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Hello to all. I am in Melbourne, awaiting my long journey home!! Here I have my last blog of my trip, ENJOY...oh how emotional...
Thursday 16th May..............BUNGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!!
Ok, the day of the most scary thing I have ever done in my life, ever, ever!!! To start we all wake up with very sore heads from the previous night, and all giggling and refusing to exit our beds!! Eventually, we drag oursleves up, and head down to the bungy shop! We check in and have to be weighed!! And yes I am heavier than two of the lads...haha, all muscle of course and we have our weight written on one hand and our jump group on the other! So they who to send off first! Clock ticking and everyone pretty much bricking it we hear the mini van pull up and we all pile in! The whole bus load is from the bus and its great that eveyone is doing it. Everyone is sitting differently in the bus, some are quiet thinking about the next task, some are biting nails and some are singing..you can tell which I was doing at the back, having a party with the legend that is Mary!!
We reach the secluded jump spot, and are all harnesesed up, so flattering! We then go through to the other side of the buliding and there we see the cable car hanging over the valley, 134m above the ground...OH MY GOD!! It was so bloody high, we couldn't even see the bottom, although we are told there is a stream down there!! We all wait as slowly people enter the mobile car and are slowly taken across to the swinging platform!! We jump in weight order, Matt goes first, and he screams, we see him drop from the main building and we all watch in silence, then we here him scream! And it hits us what we are about to do...ARE WE MAD...yes I think so! Eventually, we are sent across the last group to go! We see Mary, who jumps dressed in her all in one romper sleeping suit (this girl is hilarious) and then we reach the other side. Half of the floor is glass, always helpful for those scared of heights, and only then do we see the size of the drop!! I am absolutely buzzing at the top, I cant wait to go, but its over an hour before Miles, who is one before me jumps!! Everyone who went down said it was amazing and I was jumping around like a lunatic, coming with the nerves!!
Finally, it is my turn, I have these leg warmer style things attached to my ankles and then I am sat in the chair of doom facing away from the drop! I am attached to the bungy cord...a big elastic band in other words, and then I am given my instructions, on the second bounce pull the cord and it will release my feet sitting turning me into a sitting position!! Then I am hoisted off the chair and shuffled to the end!! The girls wish me luck and then the bungy is dropped at my feet. The bungy man counts down...THREE...TWO...ONE...BUNGY and arms stretched wide like a bird, I throw myself off the edge!! I can't describe the feeling...the feeling that I am an absolute fool who is about to die!! The speed I fell was incredible, they tell us we fall at 80mph!! I don't make a sound as I fall, my eyes feel like they are going to pop out of my head and all I see is the river at the bottom getting frighteningly close!! The freefall was only eight seconds and then, to my relief, I feel myself pop back up!! OMG it was truly amazing!! Then I screamed...and screamed...and screamed!! OMG, I swore, I laughed I was shaking like a mad man and it was the most amazing feeling ever, as soon as the second bounce came I pulled out the cord and swung to an upright postion!! I did not want to be hanging upside down! When I reached the top I was buzzing jumping and laughing and telling the remaining few how good it was, I wanted to go again!!
We jumped in the car back to safe ground, and watched some of the last few jump, then got kitted into our free nevis t-shirts and headed back!! Everyone having jumped we were ready to party!! We got back to the town, I slept and then we went for our amazing FERG BURGER...yes I need to speak about food once more!! These burgers have become famous in New Zealand, they are the infamous bgourmet burgers, and they are phenomenal!! I had tropical swine, a beef burger with salad and pinapple, plus onion rings and chips with garlic mayo, it was our celebratory meal!! And it went down a treat, so filling, I was defeated by the chips and rings!! We then got ready to party, it was our last night in Queenstown with everyone and we were going to go hard!! So dressed and ready to party, we went to the base bar and and pre game drinks before heading to World Bar for our teapots! Everyone was in such a god mood from our amazing day!! I got some wicked last night pictures and was rather merry! We partied hard, and it was emotional when we all had to part and go to bed, but everyone promised to wake and see us off in the morning!! The best day on the whole bus!!
