Right-o, I am now just giving a quickly up-date on the days I have spent down here on the south Island, I have simply done so much that I can't really bring all the details up. First, I arrived in Nelson and decided that with my cold and so on, I might be better off giving myself a bit of a rest, so I went to the pharmacy, got some medicine and went to bed. And there I was lying for 2 full days, feeling sorry for myself, because no-one were there to care for me at all; I had to drag myself down to the kitchen every time I desired a cup of tea etc. And it was amazingly boring… Nothing to do, nothing to see. No offence, but that made me quite nuts, and since it did not help me to get any better really, I just spontaneously decided that "right, now I am well", and carried on with life. I booked a trip out to the Abel Tasman National Park for the following day, and I went a bit around in Nelson city as well. I visited a church with very impressive window-paintings and a huge plain cross behind the altar (I never understood why they always need to hang up a dead Jesus-figure as well in the churches).

Next morning early the bus dropped us off outside Abel Tasman, and we went on a boat up the coastline. As we cruised along, I decided to take the second drop off, meaning a rather longer walk distance to get back (25km). The weather was good and I was keen to see all the beauty of this park. So I started walking the track from Bark Bay back to the bus stop, where the bus would pick us up again several hours later. And it was a great experience with beautiful scenery; the bays, the Turkish-blue waters, the rainforest-tracks, the rivers with the waterfalls, and best of all - the silence. It was as if only nature was breathing, no other life, and it had a very peaceful effect on me. It was as if I was the only one existing amongst the trees and the birds and the running water beside me, while I climbed up and down following the track. And the views were absolutely stunning, the rivers so clear and…yes, again, one should have been there to know what I mean. After several hours of pure blissfulness, I discovered I was running out of time before the bus went back to Nelson, and I ended up sort of jogging the last 5 km. I managed the bus along with 4 other people (the rest were to slow and had to…hitch-hike back?). It had been a great day entirely, and I was pretty finished.

Not to mention next morning - I woke up early and could hardly move; my legs were so sore. All my muscles, well they were there, I could certainly feel every single one of them. Lesson learned - never lay in bed for days and then all of a sudden decide to tramp for at least 25km, it is going to be painful! And so it was indeed. I managed to get myself down to the bus stop and we drove onto the West-coastal parts of the south Island, where I will spend the next few days travelling down. It is by the way a very nice way of travelling - I meet the same people over and over again, and I have quite a few travel mates at the moment;) It is fun to be able to greet half of the passengers every morning!

We spent a lovely day on the bus, the weather was perfect and we made several stops down the coast to do small walks and see some of the scenery.

First stop was the seal colony, where the famous fur seals where laying on the rocks right next to the coast, so that people with a decent zoom on their camera could take some pretty good photos (did not include me).

Next stop was the Truman track, a rather short walk through some rainforest parts down to the coast, where some rocks and waterfalls where hiding in a pristine bay, very beautiful, with tiny small stones as ground, Here I met Willamein, the girl I did the camping with in the Australian Outback, it was quite weird, but very funny to catch up;)

Last stop before heading to Greymouth was at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks where we could walk around the track and look at all the rock-formations, placed on top of each other exactly like pancakes (wonder where they got the name from, but…)

We arrived in Greymouth at 5pm and went straight onto the brewery tour of Montheiths Brewery, a tour we all had booked. It was sooo boring. Tiny place, but nice beer and we all got half a glass of each beer afterwards, to taste the different flavours and stuff (some of them were rather disgusting, like ginger beer etc). After the tour we drove to the local hostel, where we got a BBQ. I met there a very nice Irish guy, whom I immediately took advantage of;) He has a car and no plans - come on, I couldn't just let that pass without anything, so forced him sort of to drive with me to the Fiordland beyond Queenstown next week, and he happily agreed;) After a few beers we went back to the hostel, and I took a bath. Yes, you heard right, a real proper bath, and it was absolutely awesome!!! I slept as well really nice and was right on for Franz Josef the next day. We arrived pretty early there so that we could get straight onto the glacier, but the weather was horrible, so I booked myself onto a full day hike-tour up on the glacier for the next morning. That evening I went out for a few beers as well with a german girl from my room, and in general enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in the small glacier town. Next morning I went to the glacier with all ice-climbing equipment along, beginning my journey exploring this huge "ice-flake". It was hard work, and on the bottom the ice was very dirty, but the further up we climbed, the prettier it got, and I had an amazing experience climbing up and down the slopes. The guide was really cool, and I enjoyed it a lot. As we came back again in the evening, I found out that my whole face was seriously burned from the sun reflection on the ice, and I had developed some sort of small blisters all over my face. And yes, it hurt damn much!! Stupid me not to think about sunscreen, but hey, since I survived Australia's 40 degrees without sunburns, the ice-reflections did not seem so scary…

