It has been along time since we last blogged so this one will be a long one......

What seems like forever ago we left Nation Park on 29th Dec for Wellington on the Tranz Scenic train. Very nice journey down took about 5ish hours. Arrived in wellington, found our hostel and went straight out to find food. An overwhelming experience after spending 6 weeks in a village with nothing. Of course we had Japanese and it was great.

Wellington seems like a small city but very very windy. We vistied Te Papa which is the national museum which was free and full of loads of stuff especially the new exhibit of The Colossal Squid. That night i tryed some beef wellington and it was yummy. New Years eve we decied to head down to the Civic square where there was a free concert on with some cover bands to see us into the new year. We both phoned home to wish family a happy new year even though at home it was only 11 am on th 31st.

Jan 2nd we met up with Stef (worked with ther at the park) we ened up going to the cinema to see Madagasca as the weather wasnt great.

Jan 3rd we packed and off to the ferry at 7am, the weather was pretty bad, more windy than usual. The ferry was far too busy and we ended up sittting on the floor untill a member of the staff found our a seat in the bar as claire was feeling rather sick. 3 hours later we arrived in Picton. Collected our luggage and back on the Magic Bus for 3 hours down to Nelson. Nelson is the sunshine capital of New Zealand, fab a bit of sunshine. Both of us were pretty tired after the ferry so ate dinner and went to bed! Bonus was we got upgraded to a twin room in our hostel.

Jan 4th back on the Magic Bus to Greymouth. Visited the seals rocks and the pancake rocks on the way and claire nearly went for a swim when the tide came in a bit further than she expected! The main attraction in Greymouth is the Monteith Brewery (Free Beer). The tour was pretty awful they just walked our through their factory but then it was tasting time...... 6 free samples and then the lady let us loose on the pipes. I pulled my first pint(bad) but i got better by the 4th one. Inclued in our 25dollars was an all you can eat bbq and free beer. So we slept well that night. You will see the pictures of the hostel Noahs Ark and our dorm was Pig themed.

Jan 5th Magic Bus to Franz Josef. First stop was Gold Panning in a little town called Ross. So im rich i found about 5 little flecks of gold. The Bushmans was just a little outside Franz Josef, we paid 4 dollars to see a flim entitled "When Bambi was a Terrorist" it was about how deer were destorying the forests so someone had to try and kill them. This crazy man the owner of The Bushman helped develope the idea of jumping out of helicopters onto the deer to catch them. The strangest but funniest 4 bucks i have ever spent. Especially when the film used music from TopGun. Then also had a big pig in a pen which one of the silly irish guys on out bus had to feed but he chickened out when the pig stood up(see photos).

We decided we would love to do a Heli Hike up Franz Jospef Glacier but when we arrived in the town the weather had turned bad and it was cancelled and then the half day hike was also full so no chance of see the glacier this trip. Insted we went Kayaking and had a great time.