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So, our first minute on the South Island, new Zealand, began on the car deck of the ferry. After using up the battery of the van the night before, the engine wouldn't start so we were stuck on the ferry, holding up the other cars (well, one van) until the ferrymen could jumpstart it and get us off the ferry...Very embarrassing!! We finally arrived in Nelson and found our way to Lou's cousins, Deidre and Wally. They looked after us and fed us some great dinners! In Nelson we went to Abel Tasman National Park and did a 10 km walk (a walk in the park for us!!). We also visited Whanganui beach (pronounced Fanganooie Beach) where we saw tons of seals just hanging out in the rock pools. We also saw Cape Farewell, the northern-most point on the South Island and the 'Centre of New Zealand' spot which just had to be up a HILL. Deidre invited us to join her on her annual camping trip with her friend and their grandchildren. It wa slots of fun as we had a bbq and a nonfire on the beach with sparklers, marshmallows and the works!
Our next stop was Kaikoura. Again there were lots of seals hanging out on the roads! Next was Hanmer Springs, famous hot pools. We spent a glorious day chilling out there then set off for Arthur's pass. This is a road that was built to give access through the mountains and is a beautiful area, with lots of lovely walks and beautiful snow-topped mountains! From there we drove onto Hoikitita and thought we'd use the public showers at the swimming pool. Unfortunately the public showrs were verrry public so we didn't quite get the shower we needed!
Next was the glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef. We walked to the viewpoint of both and both were equally impressive! What was unimpressive was the measurements showing how the Glaciers had decreased in the last hundred years. We also saw Lake Matheson which gave a beautiful reflective view of the Fox Glacier and Mount Cook.
Next was Lake Wanaka, another beautiful town. Here, Lou had trouble with numerous sandfly bites (the SOuth Island was full of sandflies and their bites itched even worse than mosquitos!) so her foot swelled up to a balloon and strong antihistamine and dips in the cold lake were needed! It was however, not too swollen for her Skydive (which she can tell you about!)
We then drove to Milford Sound for a boat trip to see the beautiful peaks, in particular the Mitre Peak. We also got free coffee and muuffins and had dolphins swim beside our our boat, what a bonus!!
Then we moved onto Queenstown. We decided to treat ourselves to a campsite plus a big night out! So we joined a barcrawl, and visted some great bars including an ice bar-that's right, a bar made completely of ice, even the glasses, awesome! Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without the Greatest Burger in all the World, from the famous Fergburger, with Gluten free for Lou!! Queenstown was incredibleextremely beautiful, we could see why it's the chosen location for so many films. We took the skyline to a viewpoint of Queenstown where, when at the top, you can ride a toboggan ride.
It was then time to make our way to Christchurch to return the van. Along the way we stopped off at Twizel, Lake Tekapo (for another super walk through the hills) and Ashburton, where we cleared out the van. Lou found my Ipod stuck down a hole (it had been lost for 5 weeks!) Whilst clearing out the van and throughout the evening, we played the radio and used the indoor lights....can you guess what happened the next morning when we needed to drive away? The battery was flat!! Luckily the guy who owned the campsite jumpstarted Jasper and we got to Christcurch in time to drop him off! It was an emotioinal moment saying goodbye to him and I think we were both sorry to have to put our backpacks back on!! We flew back to Auckland for one last day in New Zealand and then caught our penultimate plane to our penultimate location!!
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