Anyway, as I went down to the supermarket, the guide from the trip sort of followed me and invited me home for dinner. Flattered and probably a bit surprised, I agreed, and he picked me up later from the hostel. We spent a very nice time together before he dropped me off again, the first real kiwi-person I have had close up except for Margaret, so it was kind of cool;)

Quite tired next morning I got onto the bus, and we drove past the most fascinating scenery southbound to Wanaka. We passed huge lakes surrounded by giant snowy mountains, crystal clear rivers and rough country-land. It is very scenic the whole drive, I can sit for hours just starring out the window on the landscape passing by my eyes. One thing that really annoys me is that I can't just stop for 5 minutes wherever I find it beautiful, or when I would like to see something. Would sometimes wish to have that freedom, but well, I can only afford to dream about own cars down here. We stopped at the famous Mirror Lake, it was as well beautiful. After I checked into the hostel, I found out that I again sleep in room with this german girl, and we went in her car down to the lakefront of Wanaka and had a coffee in a café with 5 other german guys that she sort of knows, and we had heaps fun. We cooked together as well and spent the evening in the hostel, talking over a few beers, all 7 of us, and it was definitely nice company!

The next morning we spent together as well, and we went to an eccentric park called "Puzzling World", a place with a lot of weird things and challenges, like a huge labyrinth, a tilting room etc. It was great fun, but I had to catch the bus onwards to Queenstown in the afternoon, so we went for a coffee again before I left. Nice bunch of people!

Back on the bus we drove to Queenstown's oldest bungy site, the Kawarau Bridge. Here we watched a movie about the history of bungy-jumping, and some of the group went for a jump. Here I met up with the Irish guy, Marcus, as well, and we drove on, out of Queenstown and on to the Fiordland, passing even more amazing nature. This island is just so beautiful. Marcus has just the coolest little old car, and we could hardly get over the hills, but it was a lot of fun;)

It took the dear little blue car some hours to reach Te Anau, our overnight stop. We found a hostel at the seaside and went shopping for dinner. Well, Marcus obviously had planned other activities for us, and it destroyed quite a lot the mood for both of us that I did not agree. Next morning the weather was horrible, raining and grey so no point to go for a hike around in the Fiordland. We just headed back to Queenstown, and I was very annoyed. Guys are f***ing always like this, why can't they just stay in their pants??…

In anyway, he drove like stupid as well and I am surprised that I still live actually- had to reach over for the steering wheel quite a few times. I sort of lost patience with him and asked him to just drop me off in city centre to get rid of him. From there I dragged my stuff to the closest hostel, breathed out and well, there is not much to do in pouring rain. I went along the tiny main street once, and bought the best ice cream I ever had in my life (felt a bit better afterwards, even though it was rather expensive). Queenstown is a very nice little city, very touristy but situated perfect at a huge lake with mountains around.

