So…as I left off last time we were enjoying our last night out as a big group in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We had to be up super early the next day to catch the ferry to the South Island, only 6 of us from our original coach were continuing on to the South Island, the rest were staying in Wellington for a few days. It felt strange getting on a coach with 30 strangers again after having bonded so well with people on our original coach, but we donned our sombreros and introduced ourselves to our new coach buddies.

We boarded the Interislander Ferry to cross over the Cook Strait to the South Island; I was looking forward to exploring the South Island as many people had said they preferred it to the North Island. I had had such a wonderful time on the North Island that it was going to be tricky to top it! The ferry took us through the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, giving us glimpses of what was to come.

Once the ferry had arrived in Picton we made the short journey to the seaside town of Kaiteriteri. There wasn't much to do in this small town but there was a lovely beach, so obviously we headed there and I managed to convince my friend Colm that he wanted to come for a swim with me in the sea! The rest of the Super Six then enjoyed throwing a ball in to the sea for me and Colm to fetch as if we were dogs - we had a great time being dragged around by the strong current in the quiet shallow bay. We then entertained ourselves on a zip wire in the local park for a few hours before retiring to the bar for many rounds of the card game UNO while we made friends with some Danish guys (who had totally different UNO rules to us!).

Kaiteriteri sits on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park - we didn't have much time to explore this area, but I hope to return one day as there are lots of amazing walks around the park and lots of kayaking adventures to be had on the surrounding coastline. Our one morning in Kaiteriteri was pretty rainy and overcast, so much of the morning was spent hiding out in a café overlooking the sea and eating the hugest blueberry muffin I have ever seen! Yum! This was also the morning that we introduced our friend Joey to the wonder that is Rocky Road - needless to say that eating Rocky Road changed his life!

Anyway…so that afternoon we made the journey to our next destination -Westport. There is pretty much nothing to do in Westport…it is an old gold mining village, but the journey through the countryside to Westport was a beautiful one. We spent the evening playing in the local park, where the boys found it hilarious to bounce me miles off the seesaw! We then climbed some trees before heading to the supermarket to invest in mini Monopoly. We cooked up a storm in the hostel kitchen that evening as it was Jeppe's 21st birthday (one of our new friends who joined us in Wellington - from Denmark) - we made a delicious spag bol and spent the rest of the night playing an epic game of Monopoly.

Our next stop was Lake Mahinapua. We travelled down the West coast via the world famous 'Highway 6' taking in the amazing scenery as we wound our way along the rugged Tasman shoreline. We went for a walk to see the Cape Foulwind seal colony and admired some beautiful sea birds and lazy seals before moving on to see the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks - which don't look much like pancakes, but there were some interesting rock formations and blow holes. My inner Geography geek loved all the interesting geology that was on show.

We stopped on our way to Lake Mahinapua to invest in some fancy dress costumes for a party that evening at the wonderfully named 'Poo Pub'. It had been decided that the theme for the party was 'P' so we rushed around the town searching high and low for an imaginative idea and inventive costume - tempted by the promise of skydives and pub crawl vouchers as the prizes for best costumes! The 'Poo Pub' was a very surreal place - it was owned by a very eccentric old man who obviously took a lot of pride in his pub/hostel. We spent the afternoon playing on the beach before we changed in to our costumes for the evening party in the pub. I was dressed as popcorn and got a telling off for having real popcorn attached to me in popcorn boxes (apparently it causes a great mess on the floor of the pub! Luckily my lovely Danish friend Ben had burnt my popcorn so I wasn't too sorry to see it go in the bin). The boys were dressed as a princess, a pony (for the princess to ride on!), a pirate, a ponce, a puppy and Marloes (my friend from Holland) was dressed as a parrot! We had a very silly evening which ended with a night walk to Lake Mahinapua - our path lit only by the moon and beautiful glow worms (they are handy little things!). We lay next to the lake and stared up at the millions of stars and managed to catch glimpse of a few shooting stars. A magical end to a very bizarre evening!

