I know its been a while but I wanted to finish my South Island adventure before I updated you all on my goings on. I'm happy to say the South Island has been incredible and everything everyone has said it would be. I left Wellington and took the ferry which traverses the Cook Strait and allows you to see the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. Its 3 hours so also time enough for a little sleep! The ferry arrived in Picton around mid day and it was here I decided to hop off for a night while the bus continued on its way to Nelson. Picton is a lovely little seaport which looks out on to the Queen Charlotte Sound. Unfortunately it was very quiet there at that time of year but I'm glad I had a day and night there to explore the small town.

The next day it was back to the ferry terminal to get my next kiwi bus - which turned out to be the best bus and the one I spent the longest time on. On the way to Nelson we stopped off at a vineyard and got to sample some wine while learning the basics of wine tasting and have lunch in the sun. As it was one of the kiwi experiences random little stop offs (they have a lot of these - mostly at waterfalls) we only got an hour there which for once was a shame as there was a lot you could do there including sampling liqours and cheese! Although it was probably a good thing that we missed out on the liqours as the road to Nelson was twisting all over the place!

Nelson is another really nice town and it is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park. Most of the bus hopped off here to take part in the various National Park activities. I decided on a boat ride and a day walk through a portion of the park, thankfully the weather in the South Island was good and the walk offering some stunning scenery. Taking the boat ride up the parks coastline reminded me a lot of Fiji, with the blue sky, sandy beaches and turquoise sea. Once we were off the boat and in to the park itself, the walking track took us along the coastline giving us more exceptional views. The next day we were still in Nelson and took the opportunity (after the hike the day before) to chill out and explore some of the town. I even took a walk up to see the very centre of New Zealand - which is cleverly placed at the top of a very steep hill but at the same time served as a good lookout on to Nelson.

Our last night was spent out on the town which made getting on the bus the next day particularly hard. A lunch stop in the Nelson Lakes National Park allowed us to enjoy more of the beautiful scenery and laze in the sun nursing sore heads. 2 nutters (both annoying know it alls) decided to go for a swim in the freezing cold water with the giant eels that called the lake their home. They tried to convince the rest of us to get in but were met with resolute silence on the matter. Our bed for the night was in Westport - there is pretty much nothing here but is included as a stop over as you can take a jet boat (a New Zealand invention) along the river or go horse riding. I did neither but instead enjoyed the good weather and the hostel which was really nice. That night was a chilled one where we watched Titanic! You would be surprised with how many people came in to the TV room to watch this film. Its so cheesy but is still so so sad.

The next day - maybe all slightly sheepish after the film choice the night before - we made our way to Lake Mahinapua where we had more of the Kiwi Experience special stop overs. This time for a walk at a place called Cape Foulwind, so called because it stinks! Not like Rotorua stinks, not quite as bad as that but it was still quite smelly. This is because of the seals, which are lovely to look at but do indeed smell quiet a lot. The 2nd walk of the day was to check out the pancake rocks and blowholes, which was nice and for lunch I had fish and chips (this time shark, in batter) - New Zealand do gorgeous fish! Although I think England win on the chips.

We had been told earlier in the day that this was the fancy dress night - the Kiwi bus always stop at a place called Lake Mahinapua where each bus does a different theme decided on by the driver. Ours was bin bags... you could dress however you wanted as long as a bin bag was included somewhere in your costume. So before we got to Lake Mahinapua we stopped at Greymouth to stock up on bin bags, was quite surprised how many colours bin bags come in. Having got our supplies we headed on to the hostel where it was just us staying that night and started making our costumes. We also met the legendary Les who runs the place - he is basically a grumpy old man, a good laugh who for some reason decided to open up his place to the rowdy kiwi buses. There was a very colourful array of costumes that night, there was a Christmas Tree, a Kiwi bird (who won, and did an excellent job!), a mummy, witch, Batman (who came second, again more amazing work, some people just have a knack for fancy dress), butterflies, a bumble bee and many many more. I made a skirt and top from bin bags as did alot of girls. More worrying were 3 boys who dressed in fishnets and girls pants (nothing more) with a bit of bin bag tied round there wrists... I'll let you guys make your own minds up about that. The night was a good laugh but again meant the next day began with people feeling a bit ropey.

Our next stop was Franz Josef, with a stop off at the Bushman's Centre on the way. I missed the museum and went straight for a cup of tea but apparently it was good. We all got a taste of the west coast life that day and I think we all started to understand that we were in the middle of no where. The thing about the West Coast of the South Island is there is litterally nothing, just a lot of land and the people may seem a little different to what a lot of us are used to at home. For example at the Bushman's Centre they are obsessed with possums, I mean obsessed, and they definately prefer the flat type of possum to the round living breathing type of possum.

After we had all had our breakfast we headed in to Franz Josef which is a very small town surrounded by mountains and from here you can view the glacier which makes the place so well known. The cloud had come back over by this point and it was a bit chillier but since we would all be hiking on the glacier the next day in freezing conditions no one complained. To prepare for the hike some of us went in the hot tub and had a nap in our free afternoon.

