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Ok so I realise this is a bit of a condensed version for all the things I have been up to but here it goes...
Got the ferry from wellington over to picton (north island to south island) which took 3 hours and was horrible, really rough and completely sick making! Luckily we managed to keep our breakfast down and were met my our new magic coach and our new magic coach driver, mike on the other side, a drive through to nelson and we walked up a hill to the centre of new zealand, bought a dollar mad mix (very old school) from a sweetshop and were denied from a pub because we had no ID (very very old school), back to the hostel to watch a film and to bed.
The next day we drove down the west coast of the south island which is absolutely stunning! Unreal...driving through fields and hills in total sunshine (full of sheep might I add, yuk!) and still surrounded by huge mountains covered in snow...after a few short walks (truman track) and sightseeing in the punakaiki national park, we headed to the pancake rocks for some gorgeous views and even gorgeouser pancakes before arriving at our empty hostel in greymouth, where after waiting for half an hour someone eventualy turned up and checked us in...weird...quick shower and out to the monteiths brewery tour which turned into a big night down at the railway hotel with the other people off the bus that we had been travelling on...so much fun!
Next day on to franz josef via a town called ross where we got to pan for gold and I got to put hannah in the stocks...and then leave her yelling to at least be given a chair..ho ho ho! franz josef was stunning, tiny little village, few streets and right up in the mountains, arrived and went to get kitted up in boots, crampons and waterproofs in order to be able to scale the franz josef glacier which was amazing and totally stunning, not to mention a very strange feeling to know I was walking on a huge ice cube which I could see melting and changing around me! Was really good, we got to climb through ice tunnels and squeeze (or get wedged in some cases) through tiny little cracks, really a good day but home to bed missing a night out because we were so tired from the night before and the 8km and 250m above sea level glacier trek.
Next day (we're up to 8th sept by the way) we went for a walk round lake matheson which is famous for it how it mirrors the mountains and the fox glacier, but unfortunately it wasn't calm enough when we were there but all good, that just meant breakfast at the cafe after a cut short walk. Got talking to a couple off the coach and turns out I used to go to school with her and she lives round the corner back home, yet again...small world! Then onto lake hawea which is said by the mauris to be the footprint of some guy (I forget his name) who was given the job of making all the lakes in the south island by banging the ground with his stick and whilst bashing out wanaka lake his foot sank and made hawea...pretty decent mistake. Next onto puzzleworld (as recommended by fields) where we got to be giant, tiny, paranoid by a room of famous faces all following you and confused by balls rolling up tables and water flowing up hill...bizarre and feeling completely sick, we went back to the coach to be dropped off in queenstown wahooo!!
Queenstown was stunning, I thought it would be really backpackery and skanky as it's the extreme sports or more precisely 'antigravity sports' capital of the world probably, but I was so wrong. It was so picturesque and lots of famous people live there...truely stunning. First night and straight down for an infamous ferg burger, huge, greasy and brilliant! Next day we were still in queenstown and so after a lie in and a hair cut while dunks went to fling herself off the nevis bungee jump (no thanks), I went shopping and then to the most amazing hot pools ever! We were picked up in town and driven up high into the mountains above queenstown and given our own private hot pool in a little room and towels and all the jiggery pokery...got in, pressed a button (screamed as we were covered in freezing cold water which for some reason comes from over our heads...wrong button) pressed another button and the front wall and roof retracted leaving us sat outdoors watching the sky turn to darkness while sat in a hot pool in the middle of a load of snowy mountains...was amazing!! Back down to town and staggered out for a curry, just to undo all the detoxing the spa had done for us...was a good curry though so all is forgiven. Then we met some of the others from the magic coach who we had lost track of somewhere back in franz josef and went out to buffalo and world bar (just like sydney!!!) for a goodbye and a few teapots (world bar serves drinks in teapots...it's sooo good!)
Ok so today would be the 10th and we got the coach to dunedin a total student town, went to cadbury world...got lots of free chocolate, laughed a lot when we walked past the 'sensory evaluation laboratory' as we imagined a load of...'big boned', 'strong' people stuffing their faces with chocolate and nodding there heads. No oompa lumpas to report however there was a chocolate fountain!! Quality, back to the hostel for a stir fry and a quiet night in.
Next we drove to the steepest road in the world and given the chance to run up it...no thanks, nice offer but not a chance and on to lake tekapo. Honestly I couldn't believe some of the views we drove past today. So many total mirror lakes which reflected gorgeous, huge mountains, it really was stunning. Felt like a geek but I had my nose pressed to the glass almost the entire way, really was breath-taking. We stopped at a dam which despite thinking it probably was going to be a bit lame, turned out to be stunning as for some reason the water in the lakes and streams over here is bright bluey turquoisey green and is absolutely amazing. Incredible view from the dam and a drive back down to lake tekapo to stay in the nicest hostel i have ever seen, a view from our window of the lake, a tiny multi-religion church with a few pews and a view out the front of the lake, the mountains and the cross was breath taking, I couldn't take a photo inside to show you, gutted but it was perfect. The hostel was a log cabin type place and after dumping our stuff and lying on our beds reading and staring at the amazing view through our patio window we walked up the road to more hot pools to chill out with jamie and russ who we had met on the coach and talk until we were all pruney and it was all dark...really good night.
Which brings me to today...leaving lake tekapo, we travelled through a tiny village called fairlie, stopped in geraldine (hard to say why I find that such a funny place name) and then arrived in christchurch in time to look around the shops, go to the cathedral and walk around cathedral square...killing a bit of time now before going for a trusty subway (which has served us well, almost as well as macdonalds) and down into the town/city to meet the other magic bus people who leave tomorrow, whereas we have another day here before flying back to aukland on sunday and out to fiji on monday...FIJI BABY!!
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