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hello! its been a while since an update! our last day in Queenstown was spent mainly on the road to Milford Sound which is on the west coast and basically a lot of amazing fjords and valleys! luckily we had beautiful weather for it as Milford Sound usually has 6 metres of rainfall a year. yes, so much it has to be measured in metres!! we went out on a ferry and this was driven by a guy who had a keen eye for the seals, dolphins and other interesting natural sights at the sound, and we would often stop and reverse back up the way we came coz he'd seem a sea lion on a rock, which was cool! we went all the way out to the Tasman sea which looked stunning in the lovely sunshine(later on i saw how ferocious it was!) and then we went back to port after a day on the fjord and seeing some huge bottlenose dolphins and some 10 legged orange starfish (i'll bore you all senseless with the pictures later!) we then had the exhausting 5 hour return drive to Queenstown stopping off at more photographic opportunities such as the mirror lakes where me and alice got some evil sandfly bites! i STILL HAVE THEM weeks on! we then left Queenstown which was a shame as it was really nice and friendly! we drove off to Franz Josef after a stop off at Wanaka's Puzzle World which i secretly loved as it has a room which is set at a 30 degree angle so you look a bit mad and anything you drop falls ALONG the floor, mental eh? we arrived at our hostel which was pretty basic but they had a LOT of videos and free popcorn and soup, yippee! the next day we did the glacier climb which defeated me im afraid, im far too unfit! got to the half-day stage and had to head back but the view was incredible and the experience of climbing thru the ice and rubble was really cool (if you excuse the pun). talked to some lovely fellow tourists from singapore and alabama and managed the trek over the mountain and forest relatively unscathed! on my way down i bumped into our friend Sarah on her way to do the half day trek which was a coincidence and we all met up at the Blue Ice Bar later that evening where a complete stranger fed me some (amazing) NZ lamb, which was nice as you can imagine.
after Franz Josef we were off to Westport via Mount Cook which was spectacular (tho the ducks kept ruining my pictures of the reflections in the river!) and we saw the pancake rocks and some amazing blowholes which demonstrated the madness of the tasman sea. we also saw some crazzzzyyy people surfing in the grey huge waves. not my cuppa tea! Westport was adorable, a bit like littlehampton strangely! not much to do so we took some moody pictures of the lighthouse and crashing waves and then went back to our hostel, Basil's hostel if i remember correctly which was probably the most comforatble and friendly one so far and it had a resident cat so i was happy!
our next stop was Nelson which was a pretty cool town and our hostel was amazing, it had chandeliers! think slightly dilapidated 1930's house on a hill run by people with amazing artistic skills and a slightly wacky sense of humour! we had to stay out most of one night coz of the football but i gave in and went back to the room to read. extreme i know. the next stupidly-early-morning we went kayaking around the Abel Tasman National Park. This i can highly recommend, we had the most amazing day and coz it was the low season it was just us 4 and our Maori guide, Eric. he taught us haka and kept us mightily entertained the whole way even tho alice and i were bit worried about capsizing! we kayaked 15km along the coast and stopped off at one of the pretty bays for lunch and we had a trek up a hill to check out the plants and Eric told us all about the Maori gods and how they would bellow in the valleys to put off any enemies coming in to land. we saw loads of seals who waved at us(honestly!) and competed in Abel Idol (where we basically had to sing and applaud ourselves!). alice and i did a faultless rendition of Swing Low which impressed the guys no end! all too soon it was time to catch the water taxi and go home but we did a little detour so we could see the split apple rock which pretty much looks as it sounds but is huge! we then went home with slightly aching arms and windswept faces but it was one of my fave days so far!
next stop was Kaikoura where we stayed at the Lazy Shag hostel. as in bird, you know!! we were meant to go whale watching but sadly our run of good weather came to an end and it was too rough. we amused ourselves by roasting to death in the kitchen diner which was permanently heated to boiling point for some reason and then binged watched about 12 films (maybe not that many, but we watched Lord of the rings and thats pretty epic!). we attempted to go whale watching again the next day but the weather was horrible so we traipsed off to Picton to catch the ferry to go to the North island! my god, i felt like death! jet boating, kayak and the Milford sound ferry had nothing on this ferry! the horizon kept disappearing and soaring up in the air and ive never been so glad to reach land! we arrived at the bright lights of wellington or welly as they call it and immediately earnt ourselves a free room upgrade, get in! we had a private room which was sweet and unsqueaky bunk beds which was a godsend. we went out for a beverage whioch became a huge night out for me and dave and we hooked up with a group of bartenders on their day off so we had a great time and made a few friends which was awesome. we rolled in and woke up alice and dan and then all of a sudden it was morning again! we went off for a weird cuban/soputh american style breakfast at a nearby caff and then we did the touristy things around the city. we were going to go round the tattoo museum but never quite made it and went to the Te Papa museum instead which was really interesting and they had an earthquake simulator! we then got our second upgrade in the cinema when we went to see Indiana Jones (which was panmts incidentally) but the comfy chairs and free popcorn and mountain dew were well worth it! we are now in Taupo in another Base hostel and we went skydiving this afternoon which was AMAZZZIINNGGG!! sorry mum, ive got a real taste for it now! the freefall was incrdible and the views across lake taupo were intense. now we're just chilling after that massive buzz!
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