It was set to be a long afternoon on the bus with Wellington being a 5 hour drive. Aftering leaving River Valley at 1.30pm we drove for a couple of hours to a little town called Bulls, where everything has a name ending in Bulls, like the police station is called Consta-a-bull! Really quite funny when driving through looking at all the signs, Information Centre = Inform-a-bull, Flower Shop = Bloom-a-bull!lol! Anyway, after a giggle and a quick food stop here we pressed on to Wellington. We finally arrived in Wellington about 7pm, the latest we have arrived anywhere. After checking in and stocking up at the supermarket we made the most of our backpackers discount at Domino's. It was sad to know that on arrival we only had 12hours in Wellington, the captial of NZ, but at the same time we took comfort from being told that there really is nothing there to do anyway, and most of the bus were moving on together in the morning.

The following morning and we all had to be on the bus and ready to leave for 7am in order for us to make the ferry across to South Island in time. It was both a funny and a sad morning for our group that were travelling together. Funny side was all thanks to Damo, who being renowned for being punctual was missed when not there at 7am so i went to look for him in the hostel that he was staying at, reception gave me his room number, where i found him fast asleep after having got in at 5am and missing his wake-up call. So after much cursing and shouting he jumped out of bed and asked me to tell Lauren to give him two minutes!lol! Sad moments came when it was time to say goodbye to Freya who had already done south island and so was just making her way back up to Auckland in order to fly to L.A. After having travelled with her for a little while i personally had got quite close to her and was gutted to be saying bye.

Anyways, onwards to south island, the ferry left at 8.15am and took 3 hours to get to Picton. The ferry journey was spent sleeping and eating mainly!lol! On arrival in Picton, we had to collect our luggage and go out to our new bus which was to be pretty much like home for at least the next week. It was straight onto Nelson where we were to be staying for one night. We were told in advance that there really is not much to do in Nelson, but it is home to the centre point of NZ, which is conveniently situated right at the top of a hill! After checking in to our hostel Fern Lodge, which was more like a hotel than a hostel, we wandered in to town and then made the walk up the hill to the centre point needle. The views were amazing and it was just before sundown which made it all the more beautiful. That night more or less the whole of our bus had a film night in the lounge of the hostel and had early nights, we were all tired and also to be fair there was not a lot else to do!

Next day was the start of a massive trip down the West Coast, due to there being so many people wanting to book onto the bus, Kiwi Experience had put on an overload, which meant that for our journey from here down to Queenstown, there were two bus loads, with 90 people in total all travelling together, with Lauren and Spud as the driver. Our little group of 13 managed to all get on Lauren's bus again, and it was awesome to be able to stay with her. We all set off at 8.30am for Westport. First stop on this leg of the journey was Lake Nelson, where the famous Kiwi Experience photo's were taken. A few people braved it and jumped off the jetty into the freezing cold lakes in aid of a picture, but most just watched and laughed as they came out shivering. Some brilliant action shots were taken by all and then we all had our lunch by the lake. After an hour chilling out here, we set off on the rest of our journey. A couple of hours in we stopped at a cafe for 20mins, where we were informed that the road ahead that we needed to go on had been blocked by a landslide! Lauren and Spud were unsure of what we were going to do and so we stayed at the cafe an hour longer. We then pressed on to a tiny little village where we ended up waiting an hour and half with only one shop there, until finally news came through that the roadhad been reopened. This was incredibly lucky as otherwise we would have had to go the long way around which would have taken an extra 5hours!!!!!

We finally arrived in Westport at about 5pm and it was just like stepping back in time in this town, although being a goldmining town, apparently some quite wealthy people live there! We were to spend the night in a little hostel called Bazils. It was a really lovely cosy little hostel with a log fire in the living room and a kitchen just like you'd have at home. I loved it already and then we were shown to our room where, Katie, myself, Nicole, Kate, Sophie and James we the lucky one's that were to be staying in a self-contained little unit with little kitchen, ensuite, double bed downstairs and then two bunksbeds upstairs. It was really lovely and everyone else in the hostel was extremely jealous. That evening a load of the bus watched Lord of the Rings in the living room, but it was very crowded and so Nicole, Kate and myself stayed in our room and watched 'Dukes of Hazzard' on our television instead. An early night was had by all in preparation for a big night the following night and a 9.30am departure.