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Well, one word to describe New Zealand - AMAZING! The country is beautiful, people are incredibly friendly and helpful and you can try every kind of adrenaline-fuelled activity you can think of!
An example of the friendlyness - when I first arrived in Auckland I caught an airport shuttle bus which I assumed took me to my hostel, unfortunately I was wrong and didn't have enough cash on me to cover the fare. When I asked the driver how to walk there he gave me the $2 fare without any hestitation, what an RNG! Also, today in Christchurch the local dentist managed to fit me in for an emergency appointment to fix a chip in my tooth - a feat in itself because they are usually booked up 2-3 months in advance! Not only that he charged me only $100 when the treatment usually costs $240, plus he gave me some excellent advice on about my jaw being slightly out of line and needed to be corrected to avoid future jaw and neck pain! First thing I do when I get back to England is to change my dentist!
The South Island itself is even more picturesque then the North Island. The mountains are absolutely breathtaking, I have taken around 500 photos but put a selection on here at the moment for you to enjoy. Nelson was our first stop, a lovely small city which is officially the central point of NZ. My only regret is that I didn't have time to visit Abel Tasman National Park as everybody I spoke to who did it said it was one of the highlights of the trip, next time maybe...
Next, we had an overnight stop in Westport which is definitely the strangest place I have been to in New Zealand. Being pretty isolated, it has an inbred vibe to it similar to that of Weymouth or Norwich. Me and my Swedish friend Jay walked into the local pub and the whole place went quiet we clearly weren't from there with our combat shorts/sunglasses combo. Although we were approached to join their darts team, clearly the standard is pretty low in Westport.
Day 3 of the South Island saw us arrive in Greymouth and stay at the Poo Pub with NZ's oldest publican "Uncle Les" at 85 years young. He was pretty damn intimidating but did cook us an absolute feast of a dinner which was pretty impressive considering there was 50 of us on the bus. That evening we had a fancy dress evening where I adapted the "bin bag party" theme so I could dress up as a sheep and not use any bin bags.
Franz Josef was one of my favourite stops where we had an opportunity to walk up the fastest-moving glacier in the world. I thorougly enjoyed the trek and got some awesome photos of the cravats, amazing to think you are literally walking on (frozen) water. Finished the trip in Queenstown which is the party capital of NZ, great way to end the trip with a big night on the town before everyone headed their seperate ways.
Absolutely loved my time in New Zealand, doing it with the Kiwi Experience was definitely the best option as I saw and did so much in just 3 weeks. Plus I met some amazing people who I hope to meet up again in my future travels. I really hope to come back to New Zealand and take it at my own pace, possibly hire a campervan and drive around as a lot of the places I went I wanted to stay longer but coudn't. Still onto the next adventure in Australia where I get to watch some cricket, surf and meet up with a Welsh friend of mine, tough life...
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