Cloud Atlas, which must have been a prank because it turned out to be a horrible film, at least no one voted for GI Joe. We got given an ice cream during the film, but they missed us out with the popcorn. When the film finally finished at 11pm we headed straight to bed, we'd been bored to death by the film!

Early start this morning, as we were off to go snorkelling with manta rays at 930. 16 of us were taken in the small boats to a channel, 20 minutes away, where the manta rays come to feed and mate. There are 38 rays that are known to come to this channel that can be around 4m wide. In the water we saw 4 different manta rays, they were gigantic! 4m is huge when it's floating about underneath you, wish I had a waterproof case for my camera. One of the rays was pregnant as well, you could tell by the bump on her lower back. A couple of the rays started playing a few games when we were watching, started flipping upside down and circling each other. Back at the resort we went straight to lunch, tried a fish pizza which was ok - could have made a better choice though! We then chilled on a lounger up on the deck by the coconut bar, quite nice as its still pretty much beach front but you don't get sand blasted when the wind picks up. The weather has been holding up amazingly so far, been around 34 every day, with hardly a cloud in the sky. In the evening we went to sunset yoga again, this time there were only 3 of us taking part. It was a lot better like this as she could move us into the correct positions and we had room to properly spread out. We then headed back to the bure to get changed, party night tonight. We had dinner with the craziest girl Angie, a German backpacker Christina, a San Fran couple on their pre-moon and Texan couple on their honeymoon. Dinner was a pumpkin soup, chicken and cassava followed by ice cream. We then got invited back to the honeymoon couple bure for a few shots before party night. We heard some ridiculous stories from the honeymooners about how they met, got into such detail about what happened in the back of his car! The party at coconut bar was pretty dead when we turned up, we got given a few free shots of rum and red bull (so weak). We managed to get the party kicked off, even came up with a manta ray dance move! Bar closed at 12pm so had to head off to bed.

We had planned to go to the 7am yoga session, but decided a lie in was the better choice. It had been weird sleeping with a mosquito net over the bed, there aren't that many around at the moment as its been quite windy but didn't want to take chances (or wake up with a few lizards from our open bathroom!). Breakfast was good, there quite a lot of choice of warm and cold dishes in a buffet style. We both had an omelet and lots of fruit before heading down to the beach. We spent all day just relaxing in our sun loungers on the beach, when we got too hot we would just go for a quick snorkel over the reef. There are so many different types of fish out there, it's amazing. It's so chilled out on the island, everyone just lazes about until they hear the shell blow for lunch. For lunch I had a fish curry which again was really nice, Rach had a Thai Chicken salad. At 530 we went to try out sunset yoga. It was really busy, loads of people were trying it out for the first time like us. The yoga was, surprisingly, quite good. Some crazy stretches and showed how inflexible I am! It was relaxing though and nice to do it during the sunset. Tonight it was Fijian night, the staff and locals did a performance for us and then we had to all join in with a dance and conga round the pool. Everyone also had to wear a flower behind their right ear if taken, or left if single. The fire performers then did their routine again for the staff too see. For dinner we had a mix of Fijian food which was so tasty, the dishes just got shared around the table. We then had cocktails at the coconut bar with Matt and Sarah before heading to bed.

First view of Octopus Resort from the boat

We left Raffles Gateway in the morning, our first experience of 'Fiji time'. We'd been told that a bus would come and pick us up at 730-8am, so we were a bit worried when it went past that time and hasn't turned up until 830 - luckily another couple, Matt and Sarah, were going to Octopus Resort with us so we knew they hadn't forgotten to pick us up. Once we finally got down to the marina we got into the little resort rib that would be taking us to the island. It was pretty full with about 10 of us on there, plus 2 crew. The journey to Octopus took about one and a half hours, at times it got pretty bouncy as we were sat at the front and going quite fast! Once we made it into the resort bay we had to transfer into a smaller boat that could take us onto the beach. We were welcomed by a group of locals singing and playing guitars and ukuleles. After a welcome cocktail and talk we were given the key to the bure that we'd be staying in and went to unpack. Our bure was really nice, it was supposed to be in the garden but we'd got lucky and it was actually right by the beach (we just didn't have private loungers), the bathroom was cool as well, it had an open top shower so you could see the sky when you looked up - perfect for bugs coming in! We chilled by the pool for a bit until they blew the shell horn that signalled lunch was ready. They have lots of tables of 8, on a sand floor, so you always eat with other people which is great for meeting people. I had the Fijian dish of the day for lunch, it was some raw fish with some cassava, didn't realise it was going to be raw until it came but it was still tasty. In the afternoon we went to hire some snorkelling equipment because there's a reef just off the beach. There are so many fish out there it's amazing. The sunset in the evening was beautiful, there were a couple of clouds on the horizon so when the sun was setting they went all pink and orange, made it even better that all you can see is the ocean ahead. After yoga we went to the welcoming ceremony that they hold for new guests. This is a traditional Fijian ceremony where you introduce yourselves to the chiefs, and drink a coconut shell of kava. The kava didn't taste too bad, wont be drinking it regularly though! The shell then blew for dinner, we had a BBQ with loads of meat and fish and vegetables - such good food! After dinner a couple staying at the resort, who are professional fire dancers, put on a performance for us, it was really impressive.

