To one and all, good morning, good afternoon and good-night. Oky, so this is the second blog I've written today, make sure that you read my blog about the nrth island first....

Ok, so without futher pause, I give to you, the South Island.

So our journey sarted with the essential boat ride from noth to south, definitely a good way to start the south island, going outside and already seeing mountains and blue skies...we could tell we were going to enjoy it here. When we got off the ferry, the bus drove to a place called Nelson, th "sunniest" place in NZ, sods law that it was rainy! After being dropped off at the hostel we did about an hours walk to the centre of NZ, a BRILLIANTLY touristy thing to do; must admit, it was pretty cool knowing you're in the centre of NZ. As it was still light when we got to the top, I dragged everyone up another big hill to do some more cheesy tourist sight-seeing. This was our last night with the bus because we were hopping off to go and see the ugby, so we had one last sinner with our bus and driver before bidding adieu and heading to bed.

The next morning we had a very early start, as we headed off to the Abel Tasman national park, it was pouring with rain when we arrived but luckily it cleared up and in all honesty, the cloud gave the walk a bit of character, as nice as blue skies and white beaches are, sometimes its nice to have a change. The trip started with a speed-boat ide, which was really cool, saw the iconic split rock in the water, hich was really cool. We then headed over to some rocks, where there were loads of seals, eagle-eyed Harry, later spotted a little seal really close to us, which was cool to see. After about 4hours or so of walking we were picked up by the boat again and headed back to the bus and then to our hostel where we met our new bus who we would be travelling with for the next 2 days. They were a nice group and we joined in a beer-tasting evening with them at the hostel.

The next day we met our new bus-driver, Flea, who was very cool, she drove us to our first stop, Lake Nelson, where we did the iconic Kiw Bus experience and jumped into Lake Nelson, it was freeeeeeeezing but the scenary was amazing, clear blue skies, clear blue lake, snowy mountains in the background, reflected perfectly in the lake. Really really pretty and definitely one of my favourite things i did in NZ. Oh, forgot to mention, before we jumped in the lake, we decided to go on a walk with one of our friends, it was only supposed to be 25 minutes...45 minutes later we saw a sign which said '30mins to lake', so we had to run back the rest of the way...GOOD TIMES :) After this we drove to our next hostel in Westport, where we had a relaxed evening of films and beaach walks.

The next morning we went horse trekking which was A.MA.ZING...I of course was the only one to get thrown off my horse...BUT...the only one who had never been on one before, it was a painful experience but a brilliant one and I successfuly managed to control good ol' Red when it went crazy over some random loud noise! I really enjoyed it and would have definitley done it again if I had been around for longer and would have no doubt become brilliant! haha. After this we met met up with our bus and went to a place called pancake rocks; some cool rocks in the ocean, which have been eroded in such a way that they look like loads of layered pancakes...what better thing to do afterwards than to go and have a pancake breakfast! mmmmmm....pancakes. The next destination was a stop-off called Greymouth where we hopped off the bus so we could grab th bus to Christchurch the following day to go and see the Rugby match. When we arrived we cecked into a hostel and then went for a little stroll around, discussing how much we were going to miss NZ.

Another early start to catch the bus to Christchurch. What a stunning bus ride, really puts the S1 from Witney-Oxford to shame! Winding roads through snowy mountains, past rivers and lakes! When we arrived in Christchurch we had a wander around, I braved it and got a mo-hawk haircut for the match, which has turned out to be the biggest pile of pants and I just now wear a hat mostly, ha! One of the guys from our first bus soon joined us in Christchurch and we soon all headed for the AllBlacks game, which was reallly really cool, just seeing the hakka was worth it, the first half was much better than the second but they WON, so all was good, however, I bought a burger at half time and managed to splatter ketchup all over the people in the row in front, hahaha, ahhhhh welllll....what can you do? It was a DARN GOOD burger!

