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Kia Ora!
I haven't been able to update for ages; either no internet, or too tired, or too busy! Well, as far as I can tell the last time I updated was in Taupo(?), so about a week and a half ago.
From Taupo we went to River Valley, a remote adventure lodge in a valley funnily enough. It was a really gorgeous area, and we opted to do the horse trekking! It was a really great place to do it, as it was uphill, downhill, windy around all the hills and all that. We started off slow, but then worked up to do quite a bit of galloping and such; it was hard work, but really fun (and a bit scary)!
After that we departed to go to Wellington, New Zealand's capital. What an amazing city; great views, houses up around the hills slightly away from the city, right on the coast, fantastic. We stayed here an extra night (2 nights in total) so that we could check out Te Papa Museum. The first night we were booked at a Base hostel...but it wasn't the nicest, so we checked out the next morning and stayed at YHA. Te Papa was fanastic, the world's biggest colossal squid is there, along with one of James Cook's cannons! They had loads of exhibitions and really cool stuff about natural history, immigrants coming to new zealand, and all that. The city itself was really cool as well (although because of the way it's situated, it's bloody windy!). It was really clean and modern; benches were only connected to the ground on one end and on the other, underneath the bench, were lights that changed colour to give an ambient glow. Very cool, not at all like London. We also discovered New World, the supermarket right next to the YHA, which was wonderful and had/has loads of fresh food for a fast dinner.
After that we got to take the Interislander ferry to pass the Marlborough Sounds to get to the South Island. Very very pretty, but cold so we didn't see loads. The South Island is absolutely amazing--apparently. It's been raining nearly every single day, and is so cloudy we can't actually see much!! Anyway, after arriving at the port in Picton, we took the bus down to Nelson, where we again spent an extra night. We managed to catch up with Nic which was really good. On our day off we took a kayaking trip around Abel Tasman National Park, through the marine reserve and everything. The water was so clear, we could see millions of starfish and sand dollars on the sea floor! We also kayaked past a seal colony, with pups playing in the waters. Luckily it only started raining at the end, but we got eaten to death by sandflies which are the worst biting insect ever!
The next stop was Westport (we're getting into the remote areas along the west coast now), where we decided to do the jet boating (the Aqua Taxi before and after we went kayaking was so much fun we decided to do the more extreme version). It was amazing (although it started raining..what a surprise...it was more fun as the water was really choppy though). 360 degree spins and everything, along a river which was about 2m high at the time, but could get up to 13m high! It was good value, as it was 1.5 hours long, scenic along the rainforest at first, but then we got quite wet as we skirted around the rocks!!
Then it was onto Lake Mahinapua, another really remote place, with a really pretty lake. There's not really too much to say here (and I'm running out of time!!).
After that was Franz Josef, where we went hiking (ALL DAY!!) on a glacier! So so so much hard work, but amazing scenery. I was planning to skydive here, but guess what...cancelled because of the weather. And it's been cancelled again, so no skydiving for me!
After the 2 nights in Franz Josef it was on to Wanaka, where we didn't do anything except enjoy the major major luxury of a nice hostel room (and tv..and junk food)...
And today we're now in Queenstown! Milford Sound tomorrow, out of time so I'll update hopefully soon!
Cristina
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