South Island...

The ferry from Wellington to Picton in the South Island took 3 hours. When we arrived in Picton, we picked up lots of new people and headed to Nelson. When we arrived in Nelson, some of us headed out to the shops to get outfits for the 'poo party' which was coming up.

The next morning we left for Westport. We stopped at Nelson lake on the way, which was beautiful. Lots of people decided to jump in the lake to get some good pictures but it was far too cold for me ha! I watched as they all came out really shivering! We arrived at Bazil's hostel in the afternoon. In the evening we played some drinking games at the hostel before heading out on a three legged bar crawl which was very amusing and everyone got to know all the newbies on the bus!

Next morning we were off bright and early (some feeling a little worse for wear!). First stop was Cape Foulwind, which is the closest point in New Zealand to Australia and we saw some seals! We then stopped at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and had a look around. Around lunchtime, we arrived in Greymouth. Greymouth is one of the larger towns in the south island so we had the opportunity to go and buy finishing touches to our fancy dress outfits. I had decided to dress up as a superhero. I found some sexy red boxer shorts to wear over my trousers and made a cape! Kirstie also found some funny things for her Sister outfit!

Later in the afternoon we arrived in Lake Mahinapua.(nicknamed Poo pub as tourists stuggle to pronounce it properly). The hotel was very basic! But the pub is full of character. The walls are covered all over in polaroids from every single 'poo party' all with different themes. Hanging from the ceiling were hats and other random belongings that had been left behind fby travellers. The whole place is run by an old guy named Les. Les was hilarious! Before we started to get dressed up, we had an amazing steak meal cooked by Les and Guy. Once dressed up, we headed to the poo pub and we had the whole place to ourselves. There were some awesome outfits!

The next morning we began our jouney to Franz Josef. We stopped off at the Bushman centre which was a strange little 'museum' about catching deer - it was a little bit weird to be honest! We arrived in Franz Josef in the afternoon and then had some free time. Some of the bus crew went for a messy night out, but Kirstie, Lucy, Faye and I opted for a quiet night in ahead of our glacier walk the next day.

The morning of the glacier hike, we were kitted out with waterproof clothing, boots, hats and crampons. We went to the base of the glacier by bus and then began our walk. Looking up at the glacier is quite decptive as it doesn't look that big, however it would actaully take 2-3 days to walk to the top! The hike lasted all day and was quite tough at times but really interesting. The glacier is changing all the time, so a guide goes up every morning to make new tracks. When we got back in the evening, we went for a few drinks to celebrate Maria's 21st birthday.

Next stop was Wanaka. On the way we went to Lake Matheson which was amazing! It was a mirror lake - the water is so clear and dark the the view of the mountains reflects in the water. The drive down to Wanaka was really scenic and it was becoming much more mountainous. Although after an hour or so we were at stand still as the bus had broken down - nightmare! The boys saw it as a perfect opportunity to play rugby in the road and annoy passing drivers though! Thankfully a mechanic came out after a while and we were soon on our way after that. We stopped at Lake Wanaka to get some photos, before driving into Wanaka about 4pm. We went for drinks in the bar downstairs in the evening.

The next morning we went to Puzzling World! This was such a random place. There was lots of puzzles, illusion rooms, mazes and weird roman toilets! Later we left for Queenstown. When we entered Queenstown, we stopped off at the AJ Hackett Bungy Centre as some of the group were doing Bungy jumps. They showed us a DVD and some people opted to do a bungy jump there and then off the bridge over Kawarau Gorge. Guy tried to persuade me a do a tandem jump with him but I wasn't up for it - made me feel a bit sick just watching some of the others do it to be honest!

We later arrived at Nomads - the best hostel ever! It was really nice and Kirstie, Faye, Lucy and I shared a dorm with a nice little ensuite and balcony ajoining us with more of the bus crew next door! We had an awesome view of the mountains from the balcony! In the vening we went out as a big group and had pizza and teapots (these cocktails served in little teapots) then danced the night away in World bar. The next few days were spent chilling out in Queenstown - the locals are really annoyed as ski season was supposed to start at the beginning of June but they've still had no snow!

One of the days in Queenstown, I went on a say trip to Milford Sound.It's not actually that far from Queenstown but because of the Remarkables mountain ranges in between it takes about 4 hours to drive round. As we begun to enter the national park the weather wasn't great. we stopped to see some mirror lakes but they didn't look so pretty in the rain! We also begun to see lots of waterfalls in the mountains. About 1pm, we made it to the boat that would be taking us on a cruise around Milford Sound. We had a buffet lunch on board so we all made the most of it! We then headed upstairs to see the views. The weather had improved and we saw some rainbows and good view of snow topped mountains and huge waterfalls. Eventually we made it to an under water discovery centre that was floating in the middle of the sea. We went downstairs and were able to see out the windows. There was loads of marine life to see. Later the boat pickedus up again and to us back to shore to meet our bus.

Leaving Queenstown on the Friday was quite sad as most people from the bus were off to get flights somewhere else. I will update you on my trip back up to the North Island soon and visiting Emily. Sorry for my poor grammar and spelling - these are written in quite a rush! xxx