The next morning was ANOTHER early start...in fact, all the starts in NZ were earl ones but it was worth it becuase we got to do the famous TransAlpine train, unfortuantly it was a bit misty so we didnt gt to see lots of the muntains but when it cleared up little we went outide and sa some really cool views. Upon arriving back into Greymouth we were picked up by our new bus group, who were AWESOME, definitely some of the best people I have met thus far. Before hopping back on the bus however, we needed to do some last minute shopping for costumes for the infamous Poo Pub party...a traditional Kiwi Experience activity. The theme was bin bags and we decided to go as the black-eyed peas...I'll show you photos...it wasn't a very ood costume, haha :) but a brilliant night, like I said it was an awesome group and it was a really good way to introduce ourselves.

We started the next morning by visiting a little museum, where I tried possum pie! It actually asn't ad, just weird eating possum. We made our way to Franz Joseph next, which is the glacier we would soon be climbing the next day. In the evenng we did a kayak trip which was one of my favourite things I have EVER done, th water was so clear it was lterally like kayaking on a mirror, apparrently a photo of the lake was used as a Windows screen-saver...I knowwww....just THAT nice! Something else, I'll have t show photos of...seriously, probably the nicest view we had in NZ.

As mentioned the next day we hiked up the world-famous Franz Joseph glacier, we took the advice of everyone and did the full day hike....DEFINITELY worth it, we got pretty far up, saw some really good views, got to climb through ice caves and witness first hand the eerie blue ice. In the evening we went to the local hot pools, definitely worth it after a full day hiking, so relaaaaxxxxing. To end the day perfectly we entered a rock, paper, scissors competition, which we both lost...and we had been practising SO hard too!

To keep up the theme of spectacular views (see photo above), this is what we set off early to see; Mt Cook perfectly reflected in a lake, it was incredible! We had lots of different stops on the bus that day before we arrived in our next destination, Wanaka, where I met up with my friend from home, Chris. It was SO cool seeing him, as I don't really get to see him that much at home so this was the perect oppurtunity. I had to go on a little hunt to track him down but I finally found him D.Jing at local resteraunt...pretty impressive. So for the rest of the day I just hung around with him and because it was so much fun, I satyed an extra day but unfortuantly had to leave the day after that, otherwise I would have missed my flight. So the next morning I checked out of my hostel and found my way to Chris' house (which was really nice). So me and Chris hung out for a few hours before he went to work, while he worked I climbed up Mt. Iron, which was cold but really nice...just another one of NZ's stunning views. In the evening we left becuase I was doing more adreneline junky activities the next day, which I had pre-paid for, so Chris, what a HERO, drove me all the way to Queenstown, the long way round, as there was snow on the regular route but it was probably th funnest car journey I've ever had, just driving along listening to this amazing band Chris has introduced me to (who I am in fact currently listening to).

I had to say good-bye to Chris the next morning, as he had to get back for work but we enjoyed a fer-burger first (a REALLY good burger, which is really popular among tourists). I then me up with Harry and aother girl and we headed off to do a canyon swing, we were really lucky me and Harry got to do one together for FREE (my new favourite word) and we also opted to do the Chair of Death, where you sit on a chair and get thrown off a bridge on a bungee...fun stuff. :P When we got back we went to Harry's hostel and watched some films...had a well earned rest!!! That evening we went out to a place which served coctails in tea-pots...doesn't really get much cooler!

The next morning, we had our last early NZ start, I said good-bye to the freinds we'd made and hopped on our last ever Kiwi bus :( GUTTED! Luckily we were with Flea again, so that was nice. We drove to Christchurch, where we said goodbye to more of our friends before finally heading to the airport to take our 3 flights to America...but it wasn't alll bad, me and Harry had trolly wars, which is always fun. My didgeridoo was conviscated before we got to America, as they thought it could be used as a weapon...LOSERS, but you win some, you lose some and at least it wasn't Harry being taken away (which earlier I had thought was happening....but that's a story for another time).

And now here I am, only a few days left of traveling, which really scares me :S

I'll update you all on our Colorado activities soon but for the moment I'll tell you it included, 1300ft mountain climbs, radio plays and lie-ins until 4:30pm...niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

Well, I guess I'll see you all soon.

Until then, take care

Andrew :)