Hello all jess again! only coz char and laura are bloody mentlists and have gone diving in the sky. i am happy to say i copped out of that one!!

sooooooo since we last left you we have been living it up kiwi style. After the lazy shag in Kaikoura we moved onto Nelson. We stayed at a nice little hostel called the prince albert (renamed fern lodge coz of all the jokes the owners got!). Where we had a bit of a rush to get organised coz we had to pack a bag and organise ourselves for the camping trip we were taking the next day (yes thats right camping).

That night we did settle down to a roast (the hostel was owned by an english couple) which was v welcome. After which we decided to make a break and climb this HUGE hill to the centre of nz at the top which was a bloody struggle coz we did at light speed to catch the sunset, but the view was amazing. only problem is that the sun did set and we were left in the dark to walk back. uh oh, that god for the wind up tourch (cheers nan). we basically clung on to each other and slowly made our way back in the dark, the only sound coming from the tourch as we wound and walked at the same time, then fear set in so we sang, or char did, some v random camp song that me and laura had never heard before, but the amusement of it all overtook the fear and before we knew it we were back to the salvation of the street lamp.

That night we hung around with most off the ppl on our coach, we've got a group goin on coz there are a fair few of us who are together until queenstown so we've formed a bind over travels! At about 11 we settled down to a nice nights sleep as we had to be up at half 6 and trek for 5 hours the next day. BUT low and behold we had a snorer in our dorm, and i mean a bloody helipcopter, never heard a sound like that come from anyone (not even you gramps). So we all huffed and puffed, coughed and swore but nothing would wake her. so we woke in the morn. pillow over faces, fingers in ears, blurry eyed and fairly pissed off, to grab our stuff and breakfast and wait outside in the morning cold for about 20 mins.

we jumped on a bus and traveled to abel tasman, NZ most popular (but smallest) national park where we would hike out to our campsite, camp and kayak back over two days. SO after lots of confusion when we arrived, i should explain that it was pretty much run by sufer types, v cool and good looking but not so good with the organisation stuff. we then got on a water taxi which took us to the beach where we wold start the hike from (by this point we had been told v little so we all kinda just shuffled along...). in the boat me and char glanced at laura every few seconds in fear she would repeat the whale boat fiasco, but she held her own, and her breakfast down and before we knew it we had been dropped off at the beach, with very little instruction, not really taking much notice coz we were slightly awestruck by the AMAZING scenery. so the scene pretty much was us three standing on a desterted beach with some blonde 50 year old shouting instructions at us, of where to walk and how long it would take, as the boat drove off into the distance. it didnt take long for us to realise that no one had listened and we had NO IDEA where we were camping.... ah well, we just chilled on the beach for a bit and then set off on a leisurley walk.

After about an hour and a half we came to a beach and a campsite and assumed this was the spot, we spent a while looking for our stuff that shouldve been dropped off and slightly started to panic when we couldnt find it. overwhelmed by the sudden stress i lay down on the beach and left char and laura to find out what the bleeding heck was goin on (thank god im not travelling alone), and after a long walk along the beach and a chat with two guys doing the same walk we discovered that our campiste was a further FOUR HOURS away, yes thats right. gawd. so off we set, water supply severley dwindling, me slightly panicing that the sun would set before we got there and we would have to wade our way through the jungle (seriuolsy its classed as a rainforest), in the pitch black. maybe having to pull out the trusty wind up torch again. but we blitzed it and made it to our campsite alive, with more blisters that we set off with. but it was really cool and we had a wicked night. we set right to it and put the tents up, at which we had slight problems and one of the kayak instructers (sufery laid back ppl) rather unhelpfully pointed out directions while he sat by the fire. but in the end we managed it, then realsied our tent was right by the fire. in fear of being smoked out we moved the tent and then set about making our gormet dinner of baked beans and marshmallows and cookies. mmmmmm.

exhausted from the days activities we left some of our other kiwi mates to enjoy a louder evening at the other fire and we (being far more sophistiacted) joined one of the three day kayak groups and played games around the fire, really funny actually as we were joined by the laid back kayak ppl ive been taling about and many jokes were cracked. We also went to the beach in the dark and looked at the stars and i have never seen such an amzing sky, we were all mesmorised for a fair while and got rather bad neck cramp but it was worth it!!

one by one ppl sloped off to their tents and at the unholy hour of about half ten (it gets dark at 6 out there so it seems like yonks before bed time) char went off and me and laura were left with daryl the 50 year old blonde guy who has burnt off his finger tips from his expert fire building and gareth the younger and chubbier kayak instructer who took ages to explain things and at one point i drifted off and came back into the convo thinkin hed been explaining an alien abduction. he hadnt. thank god. after more jokes and funny dancing around the fire me and laura sloped off to bed, put our heads down and heard the sound of the bloody possum rummaging through a rubbish bag outside our tent (lord knows why when our food bag was about 2 steps away from it....!). after lots of yeling and banging on the side of the tent the possum sloped off. and we slept. yay.

in the morn we preapared ourselves for our kayak (five hours again) and we were met on the beach by selina, really cool girl who was our instructor for the day and it was really cool. at one point baby seals swam up to our kayaks. so cute!!. when we finally made it back we boarded the bus and arrived back at the hostel where we showered (heaven) and had fish and chips, where i went to bed at about 8 and didnt suface again till morn, char and laura hung out with the kiwi crew.

In the morn we jumped on the bus and headed off to westport where we went horse riding! really fun but slightly wet as we had to trek across a creek and my horse loving it apprently, headed straight for the middle of the creek and started splashing his legs about. When we made it back to the hostel which was really cute- owned by eccentric american and kiwi wife (who had the cutest puppy ever). we braved the rain and a few of us went and had pizza then we grabbed a few bottles of wine and chilled out in the tv room. which was rather nice. the bed again! and off we went the next morning to lake mahnipoopa (or something) where we stayed in a v random hostel in the middle of nowhere which had a pub called the poo pub, full of old men.... but we all had a fancy dress party that night which went realy well and ended up with about 12 ppl in a six person room and very few elsewhere. but fun was had by all!

in the morn we boarded the bus (feeling rather worse for wear) and went to the deer museum (coz thats what we do when we are hungover). i dont for the life of me know why we did this and it is safe to say it one of the most random experineces ive ever had. basically we payed $4 to looked at a possum, and a fat pig and watch a video about how deer were imported from scotland, then hunted, then put on farms. and most of the footage was badly edited images if helicopters flying about with men jumping out of them onto deers and the theme tune to top gun playing in the background. we all cracked up and it was made even funnier by chris the new yorker givin a running commentary on the oddness of it all. We then set off again and made it to franz josef where we are now! a quick stop too book a helicopter ride/ glacier walk that me, char, laura and a girl charlotte are goin to do and then we made it to our hostel, some still feeling the effects of lasts nights activities!!. so there we go guys! hope all is well back home. im off to see if char and laura survived the fall! love love xxxxxxxxxxxx