Tuesday 2nd May – 17:34pm – Ive just finished work, and am once again too tired to do anything but sit around and eat…

I feel like I’m rather neglecting my travel journal of late. I do a lot, mostly work and rugby, but still I have things to talk about, yet I find myself slumbering around and being lazy on my days off. Since the last update I have actually achieved a lot;

Having realised I need to travel to Auckland for my consulate meeting, I was torn between flying or coming up with a different, more fun way of scaling the country. Seeing as I only have a few weeks left in New Zealand, and I’ve travelled hardly any of the south island, I have decided to rent a car and drive from Queenstown to Auckland. It’s just over 1700 kilometres drive, so should be quite a mission. I first got the idea when I was hitchhiking into Wanaka for rugby, and was picked up by an English guy who introduced me to van relocations. It turns out a lot of people fly to New Zealand, rent a van, drive a long distance then fly home, leaving the van where they fly from. Due to this, there are a lot of vans in places where not a lot of people want to go, let alone rent a van from, especially down south. It seems there is an abundance of vans being left in and around Christchurch. So luckily, after a few weeks of searching and hoping, I have managed to secure a camper van to drive from Queenstown Airport to Auckland, for the grand sum of $34 for the week. The car company, Jucy, are also paying for the ferry cost and a full tank of fuel for the journey… heres the catch; you have to get the car back in 5 days. That’s roughly 340 kilometres a day. To make it worth my while, and a similar price to a flight, I will be visiting as many cool places as I can on the way, whilst also stopping off at friends’ places along the way. As it is also a camper-van, I can sleep in the back in free camping places anywhere in New Zealand. I have booked the days off work, and leave next Wednesday the 10th of May. Here is the provisional plan;

• Wednesday 10th May, 08:00am – Hitchhike into Queenstown and get the bus to the airport. Pick up the van at 12:00pm midday, and head straight off towards Christchurch. After roughly 3 hours drive, I will stop off at Lake Tekapo, to take some pictures, take in the surroundings, and have a rest. I will eat, then drive another 3 hours to Christchurch. I will eat and explore Christchurch, before retiring to ‘Governors Bay’ to find the free camping site for the evening.

• Thursday 11th May, 07:00am – I will try to wake fairly early, and get on the road again as quickly as possible. I had planned to drive north and stop off at Kaikoura, the town that was ravaged by the earthquake just a few months ago. I really want to walk along the Peninsula Walkway, and try to see some seals in the wild, however the road from Kaikoura heading north is still closed due to damage caused by the Quake. If I was to head to Kaikoura, I would then have to drive a further 4 hours out of my way just to get to Blenheim, and then Picton, for the ferry. As much as I want to visit, the sheer amount of miles I will be covering over the 5 days is going to limit the excursions I take to an hour either side of my set route. Instead of Kaikoura, I will plan to stop somewhere in the Nelson Lakes National Park, perhaps wherever I feel tired and find a nice spot to rest up. I imagine I will only stop for food and rest, then head straight onto Blenheim. I have found a free camping site by the coast, at a place called Robin Hood Camping Ground, which I will stay at if I don’t make the 6:45pm ferry to Wellington. If I make the ferry in time, I will arrive into Wellington at 10pm. I will then drive to Owhiro Bay for the free camping by the sea.

• Friday 12th May, 09:00am. I plan to explore as much of Wellington as possible, before heading off towards New Plymouth. It’s a 4 hour drive, but there isn’t much for me to see in New Plymouth apart from visiting Tiaan. If she is free i’ll head up there, if not i’ll spend longer exploring Wellington, and then stay somewhere half way between Wellington and Hamilton. This day is fairly open for me.

• Saturday 13th May, 09:00am. After originally messing up the days, I promised a friend in Hamilton that I would be there for her birthday meal on Saturday evening. Now I have re-looked through the dates I could probably spend longer travelling, and get to Hamilton on the 14th. Then I could have a relaxing day before driving up to Auckland. However a promise is a promise, so I will wake up early on the 13th, and drive the brutal 3 hours to Hamilton. Once there I will see friends and relax.. hopefully.

• Sunday 14th May, 11:00am. My first lay in of the trip. I plan to sleep in, relax, and eat food for the majority of this day. Then I will decide to either stay another night in Hamilton, or head up to Auckland early. Either way I need to be in Auckland at 15:00pm the next day to drop the car off.

• Monday 15th May, 11:00am. I will again sleep in, then slowly head towards Auckland to drop the car off. Including traffic it should take 2 hours, which is nothing compared to what I would have driven before! After dropping the car off, I will bus it into the city centre and find my hostel. Im looking to book into Queen-street Backpackers. It looks cheap, has ‘great’ wifi and is a 2 minute walk to the embassy the next morning. After some nice food I guess i’ll have a few drinks somewhere then get an early night – as early as you can get in a hostel anyway.

• Tuesday 16th May, 07:30am. Queue my busiest day. I will wake up early, and head to the embassy for 07:45am. My appointment is at 08:00, and I need to be out and at the airport for 11:30am. It’s going to be tight, but what’s life without risk hay. I plan to head straight from the meeting to my flight, nip back down to Queenstown, then hitchhike from the airport to Cardrona, and have even offered to help out at work that evening if needed… it’s going to be hectic but I cant wait.

After booking my world-wind tour of New Zealand, I also managed to finally get some Premier grade rugby under my belt. I was selected on the bench for our game against Matakanui, came on at half time on the wing, and scored with my first touch. A backline move sent the ball out wide and I outpaced the covering defence to score in the corner. It was a thrilling debut touch, however I did very little for the rest of the game. I missed a few tackles and I made a few, and don’t think I touched the ball again. Despite this I was still happy I finally got a game. However apparently scoring on your debut isn’t enough to cement a first team position, and I was promptly dropped for the next crunch game against Wakatipu in Queenstown.  It was disheartening, but I went along for the game anyway as a group of the guys were going out in Queenstown afterwards for a night out. We all booked a hostel, and had a great time. It was Chunky’s 20th birthday, so we got smashed in the hostel and headed to a casino. after being denied drinks for being too drunk, I broke even twice and then lost money. We then headed out, where I was promptly denied entry to two nightclubs for being too pissed – it was quite the night. I headed back to Cardrona the next day in George’s van, and made it in time to have a nap before work.

I have also booked my journey for going back to America. Firstly, I will fly into Auckland on the 2nd of June, and head up to Whangarai to watch the Lions play the Provincial Barbarians. Ash will pick me up around 3pm, and we will head up in time to relax and have some food in town. After the game we will have some drinks, stay another night then head back down south. I plan to stay in Auckland from the 4th till the 8th, exploring and trying to enjoy the city I have never actually enjoyed before. It’s crowded and polluted but I plan to give it one last chance. I will then travel down to hamilton with Ash on the 8th, and meet with Kayla.

The plan is then to go on a mini road trip with Kayla, from the 8th till the 10th somewhere in the North Island, possibly Whitianga or Rotorua. We are then both going to Ash’s sisters birthday on the 10th in Hamilton. After this I will stay will stay in hamilton until the 12th, when Ash and I drive up to Auckland and fly to America. It’s going to be rushed but fun.