Hello all! At last I have found some time to write my next postcard! So without further ado….. On 25th of November, the guys and I (minus Dutchy) left Taupo and drove to Tawhai Falls, a rather beautiful nature reserve. After that we drove to Whakapapa and did a three hour walk around the base of Mount Ngauruhoe, otherwise known as Mount Doom! I got some cool photos of the mountain too. Nearby there were also snowy mountain ranges. We arrived at the River Valley Adventure Lodge late afternoon. This hostel is situated within a deep valley and is surrounded by beautiful scenery. That night we just chilled out and Pat, Kate, Jennie and I booked the spa pool for the night, which was great! That night, Jennie and I talked for hours and ended up getting together, awesome because I have liked her since we met! The next day we again chilled out at the lodge and enjoyed the scenery. Later in the day we departed for Wellington. Wellington is a nicer city than Auckland in my opinion as it isn’t quite as tall as Auckland and seems a little more like home. In the evening we went out to a Welsh pub and Welshy said it was like being in a pub back where he lives, which I guess is a good thing and he may return here for Christmas. Later that night we all went to drink in the Base Backpackers Basement bar and then we retired around half one in the morning!The next morning Jen and I got up late and we met with the guys. We walked to the Wellington Botanical Gardens. The gardens were wonderful but we didn’t really take enough time to walk through them properly, which was a shame!In the afternoon we all went to Te Papa, the Wellington Museum. This museum had a tremendous amount of local history to offer and many other interesting bits and pieces to look at. As is typical with all museums, you cannot take everything in, so we ended up just looking around and admiring the exhibits. In the evening Jen and I went to the cinema and watched Borat in America, a very funny film. Midday the next day we took the ferry to Picton, South Island. The trip is notorious for it’s roughness but we enjoyed a good crossing, which took three hours. We arrived in Picton and got on a new Kiwi bus and headed for Nelson. On the way we stopped for a wine tasting experience in a nice little vineyard that sold only their own produce. It was brief but pleasant. That night we stayed in Nelson at a quaint little hostel called ‘Accents on the Park’, a place that was nice and quiet and had an ‘ole English feel to it. The next day we travelled to a nice lake for a walk. Unfortunately the weather was against us so we continued on to go horse riding. This was an interesting experience and I was glad to have tried it. After that we journeyed on to Westport, a town that has given me new inspiration for my upcoming resident evil war game! The town really does look and feel like a place out of the 50’s, and it has some cool war memorials! That night we stayed in a haunted guesthouse and I enjoyed getting out of the dorms and into a double room, which was a refreshing change! The next day we drove to Cape Foulwind, aptly named by Capt. Cook when he sailed through the cape and his ship was blown in all directions!! The walk was great but very very windy!That night we stayed at a unique stop over named the ‘Lake Mahinapua Hotel’. There we were greeted by Les the owner and apparently a former All Blacks legend! He is now ancient but has a keen sense of humour and cooks a killer meal! There the whole bus had a home cooked meal consisting of steak, veil, spuds and pasta bake… lovely! Later that night we held a huge fancy dress party, the theme being the letter ‘P’. I went as a Playboy Bunny and came 2nd place in the best costume competition. Jennie and Kate went as Pink Panthers, Pat went as a puppeteer, Welshy went as a punk, and Chris went as a plant! Great fun was had by all! The next day we all felt a little hung over and we got back on the bus and headed to our next location… Franz Josef. Franz Josef was stunning! You stand in either of the town’s two main streets and look around you to see rocky mountains and beautiful green trees, and then you look higher and see the glare of the snow clad peaks that command the whole area! Amazing!The next day the gang and I spent the day trekking the Franz Josef Glacier! It was mind blowing! The trek started with a hike through green rain forest that grows within the valley that leads to the glacier. Next we climbed over the baron terrain that lies between the rain forest and the glacier. Again this was an awesome sight and rivers flow from the glacier and surrounding hills and through the forests. Then after half an hours trekking you are confronted by the glacier itself! From the beginning of the valley it doesn’t look as large as you would expect, but by the time you reach it, it is an imposing shelf of ice that seems to hint of eons long gone and of long lost secrets within!So for two three hours we climbed the treacherous terrain of the glacier and I got some excellent photos. At this point I should point out that after three hours walking, we were still only maybe a few hundred feet across the glacier! Apparently it is a full three days to trek to the summit of the glacier!!!So we stopped for lunch on the lake fields of the glacier, a meagre five minute lunch consisting of oatmeal bars and chocolate! Then we continued up the glacier for a further hour, after which we stopped for some great photographs. This was as far as we could go