Matthew's Website

I took the train up from Wellington to Auckland on Saturday which was pretty good and the train left early on Saturday morning for it’s journey first along the coast and then through the mountains. Unfortunately the windows are far too shiny to really get a good photo and there is too much pollen on [...]

So I got up at 8am on Thursday for the 9am bus which was later than everyone else in my dorm who had mostly only arrived the day before – I think people are trying to do the whole country in 2 weeks. I’ve spent 5 weeks here and could have spent more time in [...]

As I didn’t want to go on the internet for an hour I haven’t been on Wifi for a while so I haven’t made any posts. So the post on Wellington is also new. First thing on Saturday I headed across from Wellington to the port on the South Island known as Picton. The boat [...]

After a long and boring bus ride down from Turangi, aside from viewing north islands largest volcanoes on the way I arrived in Wellington on Wednesday evening. First I drove up with my cousin to a viewpoint (whose name I have forgotten) overlooking the city of Wellington. After that beautiful food we went back to [...]

So I left Rotaruha early on Monday morning and headed further south on the bus. Finally on the bus we got to watch a movie unfortunately I got out before it actually started but I’m definitely requesting it on the rest of the bus trips. After arriving in Turangi I went on a walk down [...]

After a joyous coach ride from the north of the island I arrived in Rotaruha. On the first evening I had a delicious Thai meal in a modestly named but excellent Thai restaurant named “amazing Thai”. The restaurant was fairly authentic but they did try and encourage their customers to downgrade to milder versions of [...]

I had a fairly lazy stay in the bay of islands actually and I didn’t do that much except wince at the food prices as every meal seemed to cost £9 which makes it more expensive than New York – of course now the exchange rate is approximately $1=£1 that is no longer the case [...]

From Auckland I headed north of Auckland on the bus. Unlike the buses in south America they didn’t have Hollywood’s greatest on offer for entertainment and they also stopped the bus at a service station on route. So instead of the low-brow film I get to talk about the book I read instead. I’m currently [...]

I have been in Auckland for a few days now. I arrived on Monday evening and then had dinner with my family who live in Auckland. On Tuesday I went into the centre of town on my own to do some shopping and other chores. After that I headed to the excellent Auckland Museum, it [...]

I’ve just flown into New Zealand, the flight was fairly uneventful and I saw Mamma Mia the film on the flight. The food was also OK. I’m now staying with some family in Auckland.