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I left Paul and Sonia's (temporarily, I will be back!) on Wednesday and took the Magic Bus from Christchurch city centre. The Magic Bus is one of several tours which you can choose from to take you around the sites in New Zealand. The one I am on will take me around the South Island with about 8 overnight stops. So on Wednesday we drove to Kaikoura, North from Christchurch. The drive was beautiful, lots of snow covered mountains and rugged beaches!
Before arriving at our accomoodation we stopped off at a seal colony on the edge of Kaikoura. The seals were just chilling on the rocks and we got up really close to them! Will put some photos up in a couple of weeks!
Kaikoura is a funny little place. Its very beautiful, right on the coast and with mountains surrounding in. After settling into my accommodation with the rest of the Magic Bus people (mostly English including 3 guys from Barnsley who liked to swear alot and wore trousers which defied the laws of reproduction...) I went to do whale watching. The sea off Kaikoura is quite shallow for about a mile but then suddenly drops into a massively deep canyon, which is why whales are common around the area (they need deep water). Anyway we went out on the little boat which was certainly speedy and the waters were pretty choppy. We saw a sperm whale in the first half hour, it dived under and got its tail out for us! After that I stared to feel quite nauseus....and spent the rest of the time with my head in a paper bag puking up! We saw 3 other whales, but due to my illness I only saw them out the window. Good times!
That evening we went to the only pub in the town which had a open fire which was very much appreciated and took part in the quiz whilst drinking red cider.
Yesterday the bus drove from Kaikoura to Picton stopping at another seal colony on the way. The scenery so far has been outstanding. You can see why they chose to film lord of the rings here. From Picton I took the ferry across to Wellington. Thankfully the sea was calmer (a rarity apparently :s) so I wasn't sick...Janine (mum's cousin) picked me up and we went for a meal last night with her son and daughter and then her son Andrew took me out for a couple of pints before I collapsed into bed!
Sunday 31st August
After staying in Wellington until Monday I took the ferry bck over and travelled to Nelson. Nelson was a very small town (acually it was made a city by Queen Victoria but most New Zealand cities seem to be tiny!) It was really nice and I made friends amost immediately with lots of people there. I stayed 3 nights and pretty much spent my time in the pub and in bed...there was also a green bus situated at the bottom of the garden whih was used fr after hours drinking. It was a really cool place to hang out and on some nights 2 chilean guys who were staying there came and played their musi which was great. On the last day I walked up a massive hill to the official geographical centre of New Zealand where there were some fantasti views.
On Thursday, instead of jumping on the bus, I drove down to Franz Josef in a 1983 Toyota Corolla with some guys from the hostel. I drove half the way aswell which was cool. The roads were very windy and of course, lots of lovely scenery! It took u 8 hours to reach Franz Josef.
On Friday we went and did the ful day glacier hike on the Franz Josef glacier (with a guide of course).It was amazing. We got to crawl through ice caves and at one point were knee deep in icy cold water! However, yesterday and today the effect on my thighs was very apparent. Im in absolute agony! Shows how little I use those muscles!
Yesterday we left Fran Josef in the car bound for Queenstown. However, half way there and in the middle of nowhere we began to overheatand had to stop thwe car. We had no signal on our phones so i had to flag a car down. Luckily it was a lovely english couple who offered us a lift back to the last town half an hour away and eventually we got a mehanic to fix the car! It could have been much worse!
So we arrived in Queenstown yesterday and pretty much just went out last night and walked around town today. I'm only staying til Tuesday when I'll leave the guys and jump back on the magic bus :)
Friday 5th September
I'm back at Paul and Sonia's now which is nice as it means lots of cups of tea, a double bed and proper food! However I do have a horrible cough and sore throat. Got back on the bus on Tuesday after a lively weekend in Queenstown. No skiing, just lots of beer... and drove to Dunedin. Dunedin is a lovely city. It's where scottish settlers came to and is based on the town plan of Edinburgh (Dunedin in gaelic for Edinburgh). There I went on w ildlife walk where I firstly got taken to a royal albatross observatory and saw the 'chicks' (they were huge-nearly fully grown) on the cliff side. We were really lucky as some of the employees came out to weigh them in front of us (they only do this once a week) and so we saw how big they were in com[arison to humans. And they were MASSIVE.
After that we drove to a conservation area where we first walked down to a beach with lots of fur seals on it (very cute) and then to the other beach which had sealions which we literally just walked next to until one decided to get playful and so we legged it (they are also huge beasts). We then went to watch the yellow eyed penguins come in from a hard day at sea and waddle home up the cliff side. They were very hilarious. It was cool though because yellow eyed penguins are the rarest penguin in the world and can only be found in new zealand.
The next day we drove again, this time to Lake Tekapo via th Moeraki Boulders (some strange perfectly round rocks which sat on a beach). Lake Tekapo was pretty desolate, plus the weather was crap so there wasnt much to do there. Everyone decided it was time for a night in with a film, but before that, me and some others went to the hot pools rounds the corner for a saok. It was very weird as it was freezing and raining outside but as soon as we got in the pools we were warm and the scenery was fantastic!
The next day we basically drove back to Christchurch and here I am!
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