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As we reached the outskirts of Queenstown we stopped off at the Kawarau bridge where we watched a dvd about the history of bungy jumping and watched a few people jump off the bridge which was the first commercial bungy site in the world. After this there was just time for a group photo of the bus before some brave/stupid individuals headed off to the Nevis bungy, all 134m of it! That night was party time as lots of our bus tried their hands (mostly with disasterous effects) at karaoke. Just as we were heading out of that first bar we bumped into Adam and Matt who had been travelling round South America with us on the gap tour so much catching up was done over a teapot in the World Bar. There was even time for a Fergburger to round the night off. On our second day in Queenstown we realised that our flight out of New Zealand was three days earlier than we'd thought so a quick trip had to be made to STA travel to rearrange the flight so we could get back to Auckland in time!
Day three in Queenstown meant an early start for a day trip to Milford Sound. The scenery was breathtaking even thought the awful weather left visibility quite low. We also missed out on the underwater observatory because the Milford Road was closing at 4pm that day and hasn't been open since. Our last day in Queenstown was a chance to hike up to the top of the gondola for spectacular views over Lake Wakatipu and the chance to see some nutters trying out the Ledge Bungy.
The next day was the marathon trip to Christchurch. Due to more poor weather we didn't get to stop for the views of Mt Cook but we had chance to stop for some photos at the wonderfully blue Lake Tekapo. The long drive through the unspectacular Canterbury plains meant we got to see a whole series of New Zealand's finest export, The Flight of the Concords. When we got to Christchurch we met up with Matt and Adam once more for their last night in New Zealand before they moved to Australia for a year. The following day we paid a visit to the Antarctic Centre which is the base of the New Zealand and US Antractic expeditions. We got to go behind the scenes of the Penguin enclosure and meet some Little Blue Penguins as well as taking a ride in one of the Antarctic terrain vehicles over a specially built track. We also got to fit in a flying visit to Christchurch's museum and Art Gallery before staying up far too late to watch the All Blacks in action against South Africa.
The following day we set off for Kaikoura and, after checking in to our hostel, headed straight into time to get kitted up in wetsuits before getting on a boat out into the Pacific to swim with a pod of 600-800 dusky dolphins which was absolutely amazing, not to mention absolutely freezing cold. The next day was time to leave the South Island after plenty of stops to take some photos of the scenery and seals after the weather had finally improved. After we arrived in Picton it was straight on the ferry to Wellington.
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