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we had our last deleicous meal in oz which was ethiopian from the worldwide food festivfal and consisted of spicy chicken, yellow lentils with ginger and chilli and rice it was divine probably the nicest meal ive had here thats why i felt the need to mention it even though it was nearly 2 weeks ago! We went to bed early ready for our flight to new zealand but were rudely awaken by the loud sex noises coming from the room upstairs so us and the other girls in the dorm just mimiced them till they stopped- very mature but it worked! We got up at half 4 am and caught the train, chaning at central line to the airport and got our flight which was scary with lots of turbulance due to the wind, to christchurch.
Once in christchurch we found a 5dollar shuttle which dropped us at the lively cathedral square where our hostel was. Christchurch is often described as the most english of new zealands towns. Punts (men on narrow boats dressed in braces and straw hats) glide down the picturesque river avon, a grand anglican cathedral dominates the city square and trams rattle past streets with oh so english names. The trams were a aprt of christchurch city life in the latter part of the 1800's, with horse drawn and stream trains running services to many parts of the city. 1904 saw the introduction of the electric tram untiol 1954 when the last of the familiar green and cream trams disapeared from christchurch streets but due to the dedication of the locals their sucsessful return meant that we could have a ride on one of the old fashioned trams which loop round the city where we took in the quaint sights, art gallery, craft fairs, cafes, botanic gardens, casino, historic buildings, spansih architecture, boutique shops and beautiful bridges. This place reminds me of stratford upon avon or oxford its really quanint and nice. We saw lots of street perfomrenrs too. We had out own room here in the hostel with our own bathroom and clean towles which got us excited after a month and a half of minging oz dives!!!we ate fish and chips from the paper for tea (they wernt as good as england!)
In the morning we slept in oops anmd were awaken by a knock at our door from the tour leader who we were meant to meet 10mins ago at the bus outside We threw our stuff together and ran out to the bus where everyone was cheering- embarrassing and a good first impression for everyone of me and gem! we left christchurch and headed across the canterbury plains to the town of geraldine for a coffee and followed the southern lakes hydroelectricity scheme across the impressive blue waters with the southern alsp as a backdrop. Driving along the scenery was amazing with the huge mountains with snow on top and gorgeous hills and peaks- it looks a bit like scotland only more beautiful. We stoppped for a group photo at the church of the good shephard and saw the stature of the collie dog who saved the beauty of the mountains by making the grazing possible (it looked like milly).
We saw mount cook, NZ's ;argest mountain and it looked immense against the clear blue waters and fluffy white clouds. You can tell lord of the rings and narnia were filmed here. We stopped for gorgeous tomanto and bacon soup whilst overlooking the views and headed back to the bus. It was freeeeezing, much colder than england in my opinion! We all had to get up on the bus and introduce ourselves on the mic and talk about ourselves as well as doing speed dating with each person on the bus so we could get to know one another.
We stayed the night nestled in the hills off the shores on lake ohau, our room view was perfect and we had homemade lasagne, veg, potatos followed by choc brownine and cream for pud. Afterwards gem and i took a bottle of wine outside into the hot pools on the terrace and looked at the stars it was gorgeous and very luxurious!
In the morn we got up early for a cooked breakfast and lookedat the sun rising over the lake before setting off for our drive over the lindis pass and through the cromwell district where we stoppped to sample local fruits and fruit chocoltae (i tried kiwi flavour). Our journey continued along the kawarau river looking at more lord of the rings scenrery (i wish id seen it!!) and passed the first commercial bungy jump site in the world.
We stopped in the township of te anau on the shores of one of new zelaands many glacial lakes- its hard to imagine it was all ice at one point. I had maccaroni cheese for lunch as we sat outside admiring the view, it was quite sunny today but still very cold. It's bitter but the air is very freah and clean here. I enjoyed mirror lake where we saw the reflection of the scenery as a mirror image in the still water. We had a short walk down to the chasm which consisted of rocks with running water creating a sort of natural art it was pretty and we had a nice walk. Next we literally drove through the mountain via the homer tunnel as the driver played mission impossible theme. We emerged at the other side back onto the spectacular landscape with mountains and waterfalls at every turn- i have got used to it now it seems normal but it is just gorgeous everywhere we drive past. I've never seen such natural beauty in a country before.
We stayed the night on the tasman sea in a big boat called the milsound wanderer. It was great we crusied along on the boat into the evening and we got our lifejackets on and tried our hand at kayaking- i LOVED it, paddling round in the water with my kayak taking in the vierws and looking at the mountains surrounding me which have ice as deep as the length of the whole boat- no wonder it was cold!! The whole thing used to be a glacier before it melted down and became home to many dolphins. We saw about 11 dolphins leaping out of the kale and racing against the boat, i could have cried i was so amazed! Next we jumped into the speedboat and explored the surroudning shoreline-we had a gorge dinner of pumpkin soup, roast pork with sweet potato and veg and homemade choc muffin with white choc sauce, the food in NZ is lovely its a lot of roast meat and lots of veg's and they have nice veg like butternut squash and pumpkin.
It was a great experiecne living on the boat especially cos of the breathtaking views and we had fun speniding the night maiing firends with the people from our boat and the crew playing board games and drinking beer. I had a great sleep on the boat in the quad beds but i kept a few people up snoring-oopsss!!!!
