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Hello,
Wow Cant believe I have less than 2 weeks left here! Time has flown by.
Right now we are in Franz Josef, we are here for 2 nights, its a really small town, not much going on, apart from lots of trekking and glacier hiking! Something we will be experiencing tomorrow morning at 7am ( ahhhhhh Im hating these early starts more and more now, I am so not a morning person at all) So now are 3 of us as Hayley has joined us, its great to see her. We decided to go all out and do the advanced 9 hour glacier walk tommorrow! Not sure if Iam already regretting that as we've heard its pretty hard going. We get all the equipment though so should be fine, waterproofs, walking boots and crampins etc. So should be good fun too. WE've heard great things about it. So an early night for us tonight.
We LOVED Wellington and spent a few days there looking around, the botanical gardens right at the top were gorgeous, we got the cable car up there andspent the day walking around the gardens, was a really hot sunny day and we were even sunbathing!!!!!! Also went ot eh museum and did lots of walking around the area. Then we got the ferry down to the South Islands which was such a long journey as the weather was awful so the crossing was very rough!!!!! It ended up taking almost 5 hours to get accross down to the South on the boat. There were lots of people sea sick that day!!!!!!!!! WE also missed our bus connection from Piction to Nelson so we had to wait around for ages but finally got going.
Picton is a really gorgeous town, and the drive from there to Nelson is stunning, we stopped at loads of lookout points on our bus and it really was gorgeous. So we spent a few days in Nelson, our hostel was really nice and we were loving it as they gace us FREE ( Thats such an amazing word when you are backpacking, and been a student) breakfast and soup at night!!!!! We were sooooooo happy about that. You could really tell the temperature drop also down in the South. We arrived in Nelson and it was FREEEEEEEEEZING!!!!! We were walking about in flip flops and hoodies, so we vebtured out and got some nice warm fleeces!!!! They are great. nelson is a nice town, abit quiet but we did lots of walking. ( We are loving all this walking or "tramping" as they call it here. ) Its keeping us nice and fit. I never knew that I loved the great outdoors so much!!!!!!! Met loads of nice people on our hostel in Nelson, who we have met up with here in Franz Jo too which is good.
Its funny though as we are doing so much stuff and trips/activities in the day, that by nightime, we are all exhausted and ready to crash in bed! Esp as for the last 5 days we have been getting up at 5/6am to get picked up by our bus!!!!! Its all well worth it though!
WE also went up to Abel Tasmin NAtional PArk for the day on Saturday which was great! We did a 10k walk right up to the top of the hills overlooking the coast, and then kayaked back which was so much fun! The kayaking was exhuatsing, esp as we were right out in the sea and it took us 3 hours to get back but we got to see lots of seals which was cool!!!!!!! My arms havent recovered though from all that paddling!!!!!!!
So we are now in FRanz Jo and looking forward to our big hike tomo, hope the weather is ok. Its so random over here as its cold down here in the South, but the sun is so strong as we are so high up and so you end up catching the sun lots! Night time has been freezing though, dropping down to about 3/4 deg. Our hostel here is so nice and overlooks the glaciers, and even has a log fire which we are all so overly impressed about, hehe. Its like a little skiing lodge, really cosy.
So then we leave from here on Wednesday and go down to Lake Wanaka, where HAyley is going to do her first skydive, and Sam her 2nd, but not again for me, once was more than enough. I did love it, but it was such an incredible expereince, that I dont actually want to comapre it to another one ( oh yeah and also as I was soooooooo scared and dont want to go through it again ;-) ) Then down to Queenstown where we're hoping to stay for a week and meet up with some friends.
Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather over there! (Bex I was even quite jealous when u said u were sunbathing in your bikini?!, I miss the sun!!!!!)
Lots of hugs and kisses, Laura.xxx
Dad- Can you let me know about this while Fiji thing please, I think it will be ok but just want to be sure as theres a lot of "backpacker" banter going around that people are staying away??????! Thanks, Love you lots. See you on the 6thxxxxxx
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