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With very sore legs and asses from the ridiculous hike up tongariro we made our way to Wellington. Wellington is a really pretty city and we were lucky because the sun was out which made everything that much better. That was until we went to the chinese embassy to get our visas where they told us they would have to keep our passports for 5 days and we could only hand our applications to them between 9 and 12 in the morning. As we didn't arrive until the afternoon and were leaving at 7am the next morning this was a bit of a problem. We also weren't massively keen on the idea of being in NZ without our passports for 5 days. So with the problem unsolved we headed to the south island with the rest of our group. First stop on the south island was the Abel Tasman national park. The rest of our group did some water taxi hike thing but we decided to be different and go freedom kayaking. This is where they basically give you a Kayak and a map and you go do what you want. The sea was completely still and clear (fortunatly for us seeing as Lee kept capsizing us last time) and we paddled out around this island where we saw a seal colony and they came and swam around the kayak. We pulled up on our own little beach for lunch. Because it was winter the place was empty but the sun was out and it was actually brilliant. Surprisingly the day went off without a hitch and we got back safely. We stayed in this really nice hostel with the fattest cat i've ever seen and nice fireplace to keep the place cozy. We stayed two nights here and then headed off to Greymouth which is further down the coast. Lee and some of the group went on a brewery tour but as I don't drink beer I thought it would be a waste of money for me. Apparently they got an open bar basically so they could drink as much as they wanted. When I met up with them later this girl was wasted and kept saying the C word over and because people had told her they didn't like it. Anyway that was about it for Greymouth, it was raining and we watched come dine with me the next day until it was time to leave.
So next stop was the Franz Josef glacier where we went hiking. It snowed like crazy in the morning which apparently was amazing because it hadn't happened for years. Then the sun came out not long after and stayed out for the rest of the day. We went through ice caves and tunnels and little crevasses, had a snowball fight wth another group and then there was an avalanche which was at enough of a distance that we could watch without fear for our lives. All in all a pretty cool day.
So after this we went to Lake Matheson which was meant to reflect the mountains or something but there were too many ducks disturbing the water and it was a bit cloudy so it was fairly average. We stayed at Makarora this night which was at the foot of the mountain ranges. Looked pretty spectacular and we had our own lodges which were pretty cool.
Next morning we set out for queenstown. First stop was puzzling world which was full of weird stuff like a room where one person looks real big and the other looks real small. A pool tabe where the balls roll uphill. Theres also a maze where Lee got annoyed because I rolled under the fences when he wasnt looking to get to the target and then he couldn't figure out how to get there haha. After this we stopped at the bungee centre......
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