Using the Kiwi Experience

The Kiwi experience is a great way to travel New Zealand without the worry of finding transport along the way. The bus journey covers the whole two islands (depending on which route you purchase) and makes sure you stop at all the best bits New Zealand has to offer. They also give you a really handy guide free of charge, that has a description of every place you visit, and things you can do there. It also has interesting facts and ideas of things you can do if you are on a budget, plus a little calendar which you can use to help organise your trip.

Once on the bus, the driver will send round clipboards for you to fill in about how many nights stays you want in one of the compulsory night stops. These are often large cities, and it is up to you how long you stay there, although the drivers will usually recommend an amount of time.

Here is the map that is in the guide. As you can see, the different passes are all colour coded for you to see which bits you want to add on, and the large green circles are the compulsory overnight stops.

With Kiwi experience, you are guaranteed one nights stay in their chosen hostel, which is good as you don't have to worry about booking anything unless you want to stay elsewhere or stay for a longer amount of time. The hostel they choose is usually a Base hostel, or sometimes a special location that is a bit different. You usually spend $30 a night which was slightly expensive, and some people found rooms for cheaper on websites, but often couldn't stay in the same rooms together so it may be better for lone travelers.

The drivers do need days off, so sometimes you may not be able to leave on the day you want, as it is a day where no busses leave or arrive. You can by all means make your own way to somewhere, and rejoin the bus at a later date, however Kiwi Experience asks that you complete the full journey with them, in order for you to reuse the pass again. 

For example, we started our pass at Auckland so we would have to travel back to Auckland with kiwi to use the pass again. Due to lack of time, we flew from Christchurch to Auckland, so if we wanted to use our passes again, we would have to start at Christchurch and complete the rest of the stops back up to Auckland in order to do the whole trip again within a year. This is a nice idea, as it means you can go back and do anything you missed, which is something we would like to do, however after Kaikoura, the places you stop are places you have stopped before.

Adding on locations is possible at all times. Things like the Milford Explorer, the Deep South and The Cape Reinga trip are add ons you can purchase at anytime, should your pass not cover it already. Most of the time the kiwi experience website will have one pass on sale, so it's best to snap it up, and then tailor make your add ons later on in the trip. The process is very easy and the driver will take your payment and explain everything to you.

For example, our pass did not include the day trip to Milford sound, whereas our friend Mark's did, so we just purchased that add on and were able to go the same day as him with no problems.

The final condition of the pass, is that you cannot go back on yourself. Once you have left a location, you cannot go back to the last place with the Kiwi bus, you must make your own way there. After Christchurch, we went to Kaikoura to see the whales, however we had to book a bus back to Christchurch in order to catch a flight, as the kiwi bus was heading back north to Wellington.

As well as a guaranteed night stay with Kiwi, you are also guaranteed the cheapest quotes to do activities, and a guaranteed spot for those as well. This is perfect for people who want to do the exciting yet expensive activities such as sky diving, bungee jumping and white water rafting, which are some of the NZ must dos. Again, the driver will send round a clipboard and you simply pop down your name, and pay the money and that is it, you are officially booked to do it.

As we said earlier, the kiwi experience passes always have at least one on sale so snap it up fast if your thinking of doing this exciting trip. It's such an easy way to travel, book activities as well as meet fellow travellers. The general age range of our bus was 18 years old gap year students to about our age (25) however this could change from bus to bus. Unlike some other bus tours such a contiki, which is known as more of a party bus, the kiwi experience aim is to make sure you see the best New Zealand has to offer.

Fiji and Island Hopping the Yasawas

After our few days in L.A. and the hectic schedule of South America, we were both super excited for the week we planned island hopping Fiji! We had booked and already paid for an open 7-day island hopping pass that would cover the Yasawa and Mamanuca islands. We booked the pass through STA travel, on the basis that it was completely flexible and enabled us to jump between the islands via boat day to day.

After a bit of a restless overnight flight, we arrived in Nadi, the mainland of Fiji. We flew with Fiji Airways, and the service was great, the Fijan people are renowned for their caring and welcoming hospitality, and they certainly showed us that on the flight. They had nice patterned pillows, jazzy blankets, free full sized alcoholic drinks and a huge chicken burger for dinner... Okay, it wasn’t gourmet cuisine, but it was probably one of the best in flight meals we’ve had on our travels so far. Once again we panicked at the array of films and music they had on offer, and they also had a short feature film on Fiji, full of surfing, snorkelling, fishing and everyday beach life. Tom watched it twice whilst fidgeting with excitement, while Steph fell asleep watching 'Gone Girl'. We had all this, always served with a giant Fijian smile, and one flight attendant even came over and tucked Steph in, and turned off the film to stop it waking her up.

 Even as we landed and emerged off the plane, the arrivals lounge was filled with the soothing sounds of the Ukelele as 4 large Fijan men sang to everyone in bright green floral shirts. The only time we didn't feel the Fijan love, was at the immigration desk, where, when asked our address for our time in Fiji, we had no answer, as we were planning to sort our accommodation on the Yasawa flyer, the boat that takes you to each island as well as an on-board travel agent. This didn't sit well with the man behind the desk, and he marched Steph to the immigration office even though Tom had been let through by another man. This was a little nerve racking, however the woman took one look at us and let us go. Emergency avoided!

