Hi everyone, really cool time in nz, here's how it went from the last night in franz Joseph:

Left the bar I had been stealing the wifi off and headed back to the hostel. Made it back just in time to miss the start of the 'rock, paper, scissors' competition (they have some odd games at backpacker bars!) top prize was a luge at queenstown worth about $150 though, so it wasn't just a joke. There was also 2 $50 bar tabs for 2nd and 3rd.

Watched that for a bit, then ended up just chatting to everyone for the rest of the night before heading to bed. Up very early the next day (6:30am!!) to shower and pack for the bus at 7:30.

Got on fine and slept for 45 mins before our 1st stop of the day, which was at a lake out in the national park. The reason why we had got up so early was to get some good photos of the lake while it was still flat, and also so we could get to Wanaka at a reasonable hour.

About 10 of us set out on the hour long walk around the lake. We had parked on the side of the lake nearest the mountains, and the best photos were from the other side of the lake. Very weird seeing snowy mountains while walking through rainforest.

Got some spectacular 'postcard worthy' photos of mt cook (nz's highest mountain) reflected in the lake. Then walked the rest of the way round the lake and stopped off at the cafe near the car park for breakfast.

Had a yummy breakfast bun then hopped onto the bus. A few toilet stops, but mainly just drove straight through to lunch. Another cafe where I had a nice pot of chips and a vanilla milkshake.

Bit of a side story at this point. At around the age of 15, my school held a 'jobs convention' as a bit of a thought stirrer as our gcse choices were coming up. Remember going round and spending more time in the gap year stalls than any of the job stalls. Here I 1st got the idea of taking a year out. As you may know my original idea was doing a skiing instructor course for 8 weeks in nz. This turned out to be very expensive and so switched over to the idea of travelling.

Still when planning my gap year I made sure I included the town of queenstown in my tour - where I would have lived for 8 weeks had I done the skiing. Very excited to head over there, im planning to stay 4 nights.

Also on the skiing instructor website there were lots of adverts for skydiving. Especially of skydiving over lake Wanaka (google for photos - amazing) so when the clipboard came down the bus to sign up to skydive over lake Wanaka I was straight in there!

Had taken a bit of a gamble, there has been lots of skydiving opportunities over the course of the tour, and the usual idea was to sign up on a day when the weather was good. Was putting a lot of hope on the day we were in Wanaka - especially as we were only there for one night.

The monk bracelet came through for me and it was 'the best day since the summer' according to the receptionist at the skydiving centre. Actually warm, and not a single cloud in the entire sky as far as you could see.

So back to the story - signed up and then kept driving. Eventually hopped off the bus about 10 mins outside of Wanaka at the skydiving centre. Honestly wasn't nervous at this point. Got into the centre and watched a few safety videos, still wasn't nervous even seeing video of people diving out of planes.

Then paid and went to the loo before suiting up in my sexy red jumpsuit and having my harness put on. There was 4 of us in total, and 2 of the girls wanted to jump together, so opted to go in the 2nd plane.

Waited a while in the hangar, then saw them fly over head and jump out, then eventually land. Still not nervous.

The plane landed and we got in, shuffled to the back and waited. Then the door closed and we took off, amazing views over lake Wanaka and the surrounding area as we flew up, slowly watching the instructors altimeter rise to 12,000. Still not nervous.

Then the door opened and the other girl I was in the plane with shuffled forwards and sat on the edge with her instructor, got into the ready position we had been taught, then fell forwards.

Watched her disappear out the plane and hurtle downwards as I started shuffling forwards and sat on the edge looking down 12,000 feet. Now I was nervous!

Head back, legs under the plane, hands on my harness, can hear the instructor yelling over the wind - "1, 2, 3!" rocking with each number. Then we fell forwards out of the plane.

Completely indescribable feeling, the closest I can think of is like being on a playground swing rushing downwards. As we fell we flipped upside down and I saw the plane fly off just above us, then rolled back over into the 'freefall' position we had been taught.

So crazy going at 200kph, with the air rushing by you, and incredible views of all the landscape. Few little tricks - spun round a few times and did a few flips during freefall. After what seemed like 10 seconds, but was actually 45 seconds of freefall - we opened the chute and leveled out.

At which point the instructor says - "how was that?". Couldn't even talk it was that incredible, but finally managed to convey my astonishment to him. He also said "well, welcome to my office - do you like the view?" which I thought was rather funny.

Then on the way down he let me steer the parachute, and I did a few gentle turns before he egged me on to see how fast we could do a 360, then how fast we could do a 720, then a 360 left followed by a 360 to the right. You get the idea.

Pulling down on both toggles essentially acts as a 'brake' and stops you momentarily, so had some fun braking, then going into tight turns. After 5 mins or so (you drift down really slowly) he took over for the final decent. Slowly turned over the hangar before swooping down to land on the huge field next to it. Here I lifted both legs up as high as I could, and we swung in and landed like a slide.

Back on the ground I was absolutely buzzing, and had to sit down for a while before I could get out of the jumpsuit because I was shaking too much!

Then got presented with the DVD of photos and video, before leaving. Had been talking to the instructor for a bit too - he told me the jump we had just did was his 7593rd, and his 3rd that day. He had been a skydiving instructor for over 15 years.