There were some girls in my room, where one had birthday, so they celebrated and I got invited on cake and nice food, and it was really delicious and fun;)

Next morning I dragged all my stuff back into the city-centre to get on the bus, and afterwards we drove all the way back to that same hostel to pick the others up, waste of my time.. It was still pouring down and it just seems like everything stops as well then. Everything down here, activities, outdoor-stuff, it is all dependent on the weather, and there is honestly not much to do inside down here - I mean, there are actually hardly any houses at all;) Amazing how beautiful and empty the country is, feels somehow exactly as remote as the Australian outback. But wow, the scenery - it is just stunning. The Southern Alps running right through the middle, the snowy peaks, the glaciers down the side, the huge turquoise lakes, the clear rivers, green hills with sheep (over 60 million down here, crazy or?) and barren bush land with little vegetation, forests (especially pine) and coastal scenery with rocks and long beaches, I mean, this couldn't be better, or?? I reckon I really love this place - just a bit disappointed by the weather lately!!!

Anyway, we crossed the country today, leaving Queenstown and going to the east coast, but since it was raining as we arrived in Dunedin, nobody had any interest in doing anything. I made a little walk in the city and well: it is the Scottish inspired city of NZ, a student city and rather nice, grabbed a cup of hot chocolate (regretted afterwards, is was sooo overprized, but I just needed something to warm me up. Feels like I started to get used to the temperatures back home already:(…).

Anyway, talked the afternoon away with one of the guys I met already back in Wanaka, and at 6pm I went to the Anglican Church for a choir-concert. I walked in there expecting something like gospel, or at least something beautiful, but hurried out again 45 min later after a complete waste of time - The choir consisted of very old people who had very limited sense of tune, and some young freak who were leading it had chosen the worst songs ever for them to sing, which of course did not go to their favour. Horrible, I am afraid to admit;) Cute somehow, but since the church was huge and freezing cold to sit in (we were only 8 people - all old- as audience), I really needed some proper entertainment, and found this tiny old cinema, where they shower only weird movies that never made it for the big screens, and yep, decided to go there. I watched Irina Palm, a short-story made incredibly long about a woman's fight for her grandson. There were 8 seats all in all and I was sitting there with another old couple - great!! So as you can hear I spent my day on the most thrilling activities ever, and as I went to bed at 11pm and the rain was still tapping on the roof, I really thought "why??", but no-one seemed to care;)

This morning was better though, and the sunshine lasted throughout the day;) We left the hostel early, and our first stop was the worlds steepest street, situated in Dunedin. The bus parked at the bottom, and we had time to run up and take some photos. It was crazy how steep it was, and I have even been to San Francisco (they have the 2. steepest over there). Hard work to get up there, and even harder to try not to run down. Maybe I should just have rolled down?;)

Next stop on the list was quite further up the coast, the Moeraki Boulders, which was a really interesting phenomenon; Stone balls on the seashore as if just being flushed up with the water. Completely round, beautifully shaped rocks just laying there on the beach, and not just one, several of them. Look at the pictures; it was mysterious (and yes, there are no explanations existing to this day)!

I had a tea and a hot Panini there, it was very good! After that we drove along the worlds largest dam, and yes, in general we passed through so much beautiful landscape; it has to be seen, can not be described!!

We stopped as well at a supermarket, a salmon-farm where we could feed them and they jumped around "showing off" trying to get the pieces of food, and finally, but not least - viewpoint to Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ (only 27th amongst the worlds highest). Snowy white and majestetically rising up on the other side of a beautiful coloured lake, it was just the perfect setting. From there we drove the last bit to Lake Tekapo, the overnight stop, and had a little walk-around the city (tiny)! The hostel is situated right at the seaside, and I just checked in quickly and went straight out in the good weather again. I walked along the lake a long while, decided then to climb MT John, to get a nicer all around view. It was amazing. I was the only one on the track, just the wind, the sun, the beautiful view and some sheep and rabbits jumping around me. It was awesome!! It took me around 3 hours to get back, I cooked (uhmm delicious - yes dad, that gene I have from you;)

It is fun to be out on these tracks and see families, trying to motivate their children to go the last bit. It always reminds me of when dad took us out on walks along the river back home. He used to keep small liquorice grey sweets for us, called it fuel and gave us one every now and then. It worked every time! I always feel like passing on the idea to the frustrated parents, but well, guess every parent find their own way;)

Anyway, that was it for now;)