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Definitely my last night bus! After the glass barrier of my friend’s sleeper compartment smashed while she was asleep I decided that’s enough buses. Luckily she didn’t roll out and drop about 6′! And no, the bus didn’t stop!

However the relaxing atmosphere of Udaipur made up for it. We stayed in Hotel Kumbha Palace – comfortable with a nice rooftop restuarant. Udaipur is calmer and cleaner than alot of other spots in Rajasthan. Everyone is well used to tourists, without being too pushy, and there are lots of nice roof top restaurants, bakeries and European style cafes. There’s plenty of shopping here, for handy crafts and paintings in particular. We spent afternoons browsing, visited the impressive palace and cable car view point. There was a festival on while we were here aswell – great people watching opportunities!

After a  “bumpy” journey to Bikaner, mainly spent trying to keep some personal space between myself and my “friendly” round Indian man sitting beside me I found our guesthouse and met the gang.

Claire, the final accountant, Annie from Canada, Darko from Germany and Ishen from London had been travelling together for the previous week.

And so, the first surprise – our itinerary began with a trip to the holy rat temple. Click on the photo below – yes, around the rim of the bowls of milk are lined up happy rats!

The story goes that these rats are the reincarnated family members of those that come with gifts of food and offerings daily. After the rats we had an excellent meal in a local restaurant – Butter Paneer Masala is now a favourite!

As I said before, brunch in Melbourne is a big thing to do – every weekend, everyone does brunch. And no, it’s not just variations on the fry, there is usually an entire menu page dedicated to different delicious options. One example I recently tasted was this brioche french toast topped with stewed rhubarb, nom, nom, nom!

Abel Tasman National Park is part of the coastline at the north of the south Island. It is made up of white sandy beaches, the well maintained Coastal Track walkway, basic campsites and lots of sand-flies and mosquitoes!

Four of us decided to do a 2 night/3 day walking/kayaking trip. The first morning we drove to Marahau where we met a water taxi to bring us up the coast to near the end of the park at Totranui Bay. From here we hiked to our first campsite in Awaroa. It was a tough hour and a half as we had to carry all our camping gear and food. Due to a mix up at the information centre, we had expected our bags to be transferred for us and so had packed everything we wanted but it then turned out we had to carry it all ourselves!

After setting up the tents, we went for a well deserved sleep at the beach before strolling up to the only cafe on the beach for coffee and cake. When we got back to the campsite, it was dinner time so out came the gas stove to cook up our pasta/chorizo/tomato feast! Everything tastes better outdoors, although the onset of mosquitos was not so pleasant.

The mosquito army continued to increase in numbers and by sunset we had to dive into the tent to try and avoid getting bitten. They buzzed outside the tent all night but luckily none had gotten inside where we were sleeping.

The next morning, we left the campsite at 8am after a breakfast of porridge and fruit. Again it was hard going walking with all the gear and we were all quite tired when we reached the Ohanui Bay to start kayaking at 10am. Our Canadian guide Sally met us here and we had a lovely day cruising along the coast, going in and out, around different inlets.

We finished up kayaking around half three so after bringing all the gear to the campsite (It had been transported down by water taxi while we kayaked) we spent the afternoon on the beach, swimming and sunbathing. That night, after dinner (another pasta extravaganza) we went down to the caves at the end of the beach to see the glow worms – very cute!

The next morning, we were able to leave our gear with the water taxi before starting a walk to bring us back to Marahau at the entrance of the park. Bag-free it was much more enjoyable and we got a great view of all the bays along the way as we went along the Coastal Track. Back in Nelson that evening, it was a time for a well deserved fish and chips.

Napier was our next stop, where we stayed in Wally’s Backpackers, another spot I would recommend. That evening we just walked along the small town’s promenade before going for beer to celebrate the skydive!

Next morning, we drove to Mahia Bay at the top of Hawkes Bay. It turned out to be a bit of a longer drive than expected but it is a lovely stretch of beach. The other highlight of Napier were the amazing chicken fajitas we made that evening – yum yum!

We had a quick overnight in Wellington in the Cambridge Hotel hostel before getting the ferry to Picton the next morning. Onward to Nelson where we stayed in Paradiso hostel – they have a really nice pool and cool communal areas including an old bus set up in the garden for late night sessions.

Having been told not to miss out on the local delicacy of fish and chips, we all went to the Sprig and Fern that evening for locally brewed cider and “fush and chups”. This would not be our only time going there for dinner!

With Nelson being surrounded by vineyards, we thought here would be a good place to try out a wine tour. Ciara, Fiona and I were collected by bus at 12pm the next day to join 16 others for a day of tastings. We visited four different vineyards, including a stop off for lunch and at least seven or eight tastings in each. The tour guide showed us how to taste the wine properly (it’s all about the smell really!!)Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were our two favourite red and white, not forgetting the delicious avocado oil we got to taste at one of the vineyards.