New Zealand

So we arrived in Christchurch around 10 days ago, which is apparently supossed to be 'more english than england' because of the architecture but we really didnt feel like we were at home at all so whoever said that quote was wrong! The weather here is very different to Australia - you could tell we were newcomers on our first bus when we turned up in shorts and flip flops and everyone else was in jeans and hoodies. We started the very next day on our Kiwi Experience buses. Because of our very short amount of time we're booked onto a new bus everday apart from one, so we knew before we came here that NZ would involve lots of travelling around. The landscape here really is amazing, every time you turn a corner it looks totally different to the last. Theres hills and mountains everwhere covered by everything from huge pine trees to massive dusty rocks. The colour of the rivers and lakes are actually unbelievable - the best way to describe it is that its so blue that it looks grey. We've found that we've wanted to take photos of everything we pass, and the photos so far dont do it justice. The whole land seems to be deserted and 'towns' are literally made up of one street with a couple of hostels a few shops and a handful of houses - nobody lives here i swear! Theres basically one road running through the whole of the south island (where we started our trip) so you cant go wrong if you're driving! We've filled our time with plenty of forest walks and wanders around the small towns we've been staying in, as well as visiting the coolest cinema in Wanaka where everyone sits on random sofas and armchairs and they have an interval in the middle so you can get hot food!!
We're currently in auckland (the north island) but getting here was a whole other story. We had a 8 hour kiwi experience bus ride from Queenstown up to Christchurch (where the flight left from) then the same evening we had to catch the flight to Auckland (after 6 hours waiting at the smallest airport ever). We arrived in Auckland at around midnight and grabbed a shuttle bus to our hostel, we got there at 1am, found that 1) the girl on the bunk below becky had took it upon herself to use not only her own pillow but becky's as well - nice - then just handed it to her and expected her to use it. And 2) my bed had obviously been slept in (no pillow case and the covers were scrunched up as if someone had just woken up). 3) My hair mousse had exploded all over my stuff during the flight. So at 2am becky went downstairs to complain, while the man basically got funny with her as if it wasnt his problem (we were both VERY tired and just wanted sleep) and i went into the loos and had to wash everything in my bag because it stunk of mousse - nice. We eventually got to bed at around 2:30am (i used my towel as a duvet) and had to then get up at 5:45am to get our 7am bus. We werent in the best of moods. But apart from that minor glitch everything here has been fine! Lots of bus journeys but also lots of free activities which we're very grateful for at this skint stage in time - we're living on the bare minimum of expenses coming out of our purses!