Sawadeecup! - (hello in Thai!) I have been reliably
informed this is what it is, although this is just the
phonetic spelling - and I have a feeling it's got the
male ending on it, but anyway!!

Well, the last time I sent an email to everyone we
were preparing to do our glacier hike and now we're in
Koh Pha-Ngan, one of the islands - time really has
flown by!

So, the glacier hike - it was really cool! I felt like
a bit of an intrepid explorer with the proper climbing
boots and ice talons to tie on the bottom of them!
Although it was only a half day hike, Lisa and I came
well prepared with a whole packed lunch in our
rucksacks - we can't go anywhere without thinking or
talking about food! We had to walk 2.5km through the
valley to the foot of the glacier and walked across a
fork line - this apparently is where two tectonic
plates meet and there were two waterfalls either side
of the valled that formed natural markers of this!
(Oooh, get me being all geographical - i've had to
check all of this stuff several times with Lisa before
writing this email as she's the one who did GCSE
geography! I only just understand what a tectonic
plates - spelling here could be wrong so please
forgive me!) Anway, I thought it was cool! There were
lots of other waterfalls going down the sides of the
mountains that were either side of the glacier so we
now have a million waterfall photos! The glacier
itself was really steep, and although they cut steps
into it in order for people to climb up it was still
really steep and bloody hard work - our legs were
killing us the next day! We had the most amazing
weather, really sunny and quite warm (apart from when
we were surrounded by ice!) and the whole place was
just beautiful - shocking that, something else in New
Zealand that I thought was beautiful, and wait for
it........... yes, you guessed it, amazing!! Well it
was! It's not every day you get to climb a glacier
that's sandwiched in between rainforests and
waterfalls!

Later that afternoon after all our exertions hiking,
we had to drive from Franz Josef to Queenstown - about
400km along windy mountain roads! Bit of a mission but
good fun - loads to see along the drive as usual! We
arrived in Queenstown pretty late and absolutely
exhausted so didn't do anything too exciting that
night! The next day we went into the town and saw a
log chopping competition - very bizzare but strangely
addictive to watch, we kept having to stay for the
next round to see which team would win! We loafed
around the town for the day wandering through a little
market where i had to buy myself a Jade necklace - it
seems everyone in NZ wears them and I wanted to fit in
with the locals and look cool! We met up with 2 of the
guys (Iain and Adam) that we'd gone to school with
again which was really nice! When we'd seen them in
Taupo they'd said they were going to be around in
Queenstown the same time as us so we'd said we'd try
to meet up with them again. Somehow during the course
of the evening, I decided that actually I did want to
do a bungy jump and although he'd already done one,
Iain wanted to do another. So on sunday we met up with
them again at the bottom of the mountain, got the
gondola up to the top where Iain and I signed
ourselves up for jumping 47 meteres from a platform
off the side of the mountain! I was absolutely
bricking it, although I did want to try it, it wasn't
like the sky dive where I'd been really excited about
doing it and not all that nervous. On this bungy you
get harnessed in around your waist (feels a lot safer
than just being tied round your feet I reckon!) and
then you have to take a run up and jump off the
platform. I decided I was going to go first so I
didn't chicken out but I very nearly did. I was all
ready to go, did my bit of a run up then stopped right
at the edge and said I couldn't do it, but the
momentum of my run up and having nothing to grab on to
meant I just toppled head first over the edge!! (Very
uncool!) It was terrifying, it really felt like you
were falling, much more so than doing the sky dive -
bizzare I know, but when I did the sky dive I was far
too high to be able to see the ground properly where
as this time I could see the rocks on the side of the
mountain hurtling towards me! I let out the most
bloody curdling scream as I jumped - well, fell! I
even frightened myself it was so loud - afterwards 2
different people asked me if I'd done a bungy a little
while ago and if it was me they'd heard scream? They'd
been at the bottom of the mountain and thought someone
had fallen out of a gondola! Lisa managed to do a
little film of both mine and Iain's bungy jumps on the
her camera so I will be able to show you all just how
stupid I look toppling off the edge of this platform!

Once we'd all got our breath back from the bungy
jumps, Lisa then decided that she would face her fear
of falling and do paragliding down the mountain! It
looked brilliant fun and if I hadn't just spent more
money on doing a bungy I'd have been tempted myself!
Lisa was incredibly brave though doing it when she's
so scared of heights - she also screamed a great deal
while she was in the air so it was very noisy on the
mountain that day! We've become mini film makers since
discovering the movie function on lisa's camera and
this time it was my turn to film her as she flew
through the air - although in reality I gave the
camera to Adam to do it as I thought I'd mess it up!

After more adrenaline rushing activities (just when I
mistakenly thought, things would start to slow down!),
we went out for a dinner and few drinks with Iain and
Adam, which turned into dinner accompanied by lots of
wine and then several drinks out! We went to this bar
called Minus 5 which is basically a bar made out of
ice - it's like one big freezer inside as everything
in it is made of ice! THey give you big warm coats and
gloves to wear and you're only allowed to be in there
for half an hour at a time in case you get too cold!
Even our glasses were made from ice!

The next day we had to drive from Queenstown to
Dunedin with major hangovers which was fun!!! We went
to one backpackers place and were there for about 10
minutes after which time we realised that the walls in
the rooms were literally paper thin and the twin room
we'd spent extra on so we could get a decent nights
sleep would be pointless so we asked for our money
back and left! (We don't take any crap off anyone
these days - we may be backpackers but we're still
paying customers!) The place we did end up going to
was absolutely lovely so it was well worth the hassle
in the end - you wouldn't believe it was a backpackers
place, it was so nice inside!

