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I don't actually remember much of what I've been up to for the last few days, New Zealand has too much to do it's ridiculous! Plus my camera's broken and my brain's dead so I'll just go by the schedule. Next stop after Taupo was River Valley, feels like forever ago that! River Valley is in the wop-wops (middle of nowhere) and the only thing around for miles is the one lodge, a big river and lots of hills. It was really nice to be properly in the middle of nature for once, and the hostel was one of those proper outdoorsy types with deer heads everywhere and a fire, and the dorm was one big elongated bunk bed like in Yan's in Koh Phangan. We didn't get up to much there (the activity of the day was the white water rafting but I'd done it in Oz so didn't bother) apart from crossing the river on a cute little zip line wagon and going on a short trek up the hill, followed by a night of table challenge (I failed, the table was gigantic, couldn't even get my arms across) and fun times with our driver, Dylan.
Our last stop on the North Island was Wellington. I think we may have done something on the way but I don't remember so never mind. We got to Wellington early so we had a chance to explore. It's smaller than Auckland but artier with lots of theatres and quirky drinking places. We wandered around town a bit then went to the museum which had a big earthquake simulation house and a GIANT squid. Drank coffee for hours too. Unfortunately we were there on a Tuesday so there wouldn't be any live music or anything so we just went to Nomads where the rest of the group were staying for a night out. It would have been nice to see some of the Welly's more interesting bars but I was far too drunk to care by the end of the night. Wandered off and got lost (standard...) but luckily had a map on me. I should always bring maps out with me.
Next day was the ferry to the South Island. It was three hours long and I slept the whole way, fun. Then there was more travelling from Picton to Kaiteriteri which probably involved more stops but who knows. Went to the beach in Kaiteriteri with its cool bright yellow sand, so different to the white sand of Oz! Hopped over some rocks and almost got stranded on a little island. That night there was a pub quiz at the hostel which started off being ridiculously hard but we ended up being half a point off first place. So close and so many 'I told you so' moments! Won a bottle of wine anyway.
Next up was Westport. We went on a really nice coastal walk on the way there, then went to see some pancake rocks and then went to a beach and took lots of photos of us standing on rocks. The hostel there was lovely, really quaint little kitchen with hanging pots and hammocks outside. It was Dan, one of the guys' birthday so we had cake and went out for a few drinks. Westport isn't exactly rave central but we gave it a go but had a pretty early night, ahead of the poo pub adventure the next day.
The Poo Pub is a legendary stop on the Kiwi Experience trail. It's owned by an 86 year old dude called Les, who is hilarious and looks like santa. The pub itself is covered in millions of photos of past kiwi experience nights out and the ceiling's covered in hats, awesome. Every time the Kiwi bus stops here they have a fancy dress night, so as it was Dan's birthday we went for 'things beginning with D'. D's a pretty hard letter as it happens but nobody wussed out and we all looked amazing, if I do say so myself. I obviously got very excited reliving the uni AU night days, it's been so long since I got my fancy dress on! I went as Dolly the sheep (the first cloned sheep), which seemed appropriate seeing as I was a Welsh biochemist in New Zealand and all (and also the fact that I already had a sheep hat from Australia!), and stuffed a pillow up my top as usual so I could be a fatty and chest bump people. Other highlights were a dustbin, Mrs Doubtfire, a drag queen, Wayne and Garth from Wayne's world (dudes), a Dairy milk bar, dolphin, Dumbledore, Darth Vader, dolls, dorks etc etc... good times!
The hungover mess that was the bus the next day was less fun though. So many people were sick, lovely. We stopped at this hunting lodge with the arsiest guy ever running it who wouldn't serve us breakfast until we paid to look at some possums. Got to Franz Josef for the glacier hike which we had to go on that afternoon since it was going to be raining the next day. Not ideal since there was a high risk that there would be some chundering everywaaah incidents, but we managed it!
The glacier was awesome. We got to fly up there in a helicopter which was a pretty crazy experience in itself with an awesome view of the mountain which looked so small from the copter until you saw the tiny little people on it! Then we donned our crampons and set odd for our three hour wander down some awesome ice slides and through the 'Virgin Mary' which was ahem, a tight squeeze (lolz). The ice is so blue, feels like a different planet. We were shattered afterwards so went for a much deserved Indian meal which I'd been craving for weeks, then watched friends for hours until we fell asleep, cosy!
Aaaand that's that for now. As I said my camera's broken for good now - it's been spazzing out for over a month and it survived getting sand in the lens but the screen's gone, so close to making it to the end! Can't be bothered getting a new one as I'm already carrying around three broken cameras which I can get replaced so having four cameras at home would be a bit silly, even for me. Pretty gutted, taking photos is my favourite pasttime! Plus the scenery's supposed to be amazing from here, goddamit. Oh well. There's a week till I go home and I'm actually really excited. Queenstown will be awesome but after that I'm definitely ready to sit still for a really long time!
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