Saturday 17th May......Queenstown ---> Chrsichurch...END OF THE KIWI BUS
Sadly we left everyone this morning, and to our suprise, everyone of the original crew that has travelled all the way from Auckland came to see us off! We said emotional goodbyes and boarded our bus!! The mood was sombre, partly from hangovers, partly from being sad to leave the great friends we had met! The journey went pretty quickly, I watched a film on Ryan's Ipod and slept and before we knew it we rolled into Christchurch!! The bus driver was a legend, and he took us straight to the Campervan Depot! There we were introduced to our campervan!! It was the most amazing thing ever!! It was a six berth beast, a proper van not a silly little one that most backpackers used, we were now officially flashpackers and it cost us only $64 each, thats 30 pound for 4 nights accomodation!! Amazing! We filled in the necessary paper work and headed to Kaikoura, a small coastal town north of Christchurch. Two in the front, 4 in the back playing cards it felt like a real camping holiday. The ktichen ran along one side, there were table areas that turned into beds and a shower room! It was sooooooooooooo cool! After a 2 hour drive we reached Kaikoura and found a spot for the night! We grabbed some food, and pretty quickly got into our camper, and got over excited about setting up the beds! It was a little cramped with 6 backpacks, and Me, Jenny, Sarah, Nik, Ryan and Jason but it was cosy!! I slept like a baby that night!
Sunday 18th May....................Campervan FUN!
That morning we woke up only to find we had parked up on the lookout spot, that overlooked the whole of Kaikoura town and the ocean and mountains!! This sounds cheesy but it was so beautiful and the sun was so warm, even at this time of year. So we cooked our first meal, porridge, and then sat on our camping chairs enjoying the view!! We were so excited about the van, Ryan was even fiddling with the curtains, he was that amazed and we chatted until 12pm when we left for the Dolphin Site. The others all went off and swam with Dolphins, however, having done that in Florida, I decide not to! So I had a nice afternoon on my own! I went for an hour and half walk and explored the town, it was really pretty, and I bought some bread from the bakery to feed them all for lunch!! It was so nice having some own time, with my ipod I happily bopped around the town in only a vest top and trousers!! Such a gorgeous town! I then headed back to the van and had a shower...an interesting expereince, as during the washing out of the conditioner the hot water disappeared and I was bloody freezing!! Warming myself up in lots of layers I made everyone tuna and salad baguettes which were much appreciated!! Then we headed to the supermarket for supplies and then to a campsite for the night to charge the battery and fill the water tank!
That evening was a great night! Jen and I cooked Chicken Paprike and Rice for everyone, and we all sat round the table and chatted and played some drinking games! We had a really chilled night, laughing lots and I realised how lucky I was to have been on the bus with such great people, and how well we all clicked in our little group!! I was loving the time in the camper, and was sad we'd have to leave in the morning!!
Monday 19th May...........Kaikoura -----> Christchurch
Today was our last day of Campervan Mary, we named here after Mary from our bus! We all overslept and were being screwed at by the owners so made a quick exit and headed back to the lookout! We had porridge, again cooked by me, I had become breakfast maker, and bacon on toast! Yummy!! We all sat and ate overlooking the ocean and the snowy mountains! The boys played some footy, I wrote some postcards and we just sat back and listened to the chilled music blaring from the ipod, good job we had an electrician with us who could wire us up!! We left to look for seals in the afternoon, not having much luck and then had the boys cook us our first meal, of stir in pasta and broccoli!! Not as impressive as our meal cooked from scratch!! Then we headed back, the four of us in the back sleeping most of the way. We reached the depot and parked up on a road behind it!! The boys then had to remove and wash out the waste tank, this is terrible to say, but it was the funniest thing ever, we watched them from the windows, heaiving at the smell, they were not impressed, and it did really reek!! We were probably meant to have cleaned it out each day but we just left it until the last day, 4 days later!! Nik was actually sick and when they got in the van we tried so hard to keep straight faces, they were not happy, and Jenny was not helping me keep from laughing!! We then sorted the van and headed for bed, at like 2:30am!! So wrecked!!
Tuesday 20th May................Bye Bye Boys--------> Back to QUEENSTOWN!!