I had chosen to do the full day hike on the Franz Josef glacier and it was definately one of the best things I did in New Zealand. We had to wear crampons on our feet to stay steady on the ice and the boots they supplied took a bit of getting used to but our guide, wearing only a tshirt and shorts, with his pick axe carving out steps for us led us up over the ice, down through very narrow gaps and in to ice caves. One of the caves we went in to was quite precarious, a tight fit and one of the steps gave way as a girl was standing on it but it was a challenge and such good fun, even funnier when one guy fell in the same massive pool of water, twice!

We were all exhausted that night and only made it to the bar for one drink. After Franz Josef was Wanaka, on our way we drove past snowy topped mountains and bright blue lakes, the sun even came out for us. Arriving in to Wanaka I was glad to have a free afternoon here as it is really a beautiful place. A very small town on the edge of a lake surrounded by mountains - it is stunning! We sat by the lake soaking up the sun, then in the evening we went to the cinema, but not your average cinema oh no! This one had lots of different sofa's and arm chairs in front of the big screen. And in the interval they serve you freshly made, lovely and warm cookies. Yummy!

The next morning we went to Puzzle World where I got incredibly frustrated with the maze there, so frustrated in fact that I took to climbing under the walls to get out of the place. But they did have this funky room which was built on a slope, or appeared to be so you felt like you were falling downwards but in actual fact it was sloping slightly upwards. It was mind boggling and made me feel like I was about to fall over but was cool watching water run upwards. After being thoroughly perplexed we made our way in to Queenstown - adventure capital of the world!

This brings me on to a fellow named A J Hackett, a legend and quite possibly a man due for a nut house. This guy has seemed to make his life ambition to jump off things, any thing as long as its high enough. He is of course the man who made bungy jumping famous, the guy who got arrested for bungy jumping off the Eiffel Tower and the guy who has made a lot of people confront one of their biggest fears. When you get to New Zealand, or even before and you talk to people about your trip they are more than likely going to ask you "are you going to do a bungy jump?" This question ranks up there with "how long are you in New Zealand for?" "Where do you fly to next?" "Whats your name?"... it is asked that many times and is on that many peoples minds. It was something I had been toying with and had kept changing my mind on for weeks and so I arrived at the A J Hacket offices by the Kawarau Bridge with mixed emotions.

A few people on the bus had decided to jump that day, off the Kawarau Bridge which is the original bungy jump so it gave me time to consider what I was going to sign up to. It was great watching friends and others jump off, the Bridge jump is 43 metres and you have the option of being dunked in the river. One guy couldn't do it and I felt really bad for him, especially as if you don't jump you don't get your money back. Feeling a bit calmer about things and on a full stomach I decided to take the plunge - litterally - and sign up for the Nevis with a couple of other girls from my bus. Nevis is a 134 metre jump from a cable car suspended between two mountains. Since I wouldn't be doing this for a couple of days I don't think it had really sunk in yet, so we all made our way in to Queenstown in happy ignorance.

When the day of the Nevis arrived, I was more than a little nervous. I think it was safe to say I have never in my life been so scared of anything. I was gad I had Laura and Alex with me, so we waved bye bye to the other girls who would be doing the Canyon Swing (another high adrenalin activity) and set off in a van with about 15 other people and took the long and winding drive up the mountains. We then had to get stapped in to harnesses while we had a good opportunity to look at the tiny pod hanging between the hills. A lot of us had gone very quiet at this point. We then got a safety talk which if anything made me panic a lot more. The guy was explaining there was a certain way to jump (fall forwards in a dive, arms out and head first) and that on the second bounce you have to pull a cord which will make you swing in to a sitting position (so you don't get pulled back up upside down). This was too much - we had to remember to do stuff through all the fear! Well I was fairly certain that wasn't going to happen! Although I do have to say that the guys who work on the bungy sites are such pro's and they make you feel so safe and reassured.

In groups of no more than 6 we made our way in this cart which took us from the safety of the mountains, over the ravine (all of us trying not to look down) and in to the pod - which conveniently had glass bits in the bottom, so trying not to look down was getting harder by the second. Being the lightest I had to go last, so I watched what felt like a hell of a lot of other people jump in to the abyss although I was please to note they all came up smiling and everyone that day did it. Finally it was my turn and there is a point when you are standing on the edge and all you can think of is, I can't do it but something just makes you go and then you are falling - for 8.5 seconds which is a bloody long time, certainly long enough to think when is the cord going to pull me back up again - and you are so disorientated that you don't feel or notice the bouncing up again. Which makes it harder to know when the second bounce is, but thankfully you are going pretty slowly at this point and you find you do remember and its not as hard as it originally sounded. So I found myself sitting, viewing the river below me, seeing how far I had fallen while being pulled back up in to the pod.

