So, our journey continued into the South Island. Once off the ferry it was back on the coach for the drive to Nelson. We were staying at Tahunanui Beach (you've got to love these crazy place names - almost as good as Penny Come Quick Mr Baker!). It was already quite late by the time we arrived, so it was Dominoes Pizza for dinner then some chill out time with the group. We were all up early the next day for various activities, most of which were cancelled due to the awful weather. Sooz and I decided to take the opportunity to get some boring washing done, then set out for the long, cold, windy walk into town. It was actually quite nice, as you follow the coast near enough the whole way and we saw a really pretty bird (later discovered, with the help of Kev, that it was a Paradise Shelduck). Once in Nelson we realised there wa very little to do, so after walking around the same streets for as long as we could bear (and buying me a new hat!) we decided to kill some time in the local (teeny) cinema. The new Fame was our film of choice, personally I loved it, but I was always going to (although it's not as good as the original). I'm not pretending it was groundbreaking cinema or anything, but it was the best of use of our afternoon considering the other options available! In the evening we all headed round the corner to a restaurant called Smugglers, for Anja's birthday. Definitely the best meal of the trip so far!!! The evening culminated in drinking games and pin the tail on the donkey...

The next day we were supposed to be going to Kaikoura for those of the group who don't hate sea creatures were going to swim with dolphins...unfortunately the bad weather meant this was cancelled too, so we were taken to Kaikoura winery instead for some free wine tasting...very nice, but perhaps not the best way to spend the afternoon when most of the group were feeling the effects of the night before! We also stopped off at Ohau Point to check out some NZ fur seals; very cute, but to be honest it was just like being back in San Fran but on a much smaller scale!

That afternoon we arrived in Christchurch. It's quite a cute town, very English in appearance. We were staying over the road from the Cathedral which was beautiful from the outside. Soozie, Zaneta and I went for a quick walk around the town before dinner, during which we stumbled across many streets named for English towns, and a cute river with weeping willows and flowers all around. Very quaint. In the evening we all went to an Italian restaurant called Valentinos, after which most people went for drinks but Sooz and I (in an attempt to save some money after all these nice meals!) caught up on emails etc. We spent the next morning in Christchurch, wandering the streets and yet another Botanical Garden, then checking out the market at the Arts Centre. I bought a few christmas presents so won't go into the details. After an hour delay due to timing issues we were all back on the bus (with our 15 new arrivals! - no more spreading out!) and heading to Springfield for lunch and a few photos with the giant Simpsons Donut. Unfortunately our stop coincided with that of a stag party who thought it might be fun to moon us from the other side of the street, delightful. The next photo opp was the setting for the Narnia film (which I haven't actually seen, but it was beautiful all the same), with the Southern Alps on the other side. Quite funny, as some of the Aussie's had never seen snow before and were incredibly excited about it.

Home that night was the Flock Hill sheep station, where we had an up close encounter with a large number of sheep! It was actually quite interesting, they showed us the two dogs at work (so clever, they are incredibly well trained!) and even had a couple of the group having a go at catching a sheep! A sheep shearer at the station would shear 300 sheep per day, imagine how disgusting that would be! Touching the wool for a few seconds was enough for me. The station provided us with Roast Lamb (surprise!) for dinner, then it was more chilling out in the bar. The AFL final was on, which distracted a lot of the group, and the rest of us got very frustrated at a 'game' involving using a spoon as a camera...don't ask!

Day 8 arrived, nearly the end of our trip :(. We travelled through Arthur's Pass to Hokitika and the jade factory, and after a few quick purchases hopped back on the bus to travel to our next home, Fox Glacier. We spent the afternoon on a 4 hour hike, first walking along to the terminal face, climbing up 700 steps through the bush and then finally reaching the ice! It was a lot of effort to get up there, but so worth it. Crampons attached to our hideous borrowed boots and special sticks (do they have a name!?) in tow we set foot on the ice, and had about an hour wandering around with our guide. She showed us a stick that was poking up maybe a metre out of the ice. They were using it to measure the rate of ablation, and scarily the top of the stick had been level with the ice only a month before. It's incredible how much the glacier has changed over the years; I was looking at a photo from maybe 20 years previously and it was completely different. The walk back down to the ground was far less scary than I'd been imagining on the way up, although the guide seemed to be doing her best to freak me out, by insisting that we hold on tightly to the chain provided in the dodgy sections and leave a metre between us and the next person! In the evening we had another free meal at our hotel (including awesome chocolate mousse!) and then spent the evening in the bar, with some rather questionable locals and an annoying fire alarm/raining outside experience.

Day 9 was the long drive to Queenstown, but luckily we stopped for photos and walks quite frequently. First up was Knight's Point, which is a beautiful section of coastline with rocks jutting out of the sea. Next it was Haast and the Gates of, and a stop at Thunder Creek Falls, where we discovered that if you stare through the flowing water and then look at the trees next to it, it appears as though the trees are moving. Very weird! At the Blue Pools we took a short walk over a wobbly bridge and back for a few more beautiful photos, then journeyed to Lakes Wanaka and Hawea. So stunning. I can't do them justice with description or photos, sadly.

Just before arriving at our next hotel we had the chance to watch Hannah and Ricky (two brave people in our group!) jump off a bridge at the world's first bungy site. I've never watched someone bungy before, very cool but there is NO WAY you would get me doing that! Once in Queenstown we all met up for another amazing meal (wish we could eat like this the whole time!) at Lone Star.

The next day Sooz was off doing activities, so I checked us out of the room (this was our last official connections day :-( ) and headed up to the gondola with some of the girls. The views were just amazing, Queenstown is so incredibly beautiful. We then had a ride on the luge, which was hilarious. Unsurprisingly I had issues with steering and ended up crashing into the side; I got a little muddy and had to get out to put myself back on track. Oops! Our efforts were rewarded by fabulous scones and tea though :-)

We went for a walk around the town to check out Lake Wakatipu, with view of The Remarkables (mountains!). I can't get over how amazing this place is, all visitors to NZ should check it out, it's just so pretty. In the afternoon I had the best hot chocolate and wandered round the shops, before meeting up with Sooz for dinner at Base, our new hostel. We met up with the connections guys for an awesome last night out, involving the Minus 5 Ice bar, an $800 bar tab and two for one drinks! A really good night, but made us sad to be leaving everyone the next day!

Somehow we dragged ourselves out of bed to wave everyone off, then spent the day doing washing, updating the net and checking out the town a bit more. Glad we did, because we discovered the beautiful Queenstown Gardens. That night we had dinner at the legendary Ferg Burger (pretty good but massive and the chips were way too salty!). We braved the disgusting people in our dorm to get a relatively early night as we were flying out the next day. Unfortunately we had to fly via Auckland, which meant 10 hours in Auckland airport! Not the most fun day of my life...but they do have free internet in the domestic terminal so it wasn't so bad!

Until Australia... (so glad I'm nearly up to date with this thing!)