Today, after the dolphin swimming, it was off onto Nelson. It was quite a long drive, but we had a lot of stops along the way to break the journey up a bit. One of our stops was at a small cafe in the middle of nowhere, and a few miles along the road we found out that there had been a huge land slip, so we couldn't get to our hostel. We were told that it could take from half an hour to 7 hours to clear it! As we weren't going anywhere in a hurry I decided to get something to eat and as I was just walking out of the shop I thought I saw someone familiar, but wasn't sure as I didn't have my glasses on! I got a bit closer, just to make sure, and yes I did know her. I couldn't believe it, it was lovely Sara who I spent about a month and a half with on the Oz Experience bus!!! Niether of us realised that we were going to be in New Zealand at the same time, so we were so happy. Sara had met a girl called Jackie in the North Island and we all got on really well, so it was lovely just to sit and chat to pass the time.

After about an hour the driver was told that the slip wasn't going to be cleared for ages, so he decided to go all the way back from where we had just driven from and take us there a different way. It was a longer way though, so we were stuck on the bus for another 3 hours! We had a film put on for us, but it was the slowest film ever, so I don't think anyone was even watching it. When we finally arrived at our hostel it was more like a hotel, so we were very excited! We had a room all to ourselves, with our own bathroom, which was even more exciting, after having to share a bathroom for months with loads of other people.

There was a backpacker special for dinner and it was a roast and chocolate cake with ice cream for desert! My first roast in over 2 months, I can safely say that it was absolutely delicious!! After dinner we were all so tired from the long bus journey and decided to have an early night. However, the boys all got ready to go out and invited Sara and I along, and we found ourselves getting ready! We said to eachother that we would just have a couple of drinks with them, but this turned into a very big night and not getting in until 5am!! Sara, bless her, had to get up and go Kayaking for the whole day, but lucky me got to have a big, big lay in. Jackie and Sara got back at about half 6 and we went for dinner again in the restaurant and then watched a movie in the tv room. We all enjoyed a lovely chilled evening.

On our last day we went on a walk with Dan to the centre of New Zealand, but we weren't very lucky with the weather and the heavens soon opened. There wasn't much to do inside in Nelson, but we came across a museum and decided to take a look. It was the strangest museum I've ever been in. The first floor was mostly about the history of New Zealand and it was quite interesting, but the second floor is where we had the most fun!! It was all about teaching you about the human body! We were all like kids again, doing running tests, strength tests and going down the slide in the shape of a tongue! A very random, but funny day!

On our last night we decided to save money by cooking dinner and then watching another movie. The next morning we had to get up early for the bus, to take us to our next stop - Westport, so it felt really good to have an early night. Our first few days together were great, and I'm sure having the girls with me is going to make my trip around the south island great!!!