Saturday 13th November - Rain Forest Retreat, Franz Josef

So we arrived in Wellington and spent 3 nights at Base. Wellington was okay, pretty good for going out drinking - although we didn't quite make it out to many bars as we all got too drunk on our first night there!

Our first day in Wellington was spent going to the Te Papa Museum. Can't say it's been the most exciting part of our trip, but we did enjoy some parts - like seeing a real ........

Our 2nd day we walked all round the city to see what was about and ended up going to the cinema to see Jackass 3D - was absolutely hilarious (Yes I know, we didn't plan on going to the other side of the world just to go to the cinema and see Jackass . . . . . lol) We didn't stop laughing throughout the whole movie!

After spending 4 days in Wellington we headed onto to Fern Lodge in Nelson where we spent 3 nights.

This is where we boarded the Interislander ferry which took us to the South island in about 3 hours - the island we are most excited about!!!

Was an early start to the day - getting on our bus at 7:15am to make the 8:30 ferry to Picton. They said we might see some dolphins on the way through Queen Charlotte Sound but of course others did and we didn't! L

Once we got off the ferry, we got back on the bus and started our route down the west coast of the South Island. Driving through Picton we saw some gorgeous scenery, and the weather was even nicer than the North Island - not what we were expecting. We drove past so many vineyards that went on for a good 20 - 30 minutes through the Marlbrough region which is apparently world famous for their Sauvignon Blanc wines - not that we would know as neither of us like wine!

After stopping for lunch in Havelock (Greenshell Mussel Capital of the World) - An interesting fact - Apparently Harrods in London only imports mussel's from here!! Ouu . . . maybe not that interesting lol! Shame neither of us like mussels so we could have tasted what all the fuss was about. . . Anyway... after stopping for lunch we then continued to make our way to Nelson, our next overnight stop for 3 nights.

Nelson is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park, which is absolutely massive. We hired a car on our 2nd day and shared the costs 4 ways and it worked out really cheap - £11 each. We were all worried that we'd end up with a crappy car that would break down half way down the road but we actually ended up getting an all right car - automatic, navy blue, Nissan Sunny!! Ha,ha!

Was so weird at first getting in a car and driving after it being quite awhile - we all had a go of course even our Canadian friend Jody whose never driven on the left hand side of the road before. Matt was our main driver though . . . . the roads up through the hills were so scary. We had to drive like 10mph going round some of the tight bends and we were really high up. We hired the car so we could drive over to Golden Bay which was about 2 hours away, and go for a few walks through the National Park. We stayed overnight in a backpackers lodge that we drove past on the way and then we set off early in the morning to make it back to Fern Lodge for our last night in Nelson.

Just down the road from our accommodation - Fern Lodge, is the walkway for the centre point of New Zealand. It was a gorgeous hot day so we went for yet another walk up this massive hill that seemed to never end. Each time we turn a bend and thought we were at the top - we would have to go up another and another and another bend and it just seemed like it never ended!!!! Was really funny though - the more we laughed about how unfit we were walking up this massive hill, the harder we were making it for ourselves!! (you can just hear Matt now - "oh for f*** sake!!!!" ha,ha,ha) Once we reached the top, it was defiantly worth it - we got an awesome view of the city and we got our pictures standing on the exact centre point of NZ!

Every day so far in the south island has been really hot, we burn so quickly!! (Dont worry parents - were putting sun screen on) We were told about the burning time here is really short because of the hole in the ozone layer above us, but we weren't really expecting it to be this hot! The other day it got up to nearly 30 degrees!!

Activity wise - we havn't really done any since our skydive. Were trying real hard to budget our money and everything we want to do is the bigger expensive things so were skipping the smaller activities like quad biking, jet boating etc... Next up is the glacier walk tomorrow which is an 8 hour walk through the Franz Josef Glaciers which is going to be so amazing! Neither of us have even seen glaciers before let alone walked on them - so were pretty excited about tomorrow.

Kinda skipping ahead here with talking about the glacier walk, so just before I forget - after Nelson we stayed a night in Westport where me and Matt managed to get an upgrade yet again to a double for the price of a shared dorm!!! Were doing pretty good so far with the free upgrades - haha!! This was only because they had no 6 births left (cheaper price) so they let us have a double bed next to our friends shared dorm - and as were the only couple on our bus - me and Matt obviously got first dibs!! Whoop!!

There wasent much to do here, it seemed like it was just an overnight stop before we left to go to Lake Mahinapua (Maa-he-naa-poo-a), so we all gathered in the garden and had a few drinks out in the sun!

The following morning we made our way to Lake Mahinapua where we were staying for one night.

Along the way we saw some gorgeous scenery of the snow capped Southern Alps - we took plenty of pictures but our camera just doesn't show it like how we really see it. It looks like their much further away in the pictures L.

Our first stop was Cape Foulwind and Taranga Bay where we went for a walk to view the seal colonies - this was our first time we saw seals so we were pretty excited! J

After this walk we hopped back on the bus and made our way to go and see the Pancake Rocks and blowholes.We didn't get to see any blowholes in action though because the tide wasn't high enough - was still pretty cool to walk up through the pancake rocks and view smaller blow holes in action.

Next up we made a stop in a local town called Greymouth to pick up some fancy dress items to go for the costume party and BBQ we were having at the hostel we were staying at that night. Theme of the night - anything beginning with the letter "P".

Before dinner, Matt was very excited to hear that they had a FOOTBALL!!!!! First time since weve been away that he got to play with a football.So the boys went down on the beach and had a kick about and the girls made a start with the wine in the garden. (Not me though, Ive taken a liking to the cider here so I had that instead he,he)

You'll see our pictures from that night - Matt and our other friend Matt bought some $1 boxer pants from a charity shop and a police man's hat and went as PC Poofters!! Ha,ha! I just went as a pirate - easy!! Lol!

That night was great fun - although the accommodation was the worst we've stayed in so far! Dirty, smelly and just horrible!!!! It was in the middle of nowhere with not even a local shop nearby.(At least it was for only 1 night and we were drunk by the time we made it to bed so it was easy to forget what state the place was in).

That night our friend got really drunk and realised the next morning that her purse had gone missing/stolen!) We searched everywhere and couldn't find it. She had $500 NZ cash and all her cards etc in there so it was really horrible. It could have only been someone from off our bus as we were the only bus load of people staying at the accommodation that night and we were out in the middle of nowhere. Making our way onto the next stop, the owners called to say it had been found behind another cabin in a bush. She managed to get the purse back eventually but the money had been taken. Was horrible that we were all friends on that bus, yet someone could do that. We still don't have any clues as to what happened or who it was but at least she got all her cards back and her purse.

Oh and before I forget - the winner of the fancy dress that night was a Panda! He did put quite a lot of effort in I guess.

Weve arrived in Franz Josef today at a really nice place called Rainforest Retreat which even had a massive hot tub outside with views of the snowed capped mountains in the backround. Were both soooo excited to climb Franz Josef Glacier tomorrow even though its going to be a tough day being out there for 8 hours!!!