with our time limit so we had to turn back and make our way back down the glacier, which was no easy feat I can tell you!We arrived back at the Franz Josef Adventure Centre in the early evening and Pat and I went out to the ‘Blue Ice’ tavern and had pizza and beer whilst watching some cricket on the bar screen! After that we went for some drinks at the hostel bar and played some pool, before retiring for the night. The next day we left Franz Josef and headed for Wanaka. On the way we made several stops for sightseeing, such as Lake Matherson to get a view of the reflections of Mount Cook in the water, again we were beaten by the foul weather so we saw no such reflections! We also stopped at some impressive waterfalls, an awesome bridge, and stopped to look at Lake Wanaka. Later in the day we arrived in Wanaka, possibly the most beautiful place I have visited in New Zealand! It is a pleasant town that looks onto the lake, which in turn is surrounded by snow clad mountains… truly breathe taking! Got some photos but they don’t do the views justice! There Jen and I got the coolest double room I have seen in a hostel we have been in! Actually it was pretty much a hotel and our room looked out over the lake and we had a patio to ourselves and our own bathroom, which any person whom has travelled will tell you are an awesome prospect! We got some take out food and sat and watched a film, and then we met everyone in the nearby pub for more drinks and pool. A good night that saw me lose more pool then I won! The next day we travelled on to Queenstown. On the way we stopped at ‘Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World’. This place has a maze that takes up to three hours to finish and I did it in twenty five minutes! Everything in this place has been made to trick the mind and to drive even the hardiest man insane! It was GREAT MUHAHA! Again I got some interesting photos!The next stop on our travels was Kawarau Bridge, the home of Bungy! Here AJ Hackett and Henry van Asch opened the worlds first commercial Bungy jumping site in 1988, and it was here that on December 4th 2006 that I did something that I said I would never do, and jumped off the bridge 43 meters into the river below! BUNGY! It was awesome! Completely different feeling to skydiving. You really do feel like you’re soaring through the air. That night I sank more than a few beers!The next day my excitement didn’t end, for after my Bungy jump the day before I had signed up for the Nevis Highwire Bungy! 134 meters above a gorge and the platform suspended in a cable car, this jump is the world’s second largest commercial Bungy site! And so I and Kate headed out to the Nevis Highwire and it didn’t disappoint! To get to the jump platform itself you have to take a cable car and when you arrive on the jump station it has a glass floor that gives you an awesome view of the high from which you are about to jump from! The jump was awesome and I got a DVD of my jump, which rocks! As Kate was the lightest person she jumped last which meant that we were the first onto the jump station and the last ones off! COOL!Once back in Queenstown we joined everyone off out Kiwi tour at the pub for our end of tour party where we all got very drunk, sang karaoke and danced the night away! A good time was had by all! The next day we all chilled out and relaxed after a long while of constant travelling. Jennie and I went to the cinema in the evening to watch Jackass 2, a very funny sequel to the first and equally as funny before getting an early night.The next day was much like that last and we walked around Queenstown and chilled out. In the evening it was Pat’s 27th birthday party and we all went out to the Altitude bar and got totally drunk and I ended up carrying people back to the hostel, no names mentioned :o)The next day Jen and I got up about 4’oclock in the afternoon and went for a walk. That evening we met up with Mette, our Norwegian friend whom we left in Nelson, and with Pat and Kate, Jen and I went to the ‘Minus 5 Bar’. This bar is completely carved from ice and even the glasses you drink from are ice! We had to wear artic coats and gloves to enter and we could only stay inside for half an hour due to the constant temperature being around -10oc!Yesterday we all spent a while in the internet café catching up on transferring photographs to computer disks and emails. Later in the day we all caught the gondolas up the mountainside to… wait for it… the ‘Ledge Bungy’! Yup I did another Bungy jump, this time a 47 meter jump that is suspended 400 meters above Queenstown! It was good fun and I even managed to strap my Jersey flag to myself for it YAY! Looks good on the DVD and photos! That night we got pizza and sat in the hostel to watch a film, it was quite chilled out. Today we have again spent a lot of time in the internet café so that I now have my 1200 photos on disk so that I can hopefully upload them to the site soon! We have been to play crazy golf too, which I won after a great second half come back! Tonight we are off for dinner together as we all head off for Dunedin tomorrow morning and it marks the end of our fellowship :o( Tomorrow is the last day Jennie and I will be together and that really blows! But it has been a really good time and who knows, our paths may cross again, here’s hoping. And so I believe that we are now all up to date with my antics and goings on, so I shall bid you all farewell and until next time, tat a… Baity, aka Jersey, aka John xxx