We'd arranged to do horseriding the next day in the
afternoon but it had to be cancelled as it was pouring
down with rain so we said we'd do it the next morning
before we were supposed to be leaving for
Christchurch! I say supposed to be leaving because it
turned into the most disastrous day in the end that we
had to stay another night in Dunedin!

We were having a great time initially in the morning -
the first half of the horse trek was pretty good! Lisa
was really good and trotting along nicely - i even
managed to do a bit of trotting along the tracks and
then again along the beach!! Then I got off my horse
while the woman who was taking us went for a canter
with lisa back up the beach (i wasn't good enough for
that bit so had to stay holding my horse!) Then just
as they got back to me some guys surfing arrived and
when they dropped their surfboard into the water this
really scared all the horses, particularly mine it
seemed! I got a leg up back onto my horse but didn't
quite manage to get myself back in the saddle properly
and then the horse bolted! So there's me cliging onto
the saddle for dear life trying to get back on the
saddle but sliding further down this horses back while
its pegging it down the beach! I couldn't hold on and
fell off and kind of landed on my side before smacking
my head against the wet sand (which, may just be sand
but when it's wet, it's like bloody concrete!). As I
fell I felt a really sharp pain in my neck so I was
just lying on the sand (bawling like a baby, i might
add!) while all hell was breaking loose around me!
(lisa's horse had also bolted and shot off up the
beach - she managed to stay on somehow - I think she
must be a natural horsewoman because her horse was
flying!) I stayed lying down for a while until it
looked like the horses - which were still spooked -
might trample me so I got up and had to start walking
back up the beach with lisa, the woman who took us out
and these crazy horses. My neck and head hurt and so
did my knee and wrist which I'd somehow managed to
twist and land on as I fell! (I know, this is all very
dramatic but it was scary so i'm making sure I tell
the full story!)

Once we got back to the track, I had no choice but to
get back on (but thankfully, a different horse this
time!) and had to ride back to the stables. I really
didn't want to but it was the quickest way of getting
back. Once we were back Lisa went to the car to get me
some dry clothes etc but couldn't find the car key.
And so it gets worse........... we realised that the
key must have fallen out of her pocket while we were
on the horse ride and we only had one key between us
and ALL our stuff was locked in the car, phones,
purses, everything! We then spent 2 hours walking the
entire route of our ride, all through the tracks we'd
been on and along the length of the beach vainly
hoping we'd be able to find it! Obviously we didn't -
it really was like looking for a needle in a haystack
and the tide had come in so if it had fallen out on
the beach, it would have been washed away!

The people we'd done the horse ride with were really
nice and said there was no problem using the phone to
call the car rental company etc and made us tea and
sat me by the fire! It turned out there was no spare
and we'd have to call a locksmith out to take the
barrel out of the lock and cut us a new key! We had to
wait around another couple of hours for the locksmith
to arrive and then an hour or so while he took what
seemed like the whole car door apart and cut us a new
key. They guy who owned the horse riding company was
going to make up a bed for us in a room he had as part
of his barn but Lisa and I decided not to take him up
on his very kind offer after going into his bathroom
and finding two enormous collages of photos/clippings
from porn magazines - which I might add he'd gone to
the trouble of FRAMING!! (He lived alone
unsurprisingly!) So, as kind as he was in giving us
tea and letting us sit by the fire - sounds a bit like
a weird fairy tale now - we thought we'd be better off
back at the hostel!

Lisa was so good to me that night - she went into
medical and looking-after mode and made me take
nurofen, got me a hot water bottle from the woman at
the hostel and made spaghetti bolognese for us! I felt
like a right idiot sat with a hot water bottle on my
neck/shoulder, but by this point and after half a
bottle of wine, we were already starting to see the
funny side of it all even if it did turn out to be the
worlds most expensive horse ride!

We went to A&E the next day to get my neck checked out
as it was even more painful than before and I could
hardly turn it at all. The x-rays were all fine, I'd
basically just sprained my neck! Oh, and on top of all
this, we'd also managed to get a big stone chip in our
windscreen a few days earlier and had to get it fixed
before taking the car back. So while I was at the
hospital, Lisa went to the garage to get that done -
and then drive all the way to Christchurch as I
couldn't drive! Lisa did find out though that you
could buy this really strong anti-inflammatory drug
called Voltarol over the counter, (normally it's only
available by prescription in the uk!) so she also
found some of that for me to take!

We barely saw Christchurch as we didn't arrive there
until the evening and had to get up in the morning to
drop the car back and fly to Auckland (and try not to
miss that flight!) We decided to go out in Auckland
and 'celebrate' our last night in NZ - it ended up
being another really late night and I stupidly drank
far too much and felt shocking the next day but had
about 15 hours worth of travelling ahead of me as we
were flying to Bangkok!

I think I will leave it there for now, even though
there's still stuff to tell you about Bangkok, I think
I've gone on enough for one email! Sorry it's so long
- again!

Off to sun myself on the beach now - sorry, couldn't
resist that, I think I can hear you all groaning now
and telling me to p*** off!

Hope you are all well - thanks for all the emails, I
know I said it before, but it's really nice to hear
peoples news from back home!

Bye for now!
Anja xxx