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Hello everyone,
20 days or so to update you all on.. We're both safe and still in the South Island with Jules. Since our last update we have headed down the west coast of the south island and reached Wanaka.
Continuing in Keiteriteri from where Charlie left off... We spent a day trekking in the Abel Tasmin National Park, famous for pretty beaches and rainforest like vegetation. It was one of our best days so far, with a lot of sunshine and clear blue skies. We spent the morning playing like 6 year olds in the waves as if we'd never seen the ocean before. Walking further inland along the rivers we came across a place called Cleopatra's pool, a pool (funnily enough) with a waterfall leading into it. Once again the little children inside us kicked in and we had a lot of fun sliding down the slippery rocks into the pool and drinking as much river water as we possibly could. Lucky we didn't get ill. After a lot of messing around we ended up running most of the 15km to the ferry in order not to miss it. Other funny moments that day included being pestered by enormous bugs and being completely busted staring/ perving on a hot American girl as she hopped into the pool!
The following day we left Keiteriteri and started our journey down the west coast arriving in Westport. Our first night out there was a pub crawl with the rest of the lot from the bus which was a good laugh. We ended up spending 5 nights/ 4 days in Westport in the end. We befriended the owner of the hostel and borrowed his fishing rods with varying success. Our first (and only catch) brought us in two 7 pound Karway (no idea how to spell that one) which we smoked back at the hostel and ate. We were pretty pleased with ourselves after that. After watching all of the Lord of the Rings films and getting more and more annoyed with the "Baker's wife" - a Swedish girl named so because according to Jules, she looked like the 'plump wife of a medieval baker', we left Westport.
Moving another 150km down the coast we arrived at a place known only as the 'poo pub' because it was a pub in the middle of nowhere. It was a fancy dress night and so the three of us dressed up as a sexy pilot and his gorgeous hostesses (Dom pilot, Charlie and Jules hostesses). We met some nice but definite no no Irish girls. After too many beers Charlie decided that the one with the love of her life boyfriend was suitable and sneaked off with her. Jules and I filmed chuckled in the corner. We have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of female talent in New Zealand. The average bus load probably contains 20 munters and 1 or 2 maybes if you were desperate (Charlie) and no-one worth writing home about.
Franz Josef was next. We spent a whole day hiking up the glacier. The day started off on a hilarious note when Charlie thought it would be really funny to introduce himself as a trainee bullfighter to our group, who really didn't see the funny side of things. Jules and I certainly did and haven't stopped reminding him of his failure since. I was also busted lying to a girl that we were all 22. I thought I'd winged it but then she suddenly looked at me and goes "I thought you'd just left school?". The hike was hard work but well worth it. We had a really good view of the Southern Alps and it was amusing watching Jules' coordination let him down, as he slipped time and time again on the ice.
The following day we missed our bus as Charlie slept on his phone so we didn't wake up to the alarm. We spent an extra, wasted day to be honest, in Franz Josef before setting off for Wanaka the day after. The drive was pretty cool with huge mountains on either side of the road. We stopped off at a place called Lake Matheson which reflected the mountains we had just come from. This day was also Valentines Day. It was a big night and a lot of fun but there was nothing romantic about it. We were kicked out of the hostel for being noisy at one stage and from then on just drifted from bar to bar. I ended up having a big argument with a girl in the corridor and a tub of ice-cream ended up all over me and in her hair. Jules ended up covered in a girl's birthday cake. Our second day in Wanaka was mostly one of recovery. Charlie and I went for a swim in Lake Wanaka to freshen up.
Still in Wanaka we had one of our best days of the trip today. We went for a long walk (15-20km) around the lake taking in the most spectacular scenery I think either of us have ever seen. The photo of this blog was taken in the lake. There was nobody around and I thought it would be really funny to walk around naked, running up and down hills before diving into the lake, where we all went skinny dipping as we had no trunks with us.
Off to Queenstown tomorrow for a crazy action packed 5 days. Charlie will probably be more organized than I have been and update the blog soon.
Best wishes to all,
Dom
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