We left Taupo this Monday morning, but it wasn't long before we were back off the bus. The weather was gross and it was raining quite a bit. First stop on the side of the road was for us to walk a short 20 minutes down to a famous waterfall used in The Lord of the Rings film, it was a nice waterfall so we took lots of group photos! When we got back to the bus we had a photo in front of it then took a photo of the kiwi bird road sign. Next walk was at tongario national park, it was slightly longer, lasting 1 hour and it was near a famous town on a hill. Unfortunately it was pretty misty so we couldn't see much! Gemma and I spent the walk chatting to Kerry and Anna, two girls from England who had joined our bus at Rotorua. We all wondered around a small vister museum then got back on the bus for a long journey to river valley. It was a long winding drive to river valley from here. Once we got there, we got a minibus down to the lodge we were staying in. The lodge was a really cute, old wooden lodge, it looked just like we were in a european ski resort! After having our welcome talk we put our bags in a large 32 bed dorm, which only eight of us were staying in! There was one long bed for all of us, Gemma and I shotgunned the corner with Harry, Tom, Kerry, Anna and George next. Gemma and I bought a bottle of wine then settled down by the fire. It started raining heavily outside, which we could hear on the roof. Most of us (bar Kerry and Anna) opted to have the roast dinner that evening. It was amazing, home cooked roast chicken with all the trimmings, the only thing missing was Yorkshire pudding, but the baked pumpkin was sooo good it didn't matter!! We were all incredibly full so sat back by the fire, drinking wine and playing card games all evening. When we started getting tired we decided to go to bed. It took ages to get to sleep as we were messing about rolling around our one long bed and couldn't stop giggling!!

When we got up in the morning we were all hoping we could go white water rafting, but unfortunately it had rained too much overnight so the river was too high. A few people went riding but we decided not to. Instead tom and I did a training session in the room. Afterwards, we all decided to go up to the top of the hill to find the golf course. As it had rained we tied plastic bags around our shoes so they didn't get covered in mud! We had fun trying to find the holes and in the end made up our own course! At lunch time the riders came back, got changed then we left for Wellington. Due to the storm coming in we only had one night in Wellington so needed to make the most of it! After a rapid check in we ran straight to the museum to look around for 30mins before it closed. It was famous for being a large free museum. After learning lots more about Maori culture we went to dominos to take advantage the the cheap Tuesday pizza. We then had pre drinks in the hostel room and finally managed to confirm our flights out of New Zealand for the following week. We had a fab last night out with Gemma (as she was stopping kiwi experience in Wellington). We all had quite a few drinks, ending in a hilarious karaoke session!!

After a late night, none of us were looking forward to the ferry crossing to the South Island. We found a quiet area of the ferry, where we lay down to sleep for pretty much the entire journey, only getting up to see some dolphins to the side of the boat. We got on our new bus the other side of the ferry and Bods drove us to kaiteriteri for the night. We went on a walk along the beach before it got dark, then played on the zip wire for a bit. After cooking dinner with tom, we went across the path to the pub, where tom, harry, nick, holly and I formed a team for the pub quiz. We had a laugh attempting to answer the questions and ended up coming third. The team who won (the dutch girls - Lesley and Serina, Jamie and joe) bought harry some nuts and me a hot chocolate as we were jokingly saying before that's what we'd spend the $50 bar tab on! It was really sweet of the girls to remember! After the quiz finished we watched the owner and his son perform a few songs, then one of the girls off our bus (another Kerry), got up to play guitar and sing - she was really good and it was lovely listening to her voice.

Thursday morning we got up early so that Harry, Tom and I could go for an early morning jog along the beach. After the jog we had showers, breakfast, checked out and put our bags in the coach. Bods recommended a couple of walks for us to do, so we went on an adventure, through native bush, up to lookout points, clambering over rocks and finishing with tom thinking he could jump a stream which lead into the sea, only or him to sink and roll straight into it! We started chatting to another couple of girls just before we got back on the bus - Sam and Nat. After being on the bus for not very long we arrived in Westport. We were staying in what looked like an oversized house, it had a really cute fire and sitting room as well as a fully equipped kitchen. The three of us (with tom) went on a food shop, as we had nothing for dinner and thought we should make use of the good kitchen! Afterwards we chilled by fire, playing monopoly on tom's iPad!

