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Ok so its that time in the month where I get nagged into writing the blog, so I hope it is as entertaining as my counter parts efforts. We started off our trip to the South Island at silly o'clock with a drive down to Wellington from our base in Parmy. The trip went without any trouble and we boarded the ferry at 7.30am. We were both starving at decided to get a big fat fry up. Unfortunatly the T sauce proved difficult to open and I ended up the sauce all over my face jumper and glasses, to Ali's great delight.
The boat down south was really picturesque and 3 hours later we arived in Picton. Our first 2 nights were spent camping (yes that's right back in the wonderful TENT), on a beach in the Marlborough Sounds walking along the Queen Charlotte Track. After this we drove West to Nelson, a small town with not much to note apart from the best pub so far in New Zealand where I was able to sink a few cold one's. From Nelson we continued West to the Abel Tasmin national park, where hiking was again the order of the day. The scenery was amazing and after a long days hike Ali decided I was alowed to get fish and chips (wicked), which were enjoyed with a few cold beers.
The next day we awoke to rain (yes no Tent tonight) and spent to day driving south to a small place north of Greymouth. We stayed in a proper caravan which was so much fun. The park was really old fashioned and in the kitchen was a person making beer and another munching on about 20 chicken leg's all to himself. After a blissful night watching some TV, the rain had stopped and we were able to visit the pancake rocks, with blow holes.
The next night was spent in a motel (pure luxury) in Greymouth, a really small ghost town where the only thing open was a Speights ale house, so after a few beers we spent the evening watching movies. From here the sun was shining and we drove to a camp sight by the Frans Joseph Glacier. The following day we took an excursion onto the ice which involved a 2 mile walk to the ice then a 2 hour climb to our lunch spot before decending. The trip was excellent and we had to wear crampons (which I found really funny). Ali said it would be cold so I wore 2 t-shirts and 2 jumpers and the tour people supplied a coat. In fact it was baking and everyone was wearing shorts and t-shirts, cheers Ali. Walking on the ice was amazing and we got to ice climb and saw caves, crevices and blue ice.
The next 2 day were so painfull as we had both suffered injury (from burns to pulled muscles) on the ice. We drove south to Fox Glacier and hiked around a lake which reflected the glacier and Cook mountain and was beautiful. From the glacier we drove to a town called Wanaka, and spent the night. Again Wanaka is a small town (a theme running throughout the South Island) with its main attraction being puzzle world. The best thing about here was the maze which took us about 1 and half hours to complete. Next stop Queenstown the home of extreme sports
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