We headed to the airport at 9am, we had a McDonald's breakfast once we'd checked in for our flight and then sat around waiting - not a lot to do in Auckland airport, it's pretty small. The flight with Fiji Airways was pretty decent, we got an exit row so had lots of leg room and the meal they served was amazing (lamb burger). We arrived in Nadi, Fiji at 3.30pm and then got onto a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel for the night, it was right across from the airport but was pretty nice. The pool there had a slide so we spent must of the afternoon playing on that. It was nice to be in the warmth for a change, it was about 30 degrees. In the evening we had dinner at the restaurant, I had a chicken pasta and Rach had a seafood platter, before heading to the room to just chill out and watch some tv.

Today we just stayed in Auckland, as we hadn't really seen much of the city itself yet. We started off by going out for a cooked breakfast at a Belgian cafe round the corner from the hostel, both had a huge breakfast which sorted us out till dinner! The weather was quite nice when we'd finished breakfast so we decided to go up the sky tower. The views from the top are amazing of the whole city, we spotted Waiheke island out in the distance. Unfortunately it started to cloud up when we were up there, but you could still see quite far. Watched a few people do a controlled jump off the side of the tower, looked good but not quite as exciting as a bungy. We then headed to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, supposed to be the best museum in the city. It's a huge museum with loads of different exhibitions; Maori culture, Pacific Culture, Deep Ocean Creatures, Volcanos (with a simulator of what would happen if one of Auckland's volcanos went off), New Zealand War and more. We spent about 4 hours walking round it before it closed at 5pm. In the evening it was $1 a pizza slice night in the bar next door to the hostel, only managed 7 slices! It was odd because this was also how we'd spent out first night in Auckland when we had met up with Emma!

We went to Waiheke today, it's an island just out from Auckland that takes 40 minutes to get to on the ferry. Cuddles had recommended that we come here, rather than go to the bay of islands, because the weather forecast wasn't great. It turned out, however, that there was hardly a cloud in the sky and it was fairy warm! When we got to Waiheke we had arranged to go on a hour and a half bus tour of the island so that we knew a bit about it and where to go for the rest of the day. The tour was ok, the island is big on wine producing so a lot of talk about that and the views. We then got off the bus at Oneroa, meaning long sand, which is the main town on the island. We had a packed lunch down on the beach and then explored the shops in town, lots of little craft shops. There wasn't really much to do in Oneroa and we got told to go to Onetangi, meaning funeral beach (called this from a Maori story), as there were supposedly lots of restaurants and cafes there. All 3 restaurants were closed! We had a wander along the beach and up to a viewing point over the bay before getting the bus back to Oneroa. In the evening we did a little wine tasting in the town (all the vineyards were closed during winter) and then went for dinner at a restaurant with an ocean view. The food here was really nice, had my first proper New Zealand lamb which was brilliant. When we left the restaurant it turned out that we had missed the bus to the ferry by 5 minutes, and that the next one wasn't for one and a half hours. We'd had quite a bit of wine by then so decided that we'd walk the route back to the ferry! Didn't turn out too bad, we still had to wait 30 mins for the next ferry when we got to the terminal. We got back to the hostel at 11 and went straight to bed.

Today was out last day on the Kiwi Experience bus :( It was just another long drive to Auckland from Taupo, with a short stop in Rotorua to pick people up and a lunch break in Matamata. Matamata was cool as it's the more direct link to Hobbiton, so the info centre has been designed to like like a hobbit hole. Everyone on the bus just ended up sleeping most of the way back to Auckland, the scenery isn't as nice once you get closer to the city. Once we got to Auckland we said bye to Cuddles, had been on his bus for such a long time now, and then got checked in to Nomads. It was weird cos we'd already seen the hostel when we visited Emma when we first arrived. We wandered around Auckland city for ages and did a bit of shopping for most of the afternoon. In the evening we made ourselves a site fry and sat on the roof terrace to eat, pretty decent view from up there of all the skyscrapers. For the rest of the night we just sat about in the lounge watching tv, the film Savages was on - it is so bad!

We left Wellington at 750 to start a mammoth drive to Taupo. We'd covered around 390km by 1pm when we arrived! Didn't really stop anywhere except for a few toilet and food breaks. Slept for a good part of the drive and just watched the scenery go past for the rest. It was weird to be back in Taupo, seemed like so long ago that we had been here with Wazza and doing our skydive. There were only 7 of us on the bus and no one seemed to be interested in mingling so me and rach went to go play some minigolf. Was pretty fun (I won!), even though there wasn't even a windmill! In the evening the hostel made us chili con carne (again) for $5 so we just ate that, cheaper and easier than cooking. We then went to a pub on the lake front to watch the All Blacks beat the Argentinians.

View of Picton harbour from the Interislander

Today was pretty much just a travelling day. We left Kaikoura and drove up towards Picton to catch the ferry. The couple who had missed the bus were the first ones on today! Along the way we learnt that the ferry had been delayed, so Cuddles decided to make a stop for some wine tasting. It turned out to be the same vineyard that we had stopped at before we got to Nelson - experts on their wine now. At Picton the group split, most people were only travelling around the South Island so Cuddles' group. The 7 of us going north then boarded the ferry to Wellington. It was pretty boring, left at 245 and only got in at 1850. As we got there so late it meant that we couldn't do anything in Wellington again, only place I wish we'd spent an extra day so we could actually see it. We just had a quick dinner in the bar next door, $10 meal deal, before doing a clothes wash and then setting up a drying operation in our room. Luckily there were only 3 people in a 6 bed dorm so we had loads of space to hang stuff up. Connoisseur