It’s a Friday night, I’m in a hostel with an awesome bar, good music and lots of people and yet I find myself sitting on Facebook. Why you ask? Partly because I can no longer afford to go drinking, but mainly because of my lack of sleep last night. When I first came away, I couldn’t sleep for a week or two as I was not used to having a room full of people (many of whom have serious snoring issues), who all come in at different times during the night. However, you soon get used to the noise of people both in and out of your room, noise from the streets and music from the bar. Thanks to this, I can now sleep on buses, trains, coaches, cars, planes and boats, in dorms with 12 people, in  rooms located next door to clubs and in beds which creak and squeak everytime someone moves. One thing, however, which is difficult to ignore, is when two of your roomies decide to have a bit of fun in the night, clearly a bit starved of action. Waking up to questionnable noises and a bed rocking way more than is acceptable is one of the moments you dread. Speak to most travellers and they will have had an experience of a similar kind. But what can you do? Too sleepy to think about climbing out of bed and sitting outside the room, unsure if anyone else is awake so not wanting to turn on the light and have a good old laugh, you merely have to sit it out, ears covered with an ipod and pillow and hoping to God it’s all over as quickly as it begun. In this case, thankfully, it was. Once one of the pair had left the room and the female offender was snoozing (and snoring…loudly) I braved sitting up in my bed hoping I wasn’t alone in my horror. I wasn’t. The eight other people in the dorm all trying to sleep had been roused by the same noises as I and luckily, we were able to have a serious giggle about it at 4am…so much so that by the time offender no.1 returned, we were in hysterics and I was actually crying with laughter. Clearly embarassed, the guy slunk back into bed with Ms. Snores-a-lot, and after making sure there was an appropriate distance between the pair, the rest of us fell back into a restless slumber. Although the pair tried to be quieter in the morning, when one of my roomies went to get up as she had early morning errands to run, she was horrified to find two naked people up to no good. Not surprisingly, she didn’t even bother to change into clean clothes before swiftly departing the room. A walk into town in her PJs was a sacrifice she was more than willing to make…

On a lighter note, yesterday I went swimming with wild Hector dolphins. This was a fantastic experience especially as three of us hired a car for the day in order to see some sights on the way. The friend driving the slightly shoddy veichle had done a lot of driving in NZ already so all was well, no problems with funny roads and traffic lights…However, there was a slight blip when, getting into the car, she remarked, ‘Oh, it’s an automatic.’ Questionning what she meant, she responded, ‘Well, the last time I drove an automatic was in Australia. I hit a kangaroo and wrote off the car.’ Right-o.

Back to safer ground and we found out the dolphins are the smallest and rarest in the world, with only about 7,500 left swimming the oceans. They are found mainly around New Zealand so it seemed an opportunity not to be missed. As with the surfing in Australia when it rained all day, the weather was dreadful and along with the rain came freezing winds and even colder water. Bobbing about in the ice cold ocean for just under an hour was not something I was anticipating on doing, but the dolphins made it all worthwhile. By tapping stones together and making noises under the water, the dolphins are drawn to you and are keen to play. By the end we had masses around us, jumping in the waves and circling us, trying to play games. It really was incredible.

Other than the swim, I’ve had a fairly tame time. After departing Queenstown, I headed to the southern most part of New Zealand, where I visited beaches, waterfalls, pubs and clubs and finally Milford Sound, the fiordland, which was absolutely stunning. After a long coach jouney we arrived at a ferry terminal where we took a two hour long boat cruise through the mountains and falls and were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day. Great opportunity to take hundreds of photos which inevitably all end up looking identical.

After this I went back to a town called Wanaka, which again, is a stunning place. A big skiing area, this town is heaving in the winter, but pleasantly calm during the summer months. It gave me a good chance to wind down after travelling non stop on buses and is definitely a place I’ve mentally noted to come back to.

Following this I headed back to Queenstown and then up to Christchurch, where I now find myself. Despite being warned that there was little to do in this city, I’ve had a very pleasant time sitting outside Starbucks in Cathedral Square, doing a good amount of people watching. The weather hasn’t improved over the last few days but thankfully I bought myself a new jumper as wearing the same one day after day resulted in it starting to smell like dog. I’m nothing if not a true lady.

Tomorrow I’m off on the road again, heading back up north to do some wine tours (something which has encouraged more than one friend to say I’m turning into my parents) and then back to the North Island to see what havoc I can wreak there.

Fingers crossed the beds up there will stay firmly still.