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hi all, its been pretty busyhere the last few days. Its been non stop travelling, lots of sightseeing, partying and doing crazy things. The day I left Christchurch on the kiwi experience bus we headed straigth to Kaikoura...the place to see dolphins whales etc. I didnt see any but saw lots of stinking seals and pups. very cute.
The day after we headed further north to picton (the ferry terminal) dropped a crowd of peeople off that were heading to north island and then collected another crowd of people. We then continued on to Nelson for the night. Ive met some awesome friends here. there were 3 others that also joined the bus on the same day as me, so we were all in the same boat. im now really good friends with another Emma, a Niel and a connor...2 english and an irish (can you guess which is the irish??).
We were only in Nelson for the night before beginning to head down the west coast...very beautiful desolate and seriously windy roads...very interesting with hangovers and on coaches! From Nelson we drove to Westport, stopping off for walks, view points and of course food/drink stops. we have a full coach and beacuse its so busy we actually managed to fill 2 48 seat coaches with people, certainly made a great night for meeting people! In westport we stayed in a lovely homely resort, called trip inn. a lovely log fire and sofas awaited us after we finished a jet boat ride, spinning 360s on the water, was awesome fun!
After westport we got further into the temperate rainforest, and more isolated. We stopped at a random hostel in the middle of nowhere about 30k from a town called greymouth. tonight was a big party organised by the bus drivers and the owners. we all dressed up in bin bags and partyed the night away. i manged to get my bed for the bargain price of $10NZD about 4punds due to there not being enough beds for everyone so i opted for a mattress for the half the price. we all went to the lake after dark, saw glow worms and the night sky...ive never seen so many stars!!
the day after we had an early start to head to Franz Joseh. we were here for 2nights, which was nice to be able to unpack, do some washing and gnerally chill out and not have to worry about packing up the next morning. oh i forget to mention that we had a massive group meal (94 people) at this party at which i gave a hand cooking in return for a free glacial hot pool pass!! well wotrth it. in franz jospeh i climbed the glacier on a full day hike. it was absolutely amasing...although on our descent we saw that a guy had dallen off the last steps and fallen about 5m off the cliff!! was quite dramatic to finish the day. of course they got helicopters in, lots of guides and we found out later that he cam away with only bumps and bruises...a very lucky man!
after franz joseph we drove down to lake wanaka. the weather got steadily worse and we arrived in the rain, very much like england. we had a broken bus that only had air con so we were all absolutely freezing already. we checked into our hostel and found the nearest cafe. due to the weather we didnt do much and couldnt see much either, we could onlt just see the lake!
so today (theres alot to ctach up on, i hope i havent bored you with my itinerary!) we drove to queenstown, we stopped at puzzleworld...very interesting with lots of tricks of the eye! i bumped into 2 girls that i shared a room with for my first two nigths in fiji, which was very bizzare. of all places to bump into each other, was a very big coincidence. we had a brief catch up and promised to meet up again in queenstown.
queenstown is gorgeous, its got a very ski resort type vibe about it. its all quite expneive, full of cafes and some expensive shops. im at a huge hostel right in the centre of the town.
im settling into travellers life, trying to live on a budget which is very difficult here espeically with all the great activities there are to do! ive got some planned for the next couple of days, i wont divulge those yet, i wouldnt want to worry the parents!!
time to sign out now. i think im all up to date on this now. was going to upload some photos but turns out i bought the wrong memory card with me and it only has 6 photos on it! not very useful. there will be some tomorrow probably.
keep your messages coming...i have a new new zedaland phone number 0064210405245, all the other number are still working aswell i think. the international sim card proved very unreliable! updates coming soo...
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