We decided to do a bit of sightseeing on one of our luxury days off...so us four decided to head up the cable car to take in some views...unfortunately we got distracted by a kids playground at the top and spent most of the afternoon on the swings and slides...lol. We then tried to get in a bit of culture at the Te Papa Museum, but it was close to closing time by the time we got there, so we only managed to peruse a few exhibits...

The next day we caught Ferry, which took us to the South Island...where all the fun and excitment promised to us was. I'd like to tell u more about the ferry journey, but i slept the whole way through...!!! We ended up chilling at our hostel on our first night in Nelson, ready to head out to the Abel Tasman National Park...

We decided to take up the Coach/Cruise/Hike option...which was so good...we got a boat from Marahau to Torrent Bay...it was such a great day for it, the sun was glistening on the sea and it was pretty much postcard perfect...we passed a few landmarks such as Split Apple Rock and Honeymoon Bay, before we decended to Torrent Bay, where Kerry, Ed, Suzie and I hiked back to Marahau...was tried to entertain ourselves as much as possible, with our first hour taken up with 'Name 100 people from Oxford Brookes'...Alan and Vikki only just scrapped the low 50's...with Mbeko making a shock entry in at number 10...!!! (It's a given...!)...we then proceeded to play such classics as ABC of films/kids tv shows/boybands...hours of fun...!!! We passed some pretty amazing sights along the way, including one rock pool, where i nearly lost one of my bracelets by skimming stones onto the pool...i had to wade into the water to retrieve it, which led to me walking the next 3hrs with one squelching shoe...!

The following day we made our way down to Greymouth, though the Punikaki Pancake rocks and past a seal colony...which were both pretty cool in their own way...i purchaced a Jade necklace, which is meant to signify peace and means light reflecting through...but to be honest it couldve meant anything and i still wouldve bought it...however Greymouth kinda lived up to its name...it wasnt the most exhillerating of places and the hostel reminded us of a children's ward asylum...but we survived to make our way down to the Franz Joseph Glacier...

On our way there, we stopped off at Hokitiki to view a few Gemstones being made and then headed to Ross, which is meant to be worth $700million purely on the gold underneath the town...unfortunately all the gold in the world couldnt make this place seem worth living in...it was sooo boring...we finally made our way to the Frank Joseph Glacier around midday, where we signed up to do a 1/2day Glacier hike...

We were kitted up to the extreme with coats, gloves, hats and ice spikes for our boots...and headed out to the Glacier...as usual i managed to trip over myself after literally 3secs of putting on the spikes...but after that i was as sure footed as a mountain goat...was such a cool experience and it was a shame we didnt have time to do the full hike...the hike took 4hrs in total, but it went past sooo quickly...the guides had cut steps into the ice to make it more accessible, but it was still a mission to get up...we then had a chance to get into a cave which was u could only get through on your hands and knees...very claustrophobic...but was a cool activity nonetheless...We congratulated ourselves on a job well done with a pizza at the only bar in town and I got a chance to catch up with Sarah, who I met in Melbourne and saw at the Big Day Out