So I was back in New Zealand, but this time I would be meeting my sister and her friends and doing it in a campervan. I could write a whole blog about the campervan, it was a love hate relationship! It broke down on us twice - once in the car park of a Burger King whilst we cooked out stir fry and another (more embarrassing) time when we were in the queue for a ferry and all the cars had to drive around us! Nevertheless, it was awesome fun and, if it wasn't for the van, I wouldn't have had one of my best days ever (I shall explain later)!

So, first stop was Christchurch. At this point, I was waiting for my sister and her mates to arrive so I stayed in a hostel that used to be an old jailhouse. It was so cool - the beds were in old cells, there were bars on the windows and black and white stripey sheets! I took a stroll around the city and couldn't believe the level of devastation still there. They've more or less left it exactly as it was the day it happened. The streets in the centre are all closed off, there's rubble and broken glass all over the floor and it's totally abandoned. The clock even reads 12:50, which is the time the earthquake happened. It was very interesting to see, but also sad and eerie - a proper ghost town. They have a few shops in portacabins, but apart from that there's nothing there. So I had to go somewhere else whilst I waited for my sis.

I ended up going 2 hours north to a place called Kaikoura. It was here that I went swimming with wild dusky dolphins, an absolutely fantastic experience. We put on wetsuits and they took us 45 mins out to sea. Then, when the alarm on the boat sounded, we jumped into the water. I couldn't breathe when I got into the water as it was so cold, but I soon forgot about that and my breath was taken away by the dolphins swimming and jumping around us instead. We had to sing underwater and the dolphins came to us and made clicking sounds back. We even did this thing where you make eye contact with them and swim round and round in circles with them underwater. On the way back, I was so seasick - spewing into a bucket for 45 mins lol but I'd do it all over again!

Then I went to meet my sis. Our first few journeys taught us that our campervan would struggle to get up hills (a problem because NZ is made up of the Southern Alps!) and also that we couldn't drive at night because we didn't have any headlights! Anyway, I mentioned my favourite day earlier, well, it was this: We accidently drove onto the lawn of a holiday home at a camp site. The family that were staying there had come from all over New Zealand to meet in this holiday home for Christmas and, instead of shouting at us, they invited us into their home to have Christmas dinner with them. I was taken aback at how friendly these people were and we were actually scared about going into their house incase they killed us or something. But it was amazing! They fed us the best chocolate trifle I've ever had and we watched them open their presents and listened to the kids singing NZ Christmas songs. We took some discount cookies and a half drunken bottle of coke, but unsurprisingly they wouldn't take it!

To continue my favourite day, we drive up this hill to the Mount John Observatory, where they had the most amazing views I have ever seen. Looing down, I could see Lake Tekapo. The colour of this lake is like nothing you have ever seen - luminous blue apparently caused by glaciers grinding down rocks and forming minerals that make the water appear this colour. When I managed to take my eyes off this lake, we went into the observatory and saw Venus through the telescope they had there. So all in all a good day!

Next stop was Lake Wanaka where my sister and her friends tried to do a skydive. They were all ready to go until the company cancelled a few mins before due to it being too windy. This happened another 2 times, so they gave up eventaully as the constant adrenaline rollercoaster was too much. So we drove onto Queenstown (the adventure capital of NZ) and took the gondolas up to the top of this mountain. Once again, the views were just phenominal. I decided to do this thing called lugeing down the hill. It was a go-kart kind of thing and was the cheapest adventure activity they had there so that's why I chose it! We then went to a burger place called Fergburger, where we had THE BEST burger ever. Words can't describe this burger...People go to Queenstown especially for it!

We decided we had to do some sort of adrenaline activity in Queenstown because that's what the place is all about. So we did a thing called the Shotover jet. It's basically a speedboat that goes about 70km per hour through a canyon within millimetres of the rocks. The driver also did 360 degree spins in this narrow canyon. It was scary but so much fun! That evening, we decided to decorate our campervan in tinsel and spraypaint snowflakes onto the windows with fake snow. We also collected branches and made a mini Christmas tree that we sellotaped to the back window.

After this, we made the 5 hour drive to Fox Glacier and then onto Lake Mathieson. This lake was supposed to be a mirror lake, reflecting the mountains ahead, but it didn't because the water was too rough :( Then we went onto the Franz Josef glacier. Alot of people do walks on these glaciers, but we couldn't afford it, so we just looked at them - but it was amazing to see! It was one of the girl's birthdays that night, so we found a lake (lakes are not hard to find in NZ) and made a campfire by using our campervan kitchen knife to saw down branches. Needless to say, we got alot of strange looks doing this, but it was worth it because we got to toast marshmallows and drink beer until the sun went down :)

And it was Christmas day. We made an effort, decorating our van and doing secret santa (even wrapping our presents in maps and leaflets) but nothing we did would make it feel like Christmas - it was hot!! To start the day, I was driving down this straight road with nothing on it. I zoned out and was doing 111km per hour and the speed limit was 100km per hour. Then I saw the sirens and we got handed an $80 speeding ticket by a really grumpy police officer :( Buuut the day did get better and we went to a place called Rotorua, where they had volcanic geysers and hot mud pools. It stank of sulphur, but was really interesting to see. We also got to see a Maori cultural show and watch them do the Haka. Oh and we saw a Kiwi bird. I didn't know they existed, but they're the national bird of NZ and facing extinction. After this, we went to some hot pools and relaxed before driving to Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ. We cooked Christmas dinner in our campervan, drank champagne and opened our presents. I got sunglasses and earings :) Certainly a Christmas day I'll always remember!

Boxing day - the plan was to do New Zealand's nicest short walk called the Tongariro Crossing (still a 9 hours walk), but we woke up too late and so did a 2 hour walk and ate cheese and crackers and drank wine instead! Our last stop before handing the van back; Waitomo caves. These caves were really special as they're full of glow worms. They take you on a boat tour through the caves in the pitch black and all you can see are these glow worms on the ceiling, like thousands of stars.

I could write so much more about my time in New Zealand. I know I've used the words 'amazing, fantastic, phenominal' etc etc so many times already, so I'm going to stop now because I'm running out of descriptions and I think you get the picture!!!