I can honestly say this was quite possibly the best thing I have ever done... not entirely sure I would do it again, not sure I could handle the fear again, but the high you get from it is incredible. Got a much bigger adrenalin rush from this than I did from the sky dive, but not sure if thats because this scared me more. All happy and relieved we made our way back to the office, watched our dvd's and headed back in to Queenstown to meet up with the other girls who had had an equally scary day on the canyon swing. That night we went out to celebrate our successes of the day with teapots (cockatils in teapots) and dancing.

I love Queenstown!! It is an amazing place - its fun, lively and beautiful. While here I got ridiculously drunk on $4 tequila and teapots, I took a gondola ride to look across the lake and mountains, went shopping, played crazy golf, had lunch with the girls, had a haircut, went wine tasting (with hilarious results) and ate Fergburgers (another Queenstown legend - seriously best burgers EVER!).

I was pretty sad to leave Queenstown and this was also the time that the group split up as we were all on different time frames. I was heading to the deep deep South of New Zealand on the bottom bus. First stop was Dunedin, nice city but I have to say 3 nights there was too much and I found myself going slowly mad with the boredom. While I was there I climbed the worlds steepest street (its pretty steep), took a tour of cadbury world (with free chocolate) and took a ghost tour which was interesting but not that scary.

When it was time to leave Dunedin I was late for the bus and so I left the hostel to find the driver had been doing a proper big search for me... oops. That day we drove to Invercargill, on the way we stopped off at Nugget Point to see the seals, Cannibal Bay where we got to get up close to some huge sea lions, had a relax on Porpoise Bay and visited a petrified forest on Curio Bay. It was here that we also spent 2 hours waiting for a very rare penguin to show, it never did. After this I am pleased to say the Bottom Bus got better, I hopped off and went to Stewart Island. I flew there in a tiny plane (just for 6 people including the pilots) and here I walked some of the lovely island, saw some penguins and visited Ulva island. Ulva island is a conservation area for birds and other wildlife including kiwi's (unfortunately I didn't see one of these). Stayed in a lovely hostel on Stewart Island (apart from the really steep hill you had to climb to get to it) and watched the sunset on the island.

I took a plane back to the mainland (this one for 10 people) and that day we drove to a place called Te Anau. On the way we stopped off at a Paua shell shop where we were hoping to be allowed to carve something from one of the shells (Paua is a beautiful green/blue shell found in New Zealand). Unlucky for us the guy who did the carving wasn't there, but we did get a free necklace. After this we headed to a farm where we fed the lambs, rode in trailers attached to quad bikes and watched some of the group shear sheep! We also had a stop off at a place called McCrackens Rest - which due to the name meant that a lot of people got their bums out! Te Anau was a lovely place and I realised I had planned my time wrong - I should have only spent one night in Dunedin and done one of the walking tracks in Te Anau but this happens and I enjoyed my time I did have there. The next day is what I had been really looking forward to and that was Milford Sound.

Milford Sound - (actually a fjord and not a sound - difference being fjords are found in a glacially carved valley and sounds are a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land) - is incredible and we were very lucky to have great weather. We drove through stunning landscapes, got to see the mirror lakes where the mountains where reflected perfectly in the waters, and narrowly missed two rock slides. The dust that came up from these rock slides was thick and obscured the road. We then took a ferry ride through Milford Sound, which pictures would describe better than words and visited the under water observatory. Had a great day and made it back to Queenstown late, but just in time for my last Fergburger!

Christchurch was next, we had what felt like the longest travelling day, no air conditioning on a sweltering bus and films we had all seens a hundred times before (good job the Wedding Crashers is such a good film). We did do a brief stop off at Mount Cook but it was cloudy so couldn't really see it. While in Christchurch I visited the museum, botanic gardens, cathedral, art gallery and shops (of course!). I wanted to do a hot air balloon ride but it got cancelled due to bad weather ;-( and I also did another ghost tour - this one was scary. There is nothing like being scared out of your mind by actors pretending to be ghosts in the dark to bond a group of people. It seems so silly and stupid now but at the time it was scary and great value for money!

Christchurch is nice, an English type city with interesting history and pretty to look at. In the square by the cathedral there is a guy who calls himself the wizard - a self confessed unemployable, loud mouth, troublemaker who stands on a ladder and rants, but he is good to watch if you have time to spare. I spent a few days in Christchurch before heading to Kaikoura, unfortunately the weather was bad here so the whale watching got cancelled which I had been looking forward too so I spent a bit of a wasted afternoon just in cafes and on the internet. However the Strawberry Tree pub offered the kiwi bus a free BBQ and 2 for 1 cocktails! The BBQ was sausages and chips but from a backpackers view this was bliss, and it was free!

Kairkoura is the last stop on my New Zealand journey - well the last new stop. I am now travelling back up to Auckland (through places already visited) and will be flying to Sydney on Tuesday. I am very excited about Australia!! Despite not feeling at all Christmassy I can't wait to see Nicola, a face from home after 5 months will be wonderful and I'm looking forward to the Sydney lifestyle which I have been assured is marvelous! I probably won't write again before the New Year so......

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! xxx