It feels like absolutely ages since I have written on here. I seemed to have been up to so much and had hardly any spare time recently so its probably going to take me a while to write this.

The journy over to the South Island from Wellington was fine apparently the wind was blowing the wrong way for it to be really rough and most of us just went to sleep on the ferry anyway. The first stop in the South Island was in Nelson. This was a very quiet little town but the sun was shining and it was the first place I had been to in New Zealand that was warm so I decided to spend a few nights there and just chill out. I mostly just walked about the town and spent time sitting and chatting to people I had met. On way of the days we walked up a hill to the centre point of New Zealand where we got some amazing views of Nelson.

After chilling out in Nelson for a few days we left for our next stop which was Westport. On the way we stopped at lake Rotoiti which was beautiful. The whole area was really quiet and peaceful and I managed to get some real postcard style pictures. I could have quite happily just layed in the sun there all day. Once we got to Westport we went for a walk around the town to see what it was like and to find the supermarket. It was like a ghost town. The only people we really saw on the way around were people from our bus. I should have expected though as I had been told how few people live in the South Island. That evening most of us stayed in the hostel and watched films as we had decided the nightlife in the town probably wasnt worth a trip out. it was an early start the next morning as a group of us were going horse riding. As it was my first time on a horse I was a bit nervous but the people gave me the nicest horse called Ollie and he did everything that I asked him to do straightaway. I even got up to a canter at one point which the lady said was very good for my first time on a horse. I was a little bit sad to say goodbye to Ollie when we had finished and I think I will definately be less scared of horses in the future. A very good experience.

That evening we were going to stay at a place called the poo pub where everybosy has to go in fancy dress. We stopped at a $2 store on the way in to pick up some supplies. Our theme for the fancy dress was rubix cube and the idea was that we had to dress in lots of different colours and swap clothes during the night until you ended up the same colour. It was good fun to all get dressed up and people came out with some really good outfits. ON the way to the poo pub we played bus olympics with one side of the bus competing against the other. The first game we played was where we had a matchstick in our mouth and we had to pass a pretzel along the bus using only the matchstick. Not easy to do on a moving bus but good fun. The next game was bus surfing where we picked the lighest person on each team and had to pass them above our heads along the bus and back. I felt a bit sorry for the girl who was getting passed though as she did get thrown around a bit. The games ended with a drinking competition in the bar that night and unfortuneately our team lost. it was good to have the whole bus all playing together though and the pub is only open to our bus in the evenings so you know everyone in the bar which is fun.

The next place we went to was Frans Josef. ON the way there we stopped at a bushmans centre and got to learn about how they used to catch deer for farming. Basicly they used to jump out of helicoptors onto a deers back and wrestle it to the ground. It was a good video to watch and then we also got to see a huge wild pig and one of the guys had to go into the pen and feed him. I think the guy was a bit freaked out but the pig even sat down when it was told to. It was like a huge dog. The day after I arrived at Frans Josef I did a full day glacier hike. I was a bit worried about how tiring it was going to be walking about on a glacier all day but it turned out not to be that bad. It was brilliant to see and we got to walk through some really tight spaces between the ice. I was really glad I decided to do the full day hike as a lot of our bus had opted to do a heli hike. Where they get a helicopter to take you to the top of the glacier where you walk around for a couple of hours and then the helicopter takes you back again. I was tempted to do this but the price of it put me off and then the people that were doing it couldnt go out because the weather was not good enough so they didnt get to see the glacier at all.

The next stop was Wanaka which I was a bit unsure about going to as I had heard there was not much to do there but as it turned out it was gorgeous. We had a really nice room in more of a room than a hostel and the surrounding area and the town was absolutely gorgeous. We decided to go banana boating on the lake and the scenery around us was amazing. The lake was huge with snow capped moutains all around us. It was pretty cold when we ended up in the water though. One downside to snow capped mountains is that there is where all the water comes from for the lakes and rivers so any activities you do in water are absolutely freezing. As we had a tv in our room for the first time since I left home we spent most of the evening watching tv.

The next morning we were off to Queenstown. On the way out we stopped at a place called puzzle world. There was a maze here and all sorts of weird rooms that messed with your head. There was one the sloped sidewards so it looked like everything in the like water and stuff were falling up hill. It was very easy to fall over in there.

I had been deliberating for quite a while as to whether to do a bungee jump when we got to Queenstown. After watching people jump off the Auckland bridge I was pretty scared about doing one and had kind of decided that it wasnt going to happen. However as we were coming into Queenstown I changed my mind. I really couldnt come to the adventure capital of New Zealand and not do a bungee jump. I decided to go for the little one which was the bus was stopping at on the way in. it was 43 metres off a bridge and was the first commercial bungee site in the World. I felt all right looking off the bridge from the side but as soon as I got to the edge I completely freaked out. I really did not think I could do it and it took a lot of screaming from everyone on the bus who was watching me to get me to do it. Afterwards I was glad I had done a bungee and it feels like nothing else I have experienced. its completely different to skydiving and really hard to push your body to jump off into nothing. As soon as I saw Queenstown I knew it was somewhere I was going to like. It feels like a ski resort town and is not too busy but had just enough people to make nights out fun.

The first night we got here we went down to the bar below the hostel. There were playing a game called horizontal bungy where you have a bungy cord attached to your waist and you have to run up to other end of the bar grab a cocktail shaker full of beer then run it back to your partner who has to down it. I played with one of the guys from our bus because the game looked like fun. I never really thought we were going to win. Then we ended up with a way quicker time than everyone else. The prize was a nevis bungy jump each which is the highest bungy in New Zealand and the second highest in the World at 134 metres. It was a good prize as it costs 100 pounds to do the bungy if you pay for it. I spent quite a long time worrying about it after how scared I had been on the first one and was very nervous when the time came around to doing it. They did the jumps in weight order with the heaviest going first so I had to watch a load of guys do the jump before I could go. I think it helped me though as none of them seemed that nervous and I didnt want to seem like a wimp so I jumped off with no hesitation. I fell for ages I had time to scream then catch my breath and think about whether I wanted to scream again and I felt so good when I had done it. I would definately do a bungy again given the opotunity and I think I would enjoy them more the more I do them. Whilst I have been in Queenstown I have also done river boarding twice. You go down rapids on a body board and its great fun. Its a bit hairy at some points though and you dont have a lot of control over where you go. The guides thought I was a pro after I had done it the second time and were telling me I should get a job there. It would be very tempting to do something like that and stay in Queenstown as I love it here. I am here for another two days and then I go over to Christchurch for a few days before flying out to Melbourne. Im looking forward to getting to Oz and having some good weather. Some days have been good here but the weather is very changable.