After Westport we headed to Lake Mahinapua where the 'Poo Party' was. Basically, it's a pub in the middle of nowhere right on the coast (2 minute walk to the beach but it was FREEZING). No phone signal or anything or any shops for a couple of miles either side and every Kiwi bus goes there for this party. There's always a different theme for the party that the driver decides. This one was 'bad taste'...but not as in just bad tasting dress sense, but bad taste which challenges political correctness. We stopped off there at Warehouse (chain of shops all over NZ, that do EVERYTHING nice and cheap) to buy outfits. As you can imagine with a theme like that there were some quite daring outfits which everyone wasn't sure if they'd go down well. Myself Tom and Ben went as 3 Nazis, we bought a green jumper, combat trousers and made and armband out of card (turns out another guy did the same). We took a bit of a risk we thought but there were people dressed as terrorists etc as you might imagine. It was all in the name of fun though as wasn't intended to be offending. Turns out we had a really good night and got to know loads of people on our bus. Because we have a bit of extra time here we're always getting on buses with people who've been together for ages so groups have already formed and it's a bit hard to socialise, so now we've decided to try and stick with this bus up to Queenstown where people go off to various places. So that's what we've done now!!!

The next day we set off for Franz Josef, not too early (9am) and got there at about 3pm. We had to book our glacier hike for the next, then we just went for something to eat with a few people from the bus. Also, we had to arrange our skydive. Apparently we'd been really lucky with the weather in Franz as it's an Alpine environment and can be quite wet but we had clear skys! It's a really small town as well in the middle of mountains! But, for the skydive, they couldn't do everyone the day we got there so names were picked. Tom got picked for that day but Ben and I had to do it Monday morning BEFORE we got the bus, 6am pick up!!! The glacier hike was really good, we did a full day so about 8 hours and 5 hours on the ice. We were kitted out completely, ice boots, hats scarves etc...and just taken by a guide in small groups up the ice. Some pretty cool ice caves and stuff, you can see the pictures on the blog, and really good weather as well so it wasn't too cold surprisingly! We were pretty shattered at the end of the day after hiking so had a bit of an early night, plus Ben and I had to wake up at 5am! So the next day that's what we did, us plus another guy from our bus we were picked up for a skydive at 6am. Luckily the weather had held off and the skies were clear and it was the most amazing thing ever! We got there and got suited up straight away then shown what we needed to do up there. This involved shuffling to the edge of the plane once the door opened (you're sat down strapped to your instructor)...then hanging outside the plane with your legs under is, and the instructor is still sat on the edge! Then you cross your arms when you tumble out, then open them up and arch yourself during freefall. The plane up there was TINY, it literally just fitted 4 people (2 jumpers, strapped to 2 instructors)...we all squeezed in. The views on the way up were amazing though, the sun was literally just rising so glowing behind the mountains on one side, then the moon was disappearing on the other side where you could see the Tasman sea. Then as we got to 12000ft, the sun just came over one of the mountains (there's a picture on the blog). The door then opened and you felt a rush of air, then Ben jumped and we shuffled to the edge. That was the worst part, seeing the ground below and just hanging out a plane. Then before I knew it we were out somersaulting and you caught glimpses of the plane above us. We then went into freefall over the glaciers which was awesome, you could feel how fast you were falling, that was for 45 seconds and the instructor spun you around to get 360 degree views. Then the shoot opened and it suddenly went quiet, you could talk to the instructor normally without having to be any louder! On this one we got to take our cameras as well which they don't let you do on a lot of the others, so at this point could get it out (it was around our neck on a cord) and got some pictures of me and the surroundings. Then after the ground seeming 2D it became 3D! I could see Ben landing below us then we slid in to land. It was definitely a different experience but now we just wanna do it again!!! And it went so quickly, you were supposed to parachute down for 6 minutes but I swear it was more like 2! That got us buzzing for the whole day and the scenic drive down the coast for sure. We went to a place called reflection lake, still waters that reflected the mountains and trees so you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began which was pretty cool.