Kia Ora!

Christchurch - Queenstown

14th January - 29th January

We landed in Christchurch late on 14th after a nasty long day of transferring airports and lots of short flights from Australia. We arrived at Charlie B's for our 3 night stay. We spent those days organizing our plan for the the next 4 weeks in NZ travelling around the south island and the north and blasting the Les Mills classes! Loving Body Attack!

After our short but sweet stay in Christchurch, we boarded the Kiwi Experience Bus which will be our way of travel for the next 4 weeks. What I didn't know at the time, it was going to be action packed, drunken fueled madness but the most fun experience I have ever had!

Our first leg of travel was to a small township of Kaikoura. We arrived midday and that afternoon headed straight out to swim with some of 400 dusky dolphins. It was amazing. We had to sail far out in the ocean, and yes, Becky got severe sea sick and threw up her breakfast and her dinner the night before! It was a good experience though, in a sick way…

The next day we travelled up the coast to Nelson. On the way introduced ourselves to some fellow travelers on the bus who have turned out to be true travel buddies who we do everything with now! Jo, Mark, Dave and Zoe. We stayed at a little place called Fern Lodge where we all devoured a very small portion of Roast Lamb. I was so excited to eat some yummy veggies, even if it was from a packet!! The next day we went on a sea kayaking trip to Abel Tasman National Park. The scenerywas out of this world, though I must say, I could take it all in as I struggling to paddle the massive waves! Good experience, even though I thought I was going to die!

The next day we moved onto Westport, where Toddy our driver dropped us off at Buller Adventures just outside of town where we did some Horse Riding in the native forest land surrounding the area. It was so much fun. I had a 'plod-along' horse called Locky, Mark had a very grouchy horse called Walter who would put it's ears back and square up to any horse that tried passing him or tried eating from the same patch of grass! It was hilarious to watch. We got to swim with the horses and had a go at cantering through the tiny paths and on the beach. After our horse riding we were starving so we headed out for another roat dinner, this time, a lovely big portion with cauliflower cheese too! YUM! Makes a difference than eating bread and cup a soup!

The next day we moved onwards down the west coast to Lake Mahinipua for the night. Here we stayed at an old hotel run by a 86 year old man called Les. This was our place for the night where our fancy dress party was held. On the way to Lake Mahinipua we stopped off at Greymouth to get supplies for a fancy dress costumes. The theme was 'plastic bags'. You know me and my creative mind…I got so into it, once we had arrived at the hotel, I rushed my venison stew which Les made us all off the bus and got straight back to work on mine and Mark's costume. Out of black, white and yellow bin bags and some wire, I created a Batman outfit for Mark and a prisoners outfit for me! Complete with ball and chain, handcuffs, a little hat and the stripy outfit! Check out the pics!

After a drunken fuelled night at the 'Poo Pub' no joke, that was what it was called, we hopped on the bus early the next day to head to Franz Josef. It was wacking down with rain today, so it was cool that when we arrived at Franz Josef we had the rest of the afternoon to chill instead of doing another crazy activity. The next day in the morning, we headed up to Franz Josef Glacier for our full day hike. We worked our way up to the glacier, climbing cutting and molding our way through the massive blocks of ice. It was the most amazing experience but surely an exhausting one!

The next day we moved onwards to Lake Wanaka. It was a whole mornings drive to Lake Wanaka. On the way we stopped off at the skydiving centre to throw ourselves out of a plane at 15,000ft at 200kph for a 60 sec freefall!! It was the most craziest but the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life. I was so proud of myself, even though when I was being filmed, I said goodbye and I love you to my family as I wasn't sure I'd survive!!

Early the next morning we moved onward to Queenstown for the next 3 nights. On the way we stopped off at a little place called Puzzling World where we had a go trying to solve giant puzzles, work our way through a big outdoor cave and experience some crazy optical illusions.

Once we arrived at Base Queenstown we had a group picture from our bus and then went up on the gondola to see the views of Queenstown from the mountain side. I have got to say Queenstown is the most beautiful place in the world and definitely somewhere I'll come back to live one day. That night we acted like huge kids and had a go on the 'Luge', small non-motorized carts where you race others flying around the concrete tracks. It was good fun.

The next day we headed out on a long day trip to Milford Sound. It was a 4.5 hour bus journey there and back with a 2 hour cruise around the sounds. We enjoyed an inclusive hot buffet lunch whilst on the boat. Even though it was a bloody long day, the sights were beautiful. New Zealand has got to one of the most picturesque places in the world.

The next day was a free day in Queenstown. We slept in and did some shopping. Not much, whilst other crazy people did bungy jumps etc! It was nice to actually chill for the day!

The next few days, we head up to the north island for our next part of the trip…I'll keep you updated!