I was really excited the next day as we were making our way to Franz Josef - a place I had been dreaming about visiting for years.

On the way to the town of Franz Josef we stopped off at The Bushman's Centre - one of the most surreal museums I have ever been to! It gave us an insight in to how people make a living on the coast, with helicopter deer recovery, old timber milling techniques and possum trapping. The museum was full of a huge mass of 'stuff' - tools, stuffed animals, real eels and possums - you'll have to see the photos to understand what I'm talking about!

Then it was on to Franz Josef to sign up for some exciting activities! Josh and I signed up for an afternoon of kayaking on the beautiful mirrored lake of Lake Mapourika. We kayaked across the lake to the temperate rainforest that surrounds one edge of the lake, there is a kiwi sanctuary but kiwis are very shy so we didn't manage to see any. The lake appears to mirror it's surrounding as it is a dark brown colour due to the tannin that enters the water from the soil of the rainforest (something like that…check Josh's blog for a proper explanation!http://imissedmybus.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/new-zealand-south-island/ ). We kayaked quietly through the rainforest; it was a really peaceful experience, with a chance to soak in the incredible scenery that surrounded us.

We returned to our lovely accommodation - The Rainforest Retreat - to make use of the massive hot tub with our friends, then enjoying all the bar had to offer before retiring to our lovely log cabin for a good night's sleep before our adventures of the next day!

We had signed up to hike on the Franz Josef Glacier - a trip I was stupidly excited about! The foot of the glacier had crumbled the year before so the only safe way to reach the glacier was by helicopter! I was going to get to fly in a helicopter! Yesssss!! We all woke up pretty nervous as the trips can be cancelled if the weather isn't quite right - obviously the helicopters can't fly in low visibility or stormy conditions. The weather was looking quite overcast and cloudy so we nervously made our way to the glacier centre before being told our trip would go ahead! YEY! We got all kitted up in waterproof trousers and jackets, woolly hats and gloves, big thick socks, sturdy boots and a sexy red bumbag with crampons in - yesss dream come true - I was going to get to wear crampons to hike on a glacier! I felt like a real adventurer as we ducked our heads to avoid the blades of the helicopter, as we climbed on-board and put on our headphones to listen to the chatter of the pilot. It was so exciting to be in a helicopter rising high above the ground and whizzing gracefully over a glacier! This is the stuff dreams are made of. It was so fantastic to see the glacier rising up before us like a majestical ice giant. I could see some tiny black dots on the ice that grew bigger and bigger as we got closer to landing on the glacier, then I realised they were people trekking on the ice - the glacier dwarfing them and making them look like ants. The glacier was impossibly huge. Most glaciers in the world are retreating due to the rise in global temperatures but Franz Josef Glacier is expanding at around 70cm a day! It is also one of only three glaciers in the world to lie at a low enough altitude to collide with rainforest.

We exited the helicopter - like you see people doing in films - ducking our heads as we made our way out on to the glacial floor- 700m up. We fixed on our crampons (I was first to put on my crampons - was I an ice explorer in a former life?!) and followed our tour guide as she hacked away at the ice with her pick axe (seriously want her job!), she created steps in the ice for us to climb. We explored the glacier for about 3 hours, climbing through tiny cracks and crevices, climbing up and down natural tunnels formed in the ice. It was utterly incredible - seriously one of the best days of my life. We took some crazy photos of us squeezing between ice sheets and climbing up ice walls; we made lots of inappropriate jokes about cracks and generally had a brilliant, unforgettable day. The helicopter flight back to Franz Josef town was equally as awesome as the first journey, watching the glacier get smaller and smaller as it began to disappear behind us. What a day.

We returned to the base and gave back all our adventurer kit before heading to the geothermal hot pools. What better way to finish an amazing day by hanging out in hot pools, soaking up the incredible events of the day (and practising some synchronised swimming!), while easing away our aches and pains. What an incredible few days in Franz Josef. I'll never forget it.

