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Okay, so I survived the whale watching - no capsizing of boats!
So I think I was talking about the glacier hike. Basically at the top of the glacier there is snowfall, and at the bottom, there is melting away and so there is a balance between the formation at the top and melting at the bottom. That all sounds boring so I won't continue. Basically we did about 10km that day, walking about 3 km to the actual glacier and then a few kilometers up it. We had to wear crampons, which are metal spiky things on your boots which help you walk on the ice. It's all pretty treacherous up there, I gotta say! Really cool views though. We had to walk through little crevices in the ice, will put up a few pics.
That night we had a delicious dinner of jacket potato, cheese and beans - and seriously, potato has never tasted so good! It was yummy! The next morning we headed off pretty early and made our way to Hanmer Springs, which are natural thermal pools and springs in the middle of the mountains. It was so good! We put our cossies on and then sat in 40 degree hot pools, looking out at the snowy Southern Alps. Seriously cool.
After that we headed to Kaikoura, a world renowned whale watching destination, apparently. We got there pretty late and headed out to The Pier, a posh nosh place where I had butterfish and roasted potatoes. Yum scrum.
The next morning we woke up and saw an amazing sunrise - many cheesy pics of that to come. Then we boarded the Whale Watch boat and sailed out 10 miles into whale territory. I felt a little bit seasick, it was a bit choppy out there, but luckily didn't vom. We saw 4 sperm whales, which were MASSIVE. They pop up every so often - the longest they can hold their breath is 2 hours - and they lie around on the surface of the sea for about 20 minutes and then they dive back down into the sea again, and thats when you get to see their tail. (also lots of photos of that too) We also saw dolphins, New Zealand fur seals and sea birds, including albatross. Which just looked like a bird, but is apparently the biggest sea bird out there. Coolio.
After that, we had some yummy scrummy 'fush and chups' - that's how the Kiwis say it (oh, and they always say 'sweet as' and 'eh' at the end of everything) Also, no Starbucks seen so far (shock horror!) but plenty of Subway and McDonalds (plenty of pizziola subs for jeev then)
Anywho, then we drove up to Marlborough, which is New Zealand's wine region, which actually just looked pretty bare. I'm thinking it's the off season coz all I saw were twiggy trees, not much grapes or bush-age going on. We stayed in a really lovely hostel that night, which an old couple own. All the rooms are named after their kids - they must have a lottttt of kids. Or maybe they fostered like Pippa and Irene in Home and Away? Hmm..
So that brings me to yesterday morning. We woke up and headed out to the Vine Village, where we sampled (at 10am!!!) various wines, oils (some were nice, but the lemon, lime and chilli ones were SERIOUSLY MING) and some sickly sweet dessert syrups. We also checked out some quality merino wool scarves and quilts. Then we headed to the Boutique Chocolate Factory, which was what I was most looking forward to. We walked in, and it was literally a ROOM?! Not very Cadbury's-like at all. On one side the chocolatiers were dipping oranges into chocolate and on the other side was the chocolate shop. The brand was Makana - reminded me of Marky the Darky! If the politics falls through, you've already got your own choclate here to come and make. So we went into the shop bit, where apparently you get loads of chocolate to taste, and I was literally about to start drooling. A lady gave us some Macadamia butter nut crunch and ginger chocolate to taste and then said 'oh theres plenty of choclate here, there's labels on the chocolate to tell you what is what'. So I was like OMG COOL! And ran over to the chocolates. And then what did I see on the chocolate boxes?! 'FOR DISPLAY ONLY'. What the hell!??!?!?!? So they had all this amazing chocolate out and it smelt of chocolate and I could see the chocolate being made but I couldn't eat the chocolate unless I bought it! What happened to freebies?! Luckily for them, there wasn't a suggestions box, so I couldn't tell them what I thought about their naff freebies. I wasn't impressed.
Anywho, then we drove up to Picton, a marina at the top of the South Island, where we getting our ferry which would take us up the Cook Strait and onto the North Island. We stopped off at a Dutch Bakkerijj (bakery) and bought some calorific snacks. On the ferry I made the mistake of watching Mamma Mia in the cinema - it is actually THE CHEESIEST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!! It passed the time away nicely but oh my God, how cheesy!?
So now we are in Taupo, in the North Island. It is Sunday morning - we have just had a lovely breakfast of American pancakes with bacon and banana (weird combo, don't try it) and are now sitting in an Internet cafe, coz it is RAINING and v miserable outside. Skydiving is now looking a bit iffy, but hopefully we will be able to do it tomorrow, if the weather picks up.
So, I'm gonna try to put up some of my cheesy photos now. Hope all is gravy in England. Would love to say that I'm missing it, but I'm really not. G'day chooks!
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