Left and got to base in Wanaka. Had a bit of a funny turn and had to sit down for half an hour in bed because I was feeling sick. Wasn't sure if it was the milkshake or jumping out of a plane or both.

Eventually perked up and walked down to the shops to pick up stuff for tea. Got a really good here - 1kg of precooked sausage for $7. Didn't realise it was such a good deal til I got to queenstown and they were trying to charge $11 for 450g! Should have bought more.

Went back and cooked up tomato pasta with sausage (an almost normal meal) then headed down to the bar. Supposedly there was going to be a pool tournament to enter, but no one turned up! Thought I may have had a chance after playing so much in Thailand.

Ended up playing against my bus driver, and then had a few games against the bar staff (also bored out of their minds!) got completely beaten by the bar staff, who to be fair play pretty much every night!

Ended up getting bored and going up to watch a film in the tv room before going to bed for 12ish. Up early the next day and even had time to make breakfast and lunch (actually the same thing - sausage sandwich)

Quick drive up the road to our 1st stop, puzzle world just outside of Wanaka. Had a very funny time here - they had 4 illusion rooms and a giant maze. Messed about in the illusion rooms before heading out to try and do the maze. The minimum length you have to walk to complete it is 1.5km. We took about an hour to do this so must have walked way further!

Out and back onto the bus for a pretty straightforward drive to Queenstown. Stopped off for lunch, then drove through more amazing scenery (we were right in the heart of NZ's biggest ski fields.) going past 'the remarkables' which were featured as the misty mountains in the lord of the ring films. Most of the scenery around Queenstown was in lord of the rings.

Stopped just outside Queenstown at the AJ Hackett bungy centre. Here some people hopped off to do a bungy, while the rest of us had a look around the museum, and then stood to watch on the viewing platform.

Eventually headed into town, where we all separated into the different hostels - I was staying at base where I had the free 10 night pass for.

Came in and met my other roommates - 2 very funny Canadian twins, then was joined later on by 3 guys from NZ. You know it's a good place to party when even the kiwis make a day trip out to here!

Really good fun night out, lots of dancing and partying before crashing back into bed at some crazy hour. Got up the next day and staggered up to the shops for more food, and cooked and ate breakfast before the hangover properly set in.

Got up eventually at 1 and made lunch before getting a few things done - sending off paperwork for the Canadian job, booking my bus out of Queenstown, uploading a few of my skydiving photos and generally catching up. Did a massive clothes wash and dry before going on a bit of an explore of Queenstown.

Basically walked around all the shops for an hour before buying more beer and going home because I was too cold. The 3 NZ guys had left, and instead we had 5 new roomies from Christchurch university - all different nationalities. Another funny night out, managed to stay out even later, which probably isn't something to be proud of!

Woken up the next day by the cleaners coming in and hoovering (ouchhh!) and then got up and had a whole tin of beans and 4 slices of toast for breakfast. Then went back to sleep, woke up and showered before finding some nice warm (clean!) clothes and going for a walk.

Was going to try and walk for an hour or so, but was far to cold so ended up cutting it short, still got some cool views over the lake, and of the remarkables. But did forget my camera!

Back to the room to pick up some stuff before going and cooking Thai green curry! Ok admittedly it was out of a tin, and I used a can of tuna rather than chicken because it was cheaper. But still one of the nicest meals I've cooked myself, maybe it was horrible, but it was amazing compared to noodles or plain pasta!

Back to the room to meet up with everyone and go out. Had a night out just with my new roommates from Christchurch and we did a bar crawl where we got 1 free drink on entry to every club we went to. Then we also had a free drink at the bar in our hostel because we were residents, and we got another free drink there because we happened to be walking in at the right time when they were just randomly passing tokens out to the public.

Then, the barman used the wrong glass when I ordered my 2nd and 3rd free beer, and gave me a pint each time as opposed to the halves he was meant to.

Anytime we actually bought drinks we just had to show our wristbands and we would get a discount or 241. So didn't really spend any money the whole night, now is a good time to be wanting to party in Queenstown as they're gearing up for the busy winter season, but there's still not that many people - hence all the free drink enticements!

Back to bed eventually, having spent the most I've ever spent on a night out - $25! (about £13)

Despite mixing beer and shots all night I woke up without a hangover whatsoever. Woke up briefly to say bye to people leaving back for christchurch, then fell back to sleep.

Back up properly and spent the day in a sports bar just up the road watching an ice hockey match with the twins, who's home team - the Vancouver Canucks were playing. Very good match, and a funny way to spend an afternoon. Think I now know who I support for ice hockey anyway.

Decided to treat myself massively as I hadn't had breakfast or lunch yet and it was 3pm - walked down to the world famous "fergburger" and got one of their delicious burgers. Went for the "tropical swine" which was all the normal fergburger - massive bun, lettuce, burger, ketchup, mayo, tomato, onions etc. But also had crispy bacon, beetroot and pineapple in it (I love the Australian/Kiwi style now!)

Literally the best burger I've ever tasted in my whole life, and think it would be impossible to top. Easily 10 times better than the UK equivalent - gourmet burger kitchen. Actually glad I dripped it all down my hoody because now it smells of delicious burger.

Think you get that I was pretty amazed with this burger.

Back to my room for a nap, then went out for a bit of an explore and found some free wifi! Hence the new blog.

For now,

Josh xx