SOUTH ISLAND NZ

We arrived on the south Island of New Zealand after a long and hard 3 hr ferry journey feeling incredibly rough and not just because of being sea sick! We left Picton with our new coach and driver Flea. We stayed 1st eve in Nelson at a pub.

On 3rd April we headed to Westport. We did a little hike at Nelson lake and had a picnic lunch ($5 each) which our driver put together. Some people off the coach jumped off the jetty into the freezing Nelson lake for a photo, as our driver is the photographer for kiwi experience. We then arrived at Buller Advenure tours along the BUller river. here we did some acrtivities. Carl did jet boating and Penny went on a horse trek for the first time. In the eve we went for a pizza with group.

4th April in the morning after leaving Westport we did a 40 min walk in Cape Foulwind and saw a seal colony.We made a short stop later in Punakaiki and did a brief walk and saw the Pancake rocks and blow holes. Our next stop was in Greymouth where we had an hr and half to find a fancy dress outfit based on the theme 80s flouro/gym wear. This is because its a tradition the kiwi ex do in Lake Mahinapua. We later arrived at the famous "poo pub" where only kiwi ex stay and no other guests. its ran by an eccentric man named Les. He and our driver Flea cooked our whole coach a big steak dinner. The party went on until 2ish and you could see all the photos of previous kiwi tours parties back to 16 yrs previously. At the end of the night some people walked to the lake and went swimming but woke up people in caravans and they complained to the pub owner, Les the next day. They said that it happens every night with kiwi ex and the police ended up turning up in the morning about it,but the police man knew the pub owner and wasn't too worried.Plus they guy also left a note on the bus window screen to our driver saying that he was going to contact the company to complain!

5th April. On the way to Franz Josef we stpooed at the Bushman centre. We watched a video called "When bambi was a terroist!" about the guy whor an the centre deer hunting jumping out of helicopters onto the deer. We also saw a pig and some possums here. We arrived at Franz Josef at around 3pm. We had the opportunity to do some walks like one called "Alex Knob" but were saving our energy for tommorow. Went to pub that eve and bumped into Joe we met at the cricket in NZ and some welsh girls Amy etc we met in River Valley. We had a fairly early night as had a big day ahead as we planned to do the Glacier hike.

6th April. Today most people headed up the Franz Josef Glacier. You can do 1/2 day 3/4 or full day hikes, or heli hikes and sky dives. We went for the full day one and had to be there at 9.15 am to get kitted out in boots and spikes, 2 pairs of socks gloves hat and jacket! We started off with a little walk through the forest to get to the bottom of the Glacier and then did a 45min walk over stones where we had to strap on our spikes and begin our climb up the Glacier. We had a group of 11 of us (they cant be any bigger) our guide was called Julia. it was really nice weather day apparently its really rare to be so sunny. It was a really long day with only a 20 min break for lunch. We had to walk up steep steps carved out of ice, we had ropes tied down to aid us in doing so. We walked through really thin crevices and we all grabbed a pick axe which is only used for a walking stick never to break ice as its blunt. We went though a really thin underground crevice that had just formed. Another guide found it and went through it made a new exit hole and we all went through it, Penny went first. It was so thin when Penny turned to the side she got stuck so I bet you can't imagine how Carl also got through it, carl got totally soaked. You had to bend down to go under blocks of ice and then stand up and manover to the side, it was really tight. We learnt new types of hiking steps called a pick step, a rodeo step. We finished at about 5.30pm and in the eve we brought ourselves a meal to treat ourselves after a long day.

7th April. We left Franz Josef early at 7.30 to catch the mirror reflection of month Cook in Lake Matheson. Before we arrived the bus broke down its suspension air bag burst, it was a bit of palava gettin amechanic but it was soon sorted. Then the driver headed to wanaka and forgo to get petrol so we had to turn back it was Carl who remembered. After all of the at we made an unsceheduled stop because of the waves form the west coast sea had blown rocks all onto the road. We had a late lunch. Someone opened the luggage compartment under the bus and didn;t close it properly and inevitably later the flung open whilst driving and a bag fell out, but it was retrived by the kind New Zealanders passing by. We stayed in anice hotel and had our own room, fridge TV bath and shower it was luxery compared to what we were used. We just chilled out in the eve and watched a film.

8th April. We left to head to Queenstown but stopped at Puzzle world first in the morning. You will see a funny photo of this with Carl looking really big and really tiny. Did a maze known as the biggest wooden maze in the world and we went through the museam. We stopped just outside queenstown to go to the Kawarau bridge Bungy...the first ever bungy site. A few people off our coach did the bungy which desensitised us to it and we thought about it but have to budget as plan to sky dive in OZ. When we arrived in Queens town we had a group photo by the lake and we stayed in an 8 bed dorm. We ate the fanous FERG BURGER for our dinner...you will see a photo of this with 1 the size of penny's face! They are huge and totally fill you up. That eve we went to base bar and world bar where they have tea pots with cocktails in them. It was the last night with the same group from the bus.

9th April. Had a lay in got up and went luging (for the second time) at 2 pm. 10 of us went, was a laugh. Carl had ANOTHER ferg burger that eve, they are about $10-$15 but worth it. Ricky and Beth were a bus behind us and caught up with us and we went out with them that eve.

10th April. Were on the coach for 6.30am. We had a new driver for 1 day to Christchurch a major long drive, called Spud, who we met in Taupo. We stopped at Lake Pukaki, it was a glacier lake and you could see Mt Cook the other side of it. Arrived at 2nd biggest city in NZ at 5.30pm. Once arrived at base we booked our shuttle to the airport for tomorrow. It was only $5 each! We had an early night as we were both not feeling great. The unhealthy eating or not eating and drinking had caught up with us.

11th April. Left hostel at 11am for our flight to Sydney at 14.35. We arrived at Wake Up hostel in sydney at about 6.30pm and had our own room with TV.