I am coming to the end of my South Island trip - and it has been awesome! My first place I stayed was in Nelson; which has been my favourite city in New Zealand. Unfortunately I lost all my photos from Nelson; luckily it was only 3 days worth as I downloaded all the rest of my north island trip the previous day. Nelson is a fantastic place; it's the sunniest place in NZ, it has a hill which is the centre of NZ & it has Founders village; which brew some brilliant beers. While here I agreed to go on a bike ride with Becks & Hannah (twins from Wiltshire). By accident mind, we went on a 50km bike ride in one day - I have never been so exhausted!! From the info centre in Nelson we got told to go to Rabbit Island telling us its only 30 minutes to get there (realised half way there they meant by car not bicycle). We stopped quite a few times on the way, now I swear Kiwis have no sense of distance - each time we stopped they said it was only 3kms down the road, this happened at least 4 times!! The first lady we asked must have been out by at least 12kms!! When we got to Rabbit Island we could only spend 20 minutes there as we had to get back before dark. I felt most sorry for this small Japanese girl that got invited to come with us; could speak not much English & was struggling; she must have thought we were mental!!

My next stop was in Abel Tasman National park where we went walking for the day. We were taking it easy & visiting all the bays that came across on the way. We targeted Anchorage bay to get to which we did, but time was getting on & we would never make it back to lodge before dark. Luckily an 'aquataxi' (a speedboat that drops off to bays) appeared on the beach; we got him down to a certain price - it certainly beats walking! I was just relieved that we got the aquataxi as none of us was carrying torches so that would of been fun going through the woods. Got some annoying bites from sand-flies on the walk that itched for days!!The next day we were travelling down the West coast which is an amazing scenic drive. On the way we stopped off at Punakaiki where they have blowholes & pancake rocks; looks exactly as title (which geologists are not 100% certain how they were formed).

We stopped in Franz Josef for a couple of nights. I went on a full day's hike of the glacier; it is one of the best experiences I have had on my travels so far. If you come to New Zealand this is something that you cannot miss out on; it's not strenuous & you're walking on moving ice (ok its very slow) with some stunning views. You walk through these huge crevasses, ice caves & irises, it was a lush day! I stopped off at some other places overnight with Stray but the rain caused difficulty in exploring Wanaka & Mokarora.

Got to Queenstown which is basically an 'adventurous playground', you could literally think of any activity and you could do it at this place - skiing, bungy-jumping, skydive, jet-boating, Frisbee-golf, luge, drunkenness & so much more! So what was my highlight when I was in Queenstown I hear you ask? It was a farm excursion to a remote range where you go by a steamboat (max 17 knots- whoh there!) Activities included feeding sheep & deer, petting the dog, having afternoon tea in the most picturesque farm spot ever, watching one man & his dog and a sheep getting sheared. What an amazing day & thanks to Suzanne for sharing it with me. While there went to Arrowtown; the high street is like a Western town but it's so quaint, just beautiful!

I then done the Southlands part with Stray; I decided to stay in Invercargill instead of Stewart Island for a night. Less I say about the place the better. Next day we went to Waipapa point & saw a couple of sea lions that were massive. We stopped at a place called Gunn's camp named after Davie Gunn (a double hard bloke). It was in the middle of nowhere but had something similar to a Raeburn where I toasted marshmallows; lush. Then, onwards to Milford Sound; it was a grey day but it was still stunning views, did not see any dolphins or penguins but the waterfalls made up for it.

I made my way to Christchurch to meet a girl named Alice. We met previously on our travels (on the Western side & in Queenstown). We agreed to hire a car together as we both wanted to go to Dunedin. Basically she copycats everything about me; born & bred in similar area, done a similar course at the same University, signatures are nearly identical, both born on the 20th, our first two initials are AL etc. Anyway we hired a car that we named Deirdre, an automatic car which neither of us has ever driven, stupidly we both done the same thing at the start when driving & used both feet, duh!! It was a great road-trip & had laughs on the way. While in Dunedin went to the Cadburys chocolate factory mmmm... and then the famous Dunedin railway station (second most photographed thing in Southern hemisphere apparently). We also walked up the steepest residential street in the world - god knows why you would want to live on it. Also we drove along Portobello road to Otago Peninsula, and it was an amazing drive by the sea - weather was just perfect! Stopping off at a castle on the way, but when we got to peninsula I wanted to see Albatrosses (one of my sole reasons for coming) but the weather was too nice - damn it!!

We decided on going back to Queenstown; I actually done something adventurous & gone luging which is like being in a go-kart & using gravity to go down this insane route. Tried a bit of Frisbee golf but we all got bored as we were all rubbish at it. Had some great nights in Queenstown it's just so tempting going on a night out to party. Went back to Christchurch to further explore the city (museum, art gallery, city centre) & also took a day trip to Akarora where it was one of the first settlements in NZ but it was a French settlement. Again a lovely little town surrounded by some fantastic volcanic views. I am currently in Picton for a couple of days before going up to the North Island. Take care guys!!