New Zealand so far...

Well, it's been just about 3 weeks since we left so I thought it was about time for my first blog entry... We've been busy boys and have seen and done a lot and met lots of people on the South island of New Zealand.

We arrived in Christchurch on 20th March after a very long and very boring flight, was good to finally stop travelling. We had a couple of easy days in Christchurch doing a bit of sightseeing and trying to get over the jetlag which took a while before we had our 1st taste of the Kiwi experience... The big green bus we will be travelling round New Zealand on turned up late (and not for the last time).

We headed up to Kaikoura which was a very scenic drive, lots more of those to come and when we got there we took the opportunity to go swimming with dolphins. Apparently you can sometimes get the chance to swim with hundreds of dolphins which can be amazing, not for us though - they weren't interested so we didn't actually get in the water but we got to see a few from the boat which was good. We thought it would be a good idea to head into town for some beers that night and promptly got quite battered...

Up early doors the next day to head to Nelson at the top of the South Island. More amazing scenery on the journey and a couple of stops in nice spots. Got to the hostel which was nice and had a beer tasting thing on as we arrived. Obviously joined in and the night went downhill from there. Ended up playing drinking games till about 2 in the morning which was very funny but also very very drunken. Maybe not the best idea as we had to be up at 6 to go for a day hiking in the Abel Tasman national park.

We had booked to go hiking for a day, camp overnight and then Kayak back. The Abel Tasman national park is beautiful, lots of photos on the blog... Had a long day walking then got the campfire going and camped out which was all good apart from the sandflys! Up early for the sunrise and a quick (cold) swim in the sea before Kayaking back to where we started. Kayaking was hard work but great fun and there was yet more amazing scenery and the weather was kind to us too with lots of sun!

Spent the next couple of days travelling down the West coast, first to Westport where we went Jetboating which was fun and then straight on to Lake Manhipua and the 'Poo Party'. Basically a themed fancy dress party, our theme was bin bags so we had to make our outfits out of bin bags... hmmm, the less said about that the better but there were some very good costumes there considering the time we had to make them!

Franz Josef was the next stop on our trip for a couple of nights. We spent our day there doing a full day glacier hike which was awesome, like being on another planet... until it pissed it down that is and we got soaked! Hard work climbing the glacier and our guide had also found an ice hole for us to crawl through, it was about 6 meters long and not very wide, infact, I didn't fit through regardless of how hard I tried so had to give up.

Very early start the next day to head to Wanaka. We had hoped to skydive in Franz Josef but the weather was against us so put our names down to do it in Wanaka instead. No weather problems this time as there wasn't a cloud in the sky so up we went. My instructor was called Eugene which was a bit of a worry but the skydive was awesome, really strange feeling to jump out a plane but brilliant! Was buzzing for hours afterwards.

Straight on to Queenstown the next day where we planned to stay for the best part of a week. Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world apparently and that seems a fair description! Went luging on our first afternoon which is like go carting downhill with no engine and is quite scary! The next day we had signed up for the Nevis Bungy jump, the highest in New Zealand at 134m and we were all s***ting it a bit before we jumped. Can't describe the feeling of doing a bungy jump but the freefall is such a rush it's unreal, still having flashbacks of it now when I see photos of video of it. Everyone has to give it a try even if only once!

Had a couple of steady days after that to recover and a few night out too, all good fun but the Kiwi beer is rubbish - gassy and weak! On the plus side there is goon - boxes of cheap wine which definately does a job! One of the bars also does cocktails in teapots which is a bit random but all good fun. And then there's Fergburger... burger shop with the biggest and best burgers you'll ever eat, obviously we had a few through the week!

The other thing we did was Mad Dog river boarding. This basically involves going down a river with rapids on a body board. Such hard work but great fun, I only feared for my life a few times.

That's about it for the South Island, we are spending the next couple of days heading up the East coast and to the North Island for a few weeks. Will write another entry at the end of the North Island... if I can be arsed!

Hope all is well back at home, see you all soon!

Tom