Kia Ora!

I've just made it to Wellington, the NZ capital, to begin my adventures on the North Island and I'm looking forward to it. The photo is of Dunedin station, a really cool building with a nice clock tower just out of shot on the right. I was there a few days ago but I'll keep to the chronology.

Last entry was from Franz Josef and can't remember if I wrote about the glacier hike. It was a full 5 hours of walking I think, on ice like I've never seen. Clear in places, light blue in others, and featuring all sorts of crazy curls, caves and shapes that are hard to believe. The scale of the thing is not even as impressive as it should be when you're there as it's a hell of a lot bigger than it looks! Enjoyed the Monsoon Bar at the hostel there, sinking a few more Radler beers (is that Lonely Planet speak?!)

From there went to Wanaka, crossing through the west coast's main mountains and therefore exiting rainforest landscape and entering brown, grassy mountains and fields. I got a photo of the exact line between the two, which was very strange. The thick, dark green rainforest of Franz Josef, with low, wet cloud and mist was certainly interesting but this new terrain really grabbed me. We passed Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka, both stunning, huge lakes with solid, dusty brown mountains gliding straight into them and their impossible blueness. I stayed in Wanaka for three nights I loved it so much. I walked Mt Iron for an incredible view of the whole region. I did a skydive as I thought it was the perfect beautiful area for it. Unfortunately my contact lenses came out during freefall, despite goggles, so I had that to deal with and couldn't see as much as I'd hoped! But still a unique experience that flits past all too briefly. I also really enjoyed finding a spot by the lake to sit for the afternoon and catch up my journal with a stunning view. Then who should turn up but...Mr Ben Kenward! On a holiday for a few days, we'd agreed to meet up and share some experiences. We had the excellent YHA cabin to ourselves so used our own private kitchen to eat better than most nights and set off the next morning for Te Anau, via Queenstown.

This was an excellent drive and clearly the best way to see the country. We stopped where we liked and enjoyed all sorts of little spots, including the Roaring Meg river (Stevenage people will understand). The terrain started to include faded yellow grasslands with more distant mountains but still awesome. We rounded the Remarkables range into Queenstown and it looked like a huge dragon on the edge of Lake Wakatipu. We had a quick lunch there and got to Te Anau a couple of hours later. This is a tiny place but a link on the road to Milford Sound. We did a brief walk by the lake and had a beautifully romantic dinner out.

Up early the next day we drove to Milford Sound and the country changed again, showing us even larger, bare grey rocky mountains, with spots of ice at their peaks. The most dramatic stuff yet, for sure. Here we did the obligatory cruise through the Sound, a glaciated valley backfilled by the sea after the glacier melts. This means there are crazy huge mountains falling down into mesmerisingly dark green water and there were plenty of waterfalls around. It was a great cruise with funny commentary that gave us ample time to soak up the surroundings - with free tea and coffee! We gave up on kayaking as it looked far too cold, but on the way back to Te Anau did a little walk that turned into a three-hour hike to Lake Marian, an alpine lake on the other side of rainforesty-type stuff. It was beautiful though: slightly milky blue with the tallest half of a few mountains crowding around it, a real gem.

Next day we drove back to Queenstown at last, for everyone's favourite NZ town. I managed to rope a few friends from the Kiwi Bus into turning out for the evening so we teamed up with Texan Tyler, Dutch Inge, and Britons Amy and Michael for the evening. It turned out a good one, hitting several bars, including the World Bar for cocktails in teapots that proved very potent stuff! We also tasted our first Fergburgers, a Queenstown fast-food institution of gourmet burgers to suit all kinds of weird tastes. Suffice to say they were AMAZING!

So hangover day began with a really tough walk up to Bob's Peak, overlooking the town, lake and mountains around. It really was a hard hour's slog but the view at the top was second to none. I've got a thing about benches in stunning locations and this had several. Up there we did the 'lugeing' that was more like go-karts but a lot of fun heading down hill on fun tracks, racing each other and nearly tipping out. After taking in the views a bit longer Ben got the gondola cable car down the steep hill while I took a gentle stroll with iPod. We met in town and bought ourselves some frisbees for...Frisbee Golf! This is a course laid out in Queenstown Gardens, with tees, hoops to get the frisbee in and a par for each of 18 holes. It was wicked fun, though our cheapo frisbees were terribly feeble compared to the ones other people were going around with. After that we had time to chomp down our second Fergburgers before meeting some friends again for a more gentle drink and an early bed.

Then came Monday morning, my turn for a bungy jump! Ben had already done the craziest of crazies, 134m drop on the Nevis jump, but I went for the Kawarau Bridge at 43m. I was fine until I was edged onto the protuding platform, where I had a rush of nerves and didn't want to do it but a quick countdown and nudge from the staff send me off a really dangerous drop (someone should really check these things), hurtling towards the Kawarau River, which i dipped in with my arms and head, before deciding it was one of my best experiences yet. Must do another one...Ben and I eventually parted ways in Queenstown, him going towards Twizel and Christchurch and me heading on a bus to Dunedin, which is actually Gallic for 'Edinburgh'. The landscape down there was certainly quite Scottish, with grassy, gorsey hills with rock sticking out of them in places, and the architecture of the city was certainly more European than the rest of NZ. It's a University city, but in the evening it was completely missing any kind of life. I did find an amazing 'souflee omlette' to keep me happy though.

Unsure what I would do the next day I wandered around the city a bit, but got bored and decided it wasn't a nice place for someone on foot. I caught a bus to Baldwin Street, the steepest in the world and struggled up and down that. Back in the town centre I headed off on a a wildlife tour of the lovely Otago Peninsula that really made my time in Dunedin. In a small group we were shown all kinds of birds in their natural environment, and also got to see a Royal Albatross and chicks, sea lions, seals and yellow-eyed penguins, a very rare variety. We walked amongst the sea lions on an otherwise empty beach and leaving there during sunset with the penguins waddling along and the sea lions playing around us was a really special sight.

There's lots to catch up on so I'll abbreviate the next bit. Queenstown again to chill out and see bus friends. Long drive to Christchurch via amazing bright blue lakes Pukaki and Tekapo. Saw Graham, Poppy and Yogi and their friends for a gentle night in celebration of their moving out of Christchurch. Very early start next day for Kaikoura, where I swam with dolphins in the Pacific! Was a truly amazing experience, with them swimming all around and playing with a group of us, looking at them from above and below the water. I had to lie with a sick bucket on the way back as it was very choppy but the long shower at base made it all better. Kaikoura was a real beauty, on the coast with amazing snowy mountains presenting the northern backdrop. Next day to Picton to stay at the amazingly charismatic Villa backpackers with everything I could ever want, including free evening apple crumble! One day I did a wine tasting tour around the Marlborough Wine Region, getting pissed and trying to keep up detailed wine talk but definitely learning my taste. The next day, yesterday, I walked 5 hours of the Queen Charlotte Track through part of the Marlborough Sounds. The weather was great and the walk was fairly easy, with really great views through the forest from time to time. Bright teal water, gentle, green islands and a pale blue sky made it somewhere I liked very much indeed, and the view of part of the sounds from Picton was also lovely.

Today I chilled out then got on the ferry to come to Wellington! It's a bigger place than I'm used to at the moment but has a really nice, calm feel to it. Will do a hard day of sightseeing tomorrow before moving on to Taupo the day after for new adventures.

I'm sorry I'm so long-winded but it's who I am. I at least hope I'm helping you experience some of the places I'm getting to, as that's my aim. I hope you're all well and the freakish weather isn't causing too many problems. If it helps, the weather here ain't good either. I saw a cloud yesterday.

Love to you all. x