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Hello followers of the blog!?
Well from Monday we were back on the wonderful Kiwi experience, experiencing the South Island in all its glory. An incredibly early start as we were being picked up at 7.15 and like Richard said, we hadn't seen the proper side of 9 in about a week...... Said goodbye to Richard and jumped on the Kiwi bus with a new group of people. Dan the driver slightly worried us (well me) when he said so has everyone booked accommodation in Taupo which is back up the North Island but we later found out he liked to bend the truth abit. Caught the interislander ferry over to Picton (watched 300 on the boat) but when we reached Picton, the bus that we were catching was not there! Had to go find a Subway to pass the time before making our way over to Nelson. As there were a few too many people, we got put on the Magic Travellers bus which took us to our hostel a lot quicker than the Kiwi. After we had checked in to a very plush hostel (obviously weening ourselves off Richard's) we made our way up to the centre of NZ. Posing for photos and looking at the view passed a bit of time before making our way back down again, stopping to see the most pointless signposted tree in the world, it was a tree, nothing was special about it! At all! But anyway, we walked back past the first field to have an organised game of Rugby in NZ (bit of history) Later on in the evening we did a bit of Beer tasting before noodles and chicken soup (quite delicious). Early night for once before properly starting back out on the Kiwi!
Day 38 started out with a walk around Nelson lake and then feeding some Eels, quite random but cool! Carrying on we stopped at Murchinson to pick up some more people on the bus before carrying onto Westport. Drove through Buller gorge on the way (apprantly one of the best drives in NZ) before arriving at Westport. Went down the beach and had a bonfire for two hours before coming back and having a chinese whilst watching Layer Cake (prefer lock stock). Quick description of the day but nothing really happened apart from travelling.
Day 39 was a nice lie in as a few of the group were jet boating this morning (we were saving money) Setting out down the westcoast we saw some amazing scenery. Truly incredible! Lunch was a stop at the pancake rocks (years of erosion have made the rocks look like a stack of pancakes, hence the name) Next stop was greymouth to pick up supplies for the fancy dress party in the evening. I went as a spider, Price as an undercover detective dressed as a tree.......all in bin bags as well! The party was in Lake Mahinapua hotel which had limited resources to say the least. But the party was still a good laugh. Les (the 85 yr old landlord) introduced himself to us with the line, Hello, no don't cheer, i know what some of you p**** did last night, (The man was a legend!?) Eventually made it back to the room, Price a little less stable than i was......
Day 40 started with many a hangover and the way to cure it was visiting the Bushman Centre, a memorial to when men where men and sheep were nervous. Absolutely brilliant as it was all about the preservation of deer (men jumping out of helicopters to catch them, Kiwi's are mental!?) before having some Possum pie for breakfast! After the bushman centre it was onto Franz Josef Glacier where we booked in for the full day walk for the following day. Spent the rest of the night in our room getting ready for the next day! Once again, a lot of travelling, South Island is quite big.
Today was the Franz Josef glacier and it was amazing. Truly incredible. Walked up to the bottom of the glacier (the fastest moving glacier in NZ, possibly the world) before joining the fast fast group. The coolest thing about today was the fact that our guide had to carve his way through the glacier so we could carry on walking. Absolutely breathtaking the fact that we were hiking our way through ice yet when looking right or left it was a rainforest. Absolutely mental but soo good! Even got ice axes which at every available opportunity, people were hacking away at the ice with them. Hilarious fun really! And no one got injured! On the way down, three of our group jumped in a pool of freezing cold water. Stupid stupid people.
Getting to Queenstown on Sunday which should be awesome as we are maybe skiing for 2/3 days, going to Milford Sounds on Friday and probably trekking down to Dunedin the next couple of days before getting into Christchurch on the 25th. Photos maybe quite hard to upload as i left the photo cable in Chez Richards in Wellington so as we speak it is making its way over to Sydney.......hopefully we'll get some pics before that! South island has been awesome, the scenery has been incredible but meeting up with some friends in Queenstown so that will be good!
Hope you are all well and carry on sending messages. Speak to you all soon.
Lamming xxx
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