The next day we made our way to Wanaka. We stopped off at Lake Matheson to see beautiful mirror reflections of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps as we wandered around the lake. We then travelled on into the Mount Aspiring National Park, where we stopped for the night in the beautiful lake-side town of Wanaka. We spent the evening wandering round the town and playing on another children's playground (we seem to be doing a lot of that!). It was a gorgeous town and one I'd love to return to one day. We had a fun evening in the bar at the hostel undertaking a series of challenges against rival bus groups to win the coveted title of 'Best Bus', before returning to our room to have another few rounds of Monopoly Deal (I have managed to get the Super Six addicted to the game! Yess!! Some may pretend to hate it (Colm!) but they secretly love it!).

The next day we stopped off at Puzzling World on the outskirts of Wanaka, to try our hand at the hugely frustrating 1.5km maze - we gave up after spending about an hour going round in circles and wanting to see what else the place had to offer before we had to leave!

On the way in to Queenstown we stopped off at the AJ Hackett bungee centre to see the original bungee site - our friend Ben - The Great Dane - who is afraid of heights - decided to conquer his fear by doing a bungee! We felt so proud as we watched him hurl himself off a bridge towards the river below! What a hero! Some of the others then signed themselves up to do the world's highest canyon swing (Nevis Swing), and somehow I ended up putting my name down to do a tandem swing - having said I didn't really fancy doing anything like that - I think I got caught up on the excitement and didn't want to miss out on the adrenaline buzz (plus it makes a great story!). So me and Beth were heading out on a super long bridge to the centre of a canyon to be dropped off the side of a platform and swing 160m down below into the canyon! How ridiculous.

Before we knew it we were strapped together and being dangled backwards over the canyon - the man in charge then pressed the magic button and we were released to freefall down in to the canyon! It was a crazy feeling and you fall backwards and see your friends on the platform getting smaller and smaller as you plummet towards the depths of the canyon! Finally the rope took slack and we were left to swing across the canyon and admire the views! What a buzz! It was really fun and I think I would probably do it again! We got a copy of the video and photos of us doing the swing so I will try to upload those too! We luckily got to see the boys do their swing, with Josh standing upright and Joey hanging upside down between his legs - one of the funniest things I have ever seen! Good work boys!

We finally arrived in to Queenstown in the late afternoon and checked in to the lovely Nomads hostel. We spent the next few days exploring the gorgeous town - which is easily my favourite town I have been to so far - I would love to live there (if it wasn't so far from home!). It has a lovely relaxed feel to it and is situated next to a beautiful lake and surrounded by a breath taking range of mountains, aptly named The Remarkables! It is perfect for ski-ing during the winter months and walking, mountain biking, luging and swimming during the summer months. It has a name for its self as a party town so we had to go and see what all the fuss was about. We spent a few great nights exploring the night life of the town and had a wonderful night on a pub crawl - all wearing our sombreros of course! We had fun lazing in the park and wandering round art markets, drinking hot chocolate next to the lake, taking the gondola to the top of the mountain to watch sunset, skimming stones on the lake and devouring a good few famous Fergburgers! YUMMMM! Seriously HUGE, delicious burgers that we had been told about all over New Zealand. They really did live up to their name - amazingly filling (they were about the size of my face!) but obviously I managed to finish my burger and a side of chips. Scrummy!

Marloes and I left the boys for a few days in Queenstown while we went off to explore the deep South of the island. We took the aptly named 'Bottom Bus' to Dunedin, where we climbed the steepest street in the world. The next day we visited Curio Bay where we saw lots of beautiful wildlife. We saw seals, sea lions, lots of sea birds, Hector dolphins and very rare penguins (yellow headed penguins) - there are only 18 that live on the beach that we visited, so we were lucky to see them. It was great to get up close to a penguin and see it in its natural habitat. It was exciting walking past sea lions too - although I don't think he liked us being on his beach as he gave us a scary bark to warn us to keep away! We stayed in Invercargill that night before we made our way to Milford Sound the next day. We had a boat trip through the majestical scenery of Milford Sound - admiring the towering cliffs and waterfalls, spying on seals and sea birds.