We were pretty happy with the way Paul, our travel agent, had planned the flights as we landed in Nadi at 5:30am, which meant we had time to get to the Yasawa flyer before it left for the day at around 9.30AM. This meant we could avoid a potentially wasted day in Nadi, where there is not much to do, and could commence straight into the island hopping and really make the most of our time there. Despite being tired, this is definitely something we’d recommend, as you might as well get all the travelling done in one day and then be free to relax.

It was only when we arrived in Nadi, that we suddenly realised we had absolutely no idea how the island hopping pass worked. We knew we had paid for it, for how long and at what level, but we didn’t know how it actually worked. We had turned up to Fiji with no accommodation confirmed, no transfers arranged and no idea who we were meant to be waving our booking confirmation at. We found the 'Awesome Adventures' desk at the airport, which is the company we bought our passes from, where a kind lady told us we could get a free transfer to the port which was an expense spared. As we waited for the bus, we saw the sun rise over the islands of Fiji, and we craved desperately to be sitting on a beach, witch a cocktail in hand!

We arrived at port, Denarau, and jumped straight onto the Yasawa flyer, a giant yellow catamaran, and found the travel desk on board. They gave us a little book which contained a map, and briefs about each of the island resorts you could visit.

Mamanuca islands covered with yellow route, and the Yasawas the red route

The Bula combo pass we had bought, lasted for the duration of 7 day stay, and also included all food which we had forgotten about, so once again, we had an expense catered for! The accommodation is graded not using stars but using coconuts (of course, this is Fiji), so we purchased a double private room pass at a one coconut level. This meant that we’d have our own room, but the facilities such as toilets and showers etc. would probably be shared. It ranges in standard and price from one coconut dorm rooms all the way to 3 coconut private rooms, for those big time travellers or honeymoon lovers. 

As it was still only 10am, we thought we'd aim big and hop to the furthest island possible, so we could gradually make our way back down the islands to get back to Nadi in a weeks time. The ladies on board the travel desk were really helpful, and gave us their honest opinions about which islands would be best for us. We didn't want to go to the major party islands as we wanted to save our money for New Zealand, plus we were more interested in relaxing and seeing the pretty beaches and marine life. They suggested avoiding the Mamanuca islands, as they had more of a party reputaution, however from those islands you could go on a day trip to see the island where the famous Tom Hanks film 'Castaway' was filmed on, which we would have liked to have done.

In the end, we all decided to stick to the Yasawa's and to go to 'Long Beach' resort on Matacawalevu Island, 'Nabua Lodge' on Nacula Island and 'Barefoot Manta Resort' on Drawaqa island. The last resort was a bit more special and had a surprise bonus (the clue is in the name), so we upgraded for a slight extra cost, as we didn't have to buy food which was a relief. 

The first boat ride to get up to the tip of the islands was going to be about 4 hours, so we sat back and relaxed and tried to catch up on some sleep. This said, the bouncy Catamaran made Steph feel slightly sea sick, so it wasn't the most relaxing start to our trip. After a bumpy ride, the tanoy said the speed boat for the 'Long Beach resort' was approaching, and to grab our bags and head to the back of the boat.

At first it felt like a terrifying act of piracy, as these 2 men sped up beside the boat and attached themselves on whilst one climbed aboard. However both men where extremely helpful, and did all the lifting onto the boat of our heavy bags. They offered us a hand to jump on board, and welcomed us with a "Bula". 

We sped off, away from the Yasawa flyer, and bounced over the most amazing blue sea, and headed towards our first stop in the Fijan Islands.

TRAVEL TIPS: Taking Taxis in Rio De Janeiro

Getting a taxi in Rio is slightly different to that in England or many other parts of the world. It is common practice to hail a taxi down by waving your arm on the side of the road and they are so plentiful that you will never have to wait more than a minute before one comes along and stops for you. Its also quite fun the first couple of times if, like us, this is not the usual taxi etiquette you're used to. Despite this, here's a few things to be mindful of

Golden (or Yellow) Rules

-Always take the YELLOW taxis. these are the official taxis in Rio there is hundreds of them all over the city, pretty much every other car so you cant miss them. these are legit and registered and also very cheap so really there's no need to risk taking any other lift or offered transport you are unsure of. We did not encounter any offers of lifts or dodgy propositions in our time here. But we've heard it can happen, so stay YELLOW.

- R$4,80. This is the starting price for the meter in all the yellow taxis. This is a legal regulation so every taxi journey you take should start at R$4,80 if it does not, get out and get into the next taxi.. There's plenty of them. If you feel confident in speaking Portuguese then you could ask 'Quanto?' (How much?) but to be honest from our experience going by the meter is very cheap. Apart from our initial trip from the airport, the most expensive trip was from Sugarloaf back to Ipanema which was about R$25,00 (£6.00)  much more reasonable than an English taxi so cant really complain. If Portugeuse as a language is not your strong point then I would advise always keeping a map in your back pocket. This can help a lot when trying to explain where you need to go. Otherwise you may end up as we did, on a couple of occasions, zooming past the destination you thought you had agreed on and desperately shouting FANTASTICO whilst pointing back behind you.