We dropped the boys at the airport in the morning with a ver emotional goodbye, then dropped off the camper and headed to the city centre!! Our bus arrived at 10am and we boarded and headed back to Queenstown! It was a quiet journey, I slept most of the way and listened to depressing music to make myself even more sad about the fact we were very close to ending our New Zealand trip!! But I still had a few days with the girls so it was ok!! The journey flew by, we only had eight people on the bus so we could stretch out and I enjoyed the hugest scone at the coffe shop, nearly as good at the Carshalton Beeches Bakery!! We reached Queenstown at 9pm and had the free soup Buzz had given me (embarrassingly he had got wind that I was a huge eater) and thenwe headed to sleep! A very lazy day, it was weird checking into the hostel, sad as there were only three of us, not the hoard of 45 of us from the bus, and it didn't feel the same!!
Wednesday 21st May...............MILFORD SOUND
Today Jenny and I headed to Milford Sound, a $159 day trip to what is meant to be the most beautiful part of New Zealand on the west most part of the South Island!! However, it was a pretty grey day, which is not good as the whole idea is to take photos of the amazing scenery! However, we tried to be optimistic and slept pretty much the whole way to the port, reluctantly climbing off the warm bus to see yet another forest in the rain!! The cloud got thicker, and our positive feelings started to wane, when we reached the port it was pretty grim! We boarded the two hour ferry and were fed straight away, an all you can eat buffet! Very nice, and we definately made the most of it!! Especially the fruit, taking supplies for the next few days!
We explored the decks and luckily it was only spitting and not too cloudy, so we did get some great moody pictures, however it was bloody freezing!! Bitterly so!! We took photos, but soon became bored of scenery, so we started to be more creative! We went and took photos by the captain, climed into the boats lifeguard ring, stuck our heads through the floor holes and hid in the furniture!! We acted like two 12 year olds but it was fun!! And we got some great pics! We visted the Undarground Observation Station, and saw the back coral and lots of fish including a mean looking scorpian fish, however the hightlight was definately two fish gettin it on!! Haha!!
We left the boat and borded our bus, and slept the whole way back, it was a good day, but definately not worth the money, it was like a 70 quid buffet meal!! Expensive lunch! We met Sarah who had had a great day White Water Rafting and got ready to party! We were to have our last rave in Queenstown, however, the night ended as a bit of a flop, I didn't want to drink, Sarah was irritated by the rathed immature boys drooling on her, and Jenny was very annoyed by some other boy who was drunk and having the same conversation with her over an over!! So we headed back and slept instead!!
Thursday 22nd May................Exploring Queenstown!
We had the most amazing lay in, not going for brekky until 12pm, where we chatted for ages and then headed out to explore Queenstown. We got some amazing pictures by the Lake that surrounds Queenstown, with the snowy mountains behing, we browsed the shops and then headed to Ferg for lunch!! So exciting, we got three different and shared, a Beef one, Deer one and Chicken!! So good! We made our way back and then all were to lazy to go out on our final night so spent the evening in bed chatting about the trip and how much we missed everyone!!
Friday 23rd May...............Queenstown ---> Christchurch
We had another lay in and checked out and returned to the shops to buy a few things!! We then went for our final FergBurger...and yes I did purchase the shops hoodie!! I am that cool, I thought there was not better way to combine my love for food with the fact it had New Zealand on it! We also saw Mary, Em, Charlotte, Vicky and Matt from the bus, as they had arrived back from their campervan trip, only to find out that Em had crashed it on the first day! And practically wrote it off! Oh dear we did giggle! We then said our goodbye and headed back to the bus terminal to return to Christchurch! Another 7 hour journey, oh joy, but I did a major diary update to pass the time, and we rolled in at about 9am! And I discussed Australia with the girls as they are leaving for Oz in the morning, giving them as much advice as I could! Then we slept, they woke me up at 4am when they left, giving big hugs they left, I was on my own once again!!
Saturday 24th May............Day in Christchurch
I didn't do much today, I had a great lay in, then went in search of some lunch and used up my last supplies of pasta, marmite (yes it has lasted since Melbourne) and porridge. I then updated my blog and diary and waited for Mary and Co. to arrive in the evening! I saw them for a bit, then headed to bed as I was flying to Fiji the next day!!
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