It was a great 3 day trip but we were happy to head back to see the boys for our last night in Queenstown. We enjoyed another magnificent Fergburger and then went to the 00.07 showing of the new James Bond film on the release night in Queenstown.

The next day we boarded the coach for a mammoth drive to Christchurch. Christchurch is still recovering from the many earthquakes that have hit the city in the last few years, the rebuild is on-going, and a lot of the hostels and hotels have been destroyed. We probably left booking our hostel a bit late (as there aren't many hostels left) so we ended up staying in New Brighton Beach, which is quite a way from the city. We very happily bumped in to Ben - The Great Dane- who had travelled on a few days earlier to Christchurch, it was great to see him again. We stayed in one of the weirdest rooms of the whole trip - we had a shower and toilet in our room - with no wall separating them, just a flimsy wicker screen that gave you no privacy at all, in a room for the 6 of us! Excellent!

We didn't get to see much of Christchurch as the next day we made our way up to the seaside town of Kaikoura. 'Kai' means to eat and 'Koura' means crayfish - which sounds yummy but was really expensive so we made a Mexican feast instead! By this time the 'Super Six' had dwindled to the 'Fab Four' - we left Colm in Queenstown and Ben in Christchurch. We stayed in Kaikoura for 2 nights. Joey and I went whale watching - which was a fantastic experience. We saw a huge sperm whale twice (they surface for about 5 minutes then dive back down to the bottom of the sea for another 30 to 40 minutes before they surface for air again) - it was so cool to see such a huge beautiful creature up close. While we were waiting for the whale to surface again we went off in the boat in search of dolphins. Before we knew it we were surrounded by dolphins jumping and splashing around the boast, swimming along next to us. We were told there were probably about 200 dolphins! It was incredible! They are such graceful, beautiful animals. We also saw an albatross - a bird I have always wanted to see! All in all it was an unforgettable day - I was buzzing with excitement about what we had just seen. We returned to the hostel and enjoyed fish and chips for lunch before I had to head back to Christchurch on the coach to catch my flight to Australia the next day. I was so sad to be ending my Kiwi Experience and to be saying goodbye to my lovely friends. I had the most amazing month on the Kiwi bus and made some wonderful friends, I really didn't want it to end. I was batting away tears as the coach drove away, remembering all the unforgettable experiences and laughs we had shared. It was amazing and I hope to stay friends with my coach buddies for many years to come - where's the 1st reunion?! Amsterdam? Denmark? Dublin? Nottingham? Or the Cotswolds?!

After leaving Kaikoura, I headed back to Christchurch, it felt surreal to be on my own after a month travelling surrounded by friends, I was feeling very sorry for myself as I checked in to my hostel and made noodles for dinner, sitting on my own watching Family Guy in the hostel lounge. I missed the laughter and teasing of my friends - the hustle and bustle, the excitement of not knowing where we were heading next. I was sad that that chapter of my adventure was over, but I was looking forward to flying to Sydney the next day to meet up with Ed and Phil.

The next morning I went off on my own to explore Christchurch before I caught my flight in the afternoon. I wandered the desolate streets and past closed off streets as buildings were being torn down. I found my way to the Container Mall - a shopping area made from ship containers - such a great idea, the area was buzzing and felt really alive, with music and lots of people milling around the shops. I can tell that Christchurch is slowly starting to rebuild and I am sure one day it will return to its former glory. It was sad to see the city so destroyed but I can see the hope for its future.

After a morning of wandering I made my way to the airport and waited for my flight to Sydney. It was with an extremely heavy heart that I had to say goodbye to New Zealand - I wasn't ready to leave and I could easily have stayed for another few months - but alas my time there was over and it was easily one of the best months of my life. I fulfilled a lot of my dreams in New Zealand and had some amazing adventures, met some excellent people and fell in love with the country. A piece of my heart is left in New Zealand and one day I'll go back to find it.

(See Josh's blog for a few photos or if you're on facebook then you can see most of my New Zealand photos there - I will try to upload some to here when I have more time...)