We had a cooked breaky on board the boat and sailed back to shore passing amazing waterfalls and towering rocks. After a few stops for group photos and watching old fashioned steam trains soar past us on the bus like somthing from a harry potter movie we arrived in the adrenilin charged town of queenstown.
Queenstown is on the shores of lake watikatipu and is nestled which is surely one of the most scenic spots in the world. Bill clinton has been here and has manet to have said' queenstown is breathtaking, i wish i had weeks to spend here. when we flew here everyone was gasping it is just so beautiful' - I agree bill!!!!!! It had been my fave place so far. It is a compact town slpoing up steep hills from the kaleside and the view from our lodge (which was gorgeous by the way, im loving this trip although i did pay a lot for it!!!) is amazing overlooking the town. We are staying in a modern apartment with 2 other girls one called helen from new jersy in america and the other called lucy from oxford in england. On arrival a few of us decided to try our hand at juging which involved zooming down in a 3 wheeled cart along 2 800m tracks, a bit like go karting without the engine, we were right up in the hills so the tight corners felt like we were gonna go off the edge, i was screaming the whole way down! we had 5 goes and each time had to use the ski lift to get to the top and this was edgy as it was windy bu it gave us wonderful views of the town adn the water below- check the photos i have uploaded about 5 albums since iarrived in new zealand. This night we cooked noodle in our flat and read in bed in our matching hats and t.shirts we look like garden gnomes .
After a lovely sleep awaking to the marvelous view we had breakfast (bacon muffins, museli and apricots) and realised that today meant that we had only one month left of our trip-eek!
It was a good day we looked round some of the boutiques and shops that queenstown has to offer including a cute old fashioned sweet shiop full of sweet jars and homemade fudge, we sampled a few including lemon meringue and apple crumble which were lovely!! We then hired mountain bikes and cycled through town and round the lake off road following the gorgeous scenrery and seeing various quirky things including a wishing well, tyre swing and bridges where we stopped for photos. It was a lovely bright autumn day and the leaves were falling off the trees in shades of gold and red. I fell off the bike a few times i forgot how hard it was bu t it was very rocky and steep, we were going for about 4 hours so our bums were in agony by the end. we covered miles it was hard work!
Afterwards we ate squid rings and fed the ducks on the lakeside in town and bought matching pink hoodies with our names on. We are speniding so much time together we seem to dress the same, finish each otehrs sentences and think the same thoughts. I think we make an impression whereever we go though as we always get special attention from the staff!
Tonight we cracked open a bottle of passion pop and sat on the balcony looking at the twinkling lights that make up the town on the hillside as well as lookingat the full moon and spotting shooting stars!
Later we walked to town and met some of our grop at a bar called minus 5 which is a bar made of ice!!! It was sooo quirky even the glasses we drank from were made of ice and we were surrounded by ice sculptures and seats made of ice. We drank cocktails but were only allowed in there for half an hour due to the minus 7.4 temperatures!! We were provided with gloves, duffel coats and ugg boots though to keep snug whilst we drank in the bar. I was beaming, i loved it in there! check the pics! We looked like eskimos and i was nibbling on my glass made of ice! Loving new zealand- the scnery the activites and the clean air- brilliant.
Another ealry ride with breakfast of fruit yoghurt and honey on toast bwefore boarding the bus for our journey to fox glacier. We had various stops where we did walks on trails leading over ricketing bridges to waterfalls with turquiose waters- we stopped ehre to skim stones over the rippling water but i couldnt do it so i just threw big boulders in instead and revelled in the noise and mess they made hehe!
That night we stayed in a little billage close to the glacier called fox glacier (like the mints!!). Gem and i skipped the optional dinner as we are trying to budget our money and we ended up eating noddle out of cups it was awful! I think we should have just gone to the mexcican with evertyone else! Afterwards we went looking for glow worms which are seen often in this area.
Got up at 6 (it was now 24th april, im summing up my trip in one blog to catch up!) for breakfast at fox glacier inn and went across the road to get kitted out for our hikje up to and across the glacier. We hired proper hiking boots, fleeces and cramp-ons to stop us slipping on the ice. The walk was quite strenuous but scnenic and we learned how glaciers are formed over the years by compressed snow. The whole glacier was about 5 miles across and 200m deep and we had to kie across being careful to stick to the path of ice steps created by the men that moring. Some people took helicopter rides over the glacier but i didnt fancy that and it was so mjuch fun hiking over the ice and finidng little ice caves and rinking the frewsh water that had melted. The journey to the glacier was through temperate rainforest and very high up at one point we had to hold onto the chain it was a definate dont look down moment! It was like bieng in lapland only surrounded by forested peaks that rsie dramatically over the glacial valley. At one point i though tthere was gonna be an avalanche cos a massive boulder of ice moving down the hill and crashed to the bottom! I loved the glacier ive never done anything quite like this before! After wards we walked back to the 1906 bedford bus which dad would have been impressed by as it was vintage and we were given a certificate to acknowledge our achievement of the hike.
The rest of the day we spent travelling on the bus being continusally impressed by the scenery as well as stopping at a jade facotry where we saw the carvers carefully creating pendants and artwork from this green rock that can be found in NZ naturally.
loving it so far- my favourtie country i think! hope all is well i will wrote about the rest of the things ive been doing another time. check my many photos if you can be bothered but they are really good i think! we have the option of doing a skydive and i said yes but then i changed my mind so dont worry im not going to do it!!!
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