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Saturday 16th April
We decided to get up and take a walk around Queenstown shops and the market and as the weather was quite nice, the whole town was quite busy. We then went to the famous Fergburger restaurant for one of their huge and scrumptious burgers which ended up being my breakfast, lunch and dinner as it filled me up so much! We then went back to the bungy centre in Queenstown so i could upload my bungy video to facebook for free as the internet is quite pricey out here which is really annoying! We also put all our photos across to a USB so we didnt lose them! I then arranged to meet Jenny for a catch up before i left the next day. (For anyone that doesn't know, Jenny is Yvonne and Dawson's friend from college who decided to go travelling to Australia a year and a half ago and hasnt returned since, she's now living in Queenstown for at least another 6 months!) That was really good to hear what she had been up to and how she finds living in New Zealand. We headed back to the hostel to get ready for another night out. This time we had drinks in a friend of Rachel and Anna's room who also work a bit in the hostel. Not only was it our last night with everyone, it was also Lola's birthday the next day so we were celebrating it that evening. We went to Altitude Bar where it was a UV party so we drew on people's faces for them. Lola was a little bit ill in Altitude so we left there and went to a bar called Cowboys which had a big grizzly stuffed bear in the doorway and a bucking broncho which i really wanted to go on but unfortunately was not wearing appropriate clothing for it! We soon had to say goodbye to everyone which was pretty sad and headed back to get ready to leave Queenstown tomorrow.
Sunday 17th April
We got on our new coach this morning where everyone was hungover and tired and the fact it was raining didn't make people too happy! We had been told before that it was a 6 hour drive to Christchurch and because of the earthquake the kiwi bus doesn't stop in the city, just at the airport to drop people off because many of the hostels are closed and the streets are still damaged quite badly. So they suggest that people do the straight drive from Christchurch to the next stop which is Kaikora which is another 5/6 hours drive so we were prepared for the long drive ahead! Before we set off we also found out that 6 lads were supposed to be on the bus but got arressted the night before for trying to steal a bottle behind a bar and were now facing a court appearance!! The long drive to Christchurch wasn't too bad as it was raining the whole day so we didn't feel like we were missing out on too much. We also watched American Beauty which killed some of the time. We swapped coaches at Christchurch to our new bus driver - Poncy - who told us there had been another aftershock measuring 5.3 on the rictor scale last night so he was pretty glad to be leaving! We eventually got into Kaikora at half 7, shoved our stuff in the room and went out for some fish and chips as we were in a seaside town so felt rude not to and then went to bed as we were shattered from travelling all day!
Monday 18th April
Today our destination is back at Wellington. As our pass takes us back to Auckland, in the North we take a more express route back up meaning we only stay in Wellington, Taupo and then Auckland on our way up. We arrived at Picton (Ferry Crossing) to glorious sunshine again and got settled on the Ferry due to get into Wellington at 4.30pm. HOWEVER we had a disasterous ferry crossing as the seas were really rough with waves being between 7 and 8 metre's high which meant we had to go really slowly across and had to change our route to go much further north of the crossing so that when it was safe to do so the boat could turn sideways to come into the port as it was safer to do then coming straight into the port. This meant we were on the ferry for over 6 hours with the majority of the ride being very rough! I got up at one stage to go to the toilet and every step you took you had to hold onto someting whilst it felt like you were about to start floating in the air before crashing back down again and suddenly feeling attached to the ground! So weird and if i hadn't been lying down for most of it i may well have been sick! Eventually we got into Wellington at 7.30pm so again dumped our stuff in the room and headed out for some food. We went to a place called Sweet Mumma's kitchen which was a small, buys, unique little place with a very chilled atmosphere and very good food. We then headed to bed as we had a 8am start tomorrow.
Tuesday 19th April
Today's destination is Taupo. Our first stop was a town called 'Bulls' which we actually stopped at on the way down but because the weather wasn't very nice we didn't get to fully expore it. With the sun beaming down we got to see why it was such an interesting place. All the buildings in the twon tried to incorporate the word 'bull' into their names or descriptions. For example the police station is called 'Consta-Bull', Subway had the tagline 'Submerga-Bull', The mechanics were called 'Towa-Bull', one of the shops was called 'Consuma-Bull' and the toilets were called 'Releive-a-Bull'! We then travelled through a twon famous for producing Gum Boots aka Wellington Boots. Unfortunately 10 minutes later our driver pulled over on one of the highways due to a punctured tire so that meant one hour waiting for someone to come and fix it, although it meant i had a chance to catch up on writing my diary! lol. We then stopped to take a picture along desert road which gave us great views of Mount Doom and Mount Ruapehu which were covered in snow as they had a snowfall last night. They looked really cool against the clear blue skies! We ate in that night when we got to Taupo and chilled out with us both looking forward to our stay in the Hilton tomorrow!!
Wednesday 20th April
Today was our last day on the Kiwi Bus with a final destination being Auckland. We stopped off at a Rotorua along the way to drop and pick people off and also stopped at bubbling Mud pool near auckland which was pretty cool but really stunk! Jack's parents bought us a night at the Hilton in Auckland for our Birthday Presents which we were staying in tonight so we were both really excited to get there. We checked in about 3pm ish and the room was amazingggg. We had a harbour side view which was so nice and the room was perfect! The hotel also had a really small pool that had a glass wall looking out to the harbour which was soooo cool! We didnt waste much time in going for a swim even though it was a bit chilly up there and the view under water was seriosuly good! That evening we found a pub/restaurant up one of the side streets from queenstown and (again) managed to having a ridiculously yummy meal for pretty reasonable prices! The whole night was really relaxing and really nice (felt like we were on an acutallly holiday rather than travelling!) and a great way to celebrate one of our last nights together in Auckland! So thanks Bill and Julie :)
Thursday 21st April
Today we got to check out at 11 so had a lie in and we plan to meet on eof jack's friends from camp Laree and Miss Becky Walker to see how she's been doing!! so very excited for both of those!!
Sweet as NZ!
xxxx
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