We left Westport quite early as we had several walks ahead of us today. The first walk was quite short but gave us great views of the bit sticking out into the sea as well as the waves going over the rock down below us. The second was a new one Bods found so it was a bit shorter than walks we'd normally do, it was just as nice though and the weather was sunny (with a slight wind). We headed next to a famous spot for lunch - pancake rocks (because they look like stacks of pancakes!) We took our picnics down to where we had the best view of the rocks. After lunch we finished the walk back to the bus admiring the view. We picked up another person in a little town on the way to lake mahinapua, this gave us time to run around and find provisions to make our outfits for the fancy dress competition tonight. The theme was ABC (Anything But Clothes). Harry had the great idea of picking up a load of the free maps from the information centre, then we got tape, a brown paper bag and started planning what we could do with it all. We arrived at lake mahinapua and the famous poo pub around 4ish, so we walked to the lake to see the incredible views then to the beach to watch the sunset. In had got noticeably colder tonight than it had been in the north island. Bods cooked us all dinner tonight including steak, potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, pasta, rolls and corn on the cob! It was a great meal and we were once again really full! After dinner our priority was to sort our fancy dress outfits for the evening. I helped harry and tom do their outfits - toms involved a bin bag top with a cardboard box skirt then a map bandana, harry went for a map top, map skirt and tree branch belt, completed with a map headband. Once the boys were sorted I wriggled my way into the oversize brown paper bag then accessorised with a map halter neck, sash and frills. The bag was rather tight which made walking and dancing pretty hard! When we got to the bar very one had made a massive effort with their outfits. After a group photo, Bods announced the winners were one of the American guys, the three bin bag girls and harry & I. One person from each group then had to play rock, paper, scissors to decide who won which prize. Harry played ours and lost, which meant we won one bar crawl for when we were in Queenstown (we could've won a bungy photo package or a canyon swing!!). Anyway we still had a lot of fun and stayed out late dancing in the pub, not everyone's outfits lasted all night though and our room ended up in a mess when the three of us tried to get out of them!!

We left the poo pub early so that we could make sure we'd be able to do the glacier walk in franz josef. The only stop today was at bushman pete's museum. An interesting place where we learnt about how the introduction of deer into New Zealand, the effect it had and how they controlled the situation. This involved a film which showed us bushman Pete jumping out of a helicopter onto a deer to catch it to then move it alive to a deer breading area. They had live possums and eels which we fed. We hopped of the bus quickly to take a photo of the lake reflecting the surrounding mountains. The main activity for today was the 'ice explorer' walk on franz josef mountain. We were the last group from our bus to do the walk so had time beforehand to have lunch. Our group was Sam, nat, tom, holly, nick, harry and I. We had a safety briefing then set about getting ready, we were given boots, socks, waterproof trousers, waterproof coat, hat, gloves, bag, crampons and I asked for an extra two layers! When we were ready we walked down the road to the helicopter take off point, another safety briefing from the pilot then holly, nick, harry and I hopped on the first flight up to the glacier. I was so happy that I got to sit in the front, so I saw an amazing view on the way up there and realised just how big the glacier was as the people already on the glacier looked like little dots. We landed then waited for the others before Rich (our guide) explained to us how to put our crampons on - the spikey parts you attach to the bottom of your boots for grip on the ice. He said the more aggressive and wider we stepped the less likely we were to fall over. We started our climb in single file, as we were going rich lead the way carving better steps for us to walk on as we went. First stop we climbed into a bright blue cave to take photos, it was stunning and we couldn't believe this was a natural creation. The climb involved lots of walking up and down the bumps of the glacier, through really thin cracks, squeezing sideways. We found another good picture spot, where I crawled on my stomach through the holes. We then slid down a naturally formed slide. My favourite part of the day was crawling through a tunnel which was only wide enough to squeeze through superman style sideways. I tried going front on first but got stuck then rich went through. After he made it I was convinced I could, so went up and started sliding through, almost got stuck halfway but wiggled through to the end. Harry pulled my arms through and I fell into the pool at the end. Harry and tom went through next, then slightly wetter than before we were still smiling for more photos. A quick walk down, we took our crampons off then waited for the helicopter to take us back down. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had. When back at the hostel we went to get food for a quick dinner before watching the all blacks vs France then the lions play their first test match. The all blacks game was a good game and our bus driver was with us enjoying himself. Just before the lions game started Bods (bus driver) announced over the mic that because my dad played for the lions, for every try they scored in the game he'd buy me a glass of wine and for every try AUS scored he'd buy us each a shot of his choice. The score ended on 21-23 to the lions, so id had a fare few drinks, not to mention the free drinks from the bartenders!! The next morning turned into a big lie in for everyone due to the previous night. In the afternoon we went for a walk to get a better view of the glacier and river. After the walk we went to the hot pools which was included with our walk from the day before. There were three pools, one 36, one 38 and one 40 degrees. It was really nice having a relaxing day, not having to rush around or travel on the bus. To finish our chilled free day we had all you can eat pizza at the bar attached to the hostel, which included a free drink, garlic bread and chips! They ran a bingo game after to win prizes, unbelievably I won a bar crawl in queenstown and harry won a two-for-one skydive in queenstown. All in all a successful time in Franz Josef. With another week in New Zealand finished our time here was flying by!!