Yesterday I voluntarily paid 140NZ$ to walk across ice in the driving rain, in sub-zero temperatures, wearing ill-fitting hired boots that were wet when I put them on and waterproof clothing that may as well have been made out of denim. Yesterday I watched as one of my friends fell down a crevasse and semi-dislocated her shoulder, before walking down the very slope she fell off and offering to carry her rucksack on my front as well as my own on my back. Yesterday I came ten minutes away from being evacuated off Franz Josef glacier in a helicopter along with about fifty other people, as the rivers at the foot of the glacier rose rapidly above thigh level and up to our waists, forcing our guides to create a human wall in the water and pull us across individually. I have never been as cold and wet as I was yesterday; I couldn't feel my toes when I tried to move them and when I touched the ice it felt warm to my fingers. And I have literally never enjoyed anything more… It was AMAZING!

White water rafting: OUT. Glacier guiding: IN.

It's been a fun packed few days as Kirsty and I have continued to blow cannon ball sized holes in our budget and crammed as much as we can into our whistle-stop tour of the south island. A few days ago I went horse riding in Westport with Jenny, one of our little travelling "family" of seven girls (I should maybe explain that Kirsty and I have met five other girls who we've become really close to over the past couple of weeks, to the point where people who meet us think we've known each other for years, and we've become a bit of a family!), which was so much fun. I rode an ex-racehorse called Leroy who did his very best to ditch me in a field after galloping flat out across the countryside towards a fallen tree, convincing me that he was going to jump it and then swerving round it at the last second. Our guide congratulated me for managing to stay on, but after clinging on by my knees (stirrups long gone!) and with my fingers tangled in his mane as he continued to gallop round the top end of the field, I was beginning to think I'd have been better off on my bum on the ground! It was a fantastic ride though, and actually really good value for money as we got to go through forests right down to the lake and canter along the sand, before heading back to the stables via the straight they use for galloping and finally swimming on horseback up the river which was the perfect end for us and the horses as it was such a scorching hot day! As with pretty much everything adventurous I've done so far, I want to go back and do it all again and again and again…

There's more adventure to come though as we all head to Queenstown tomorrow to spend our last four days and nights together as a group of seven in the adventure capital of the south. We've all signed up to do the Nevis bungy jump, a 134m drop from a highwire that begins with an eight and a half second freefall and ends with you bouncing up and down until you're still enough to be hauled back up. Our glacier guide told us yesterday that apparently the freefall feels so long that halfway down you have to take a breath to be able to continue screaming… Once again, I am paying to do this, and I'm not sure why! Give me a couple of days though and I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a couple of reasons J

Since I last updated this blog we've also been kayaking, as we went on a full day trip out into the Abel Tasman National Park (near Nelson) which was fantastic as we got a perfect sunny day to do it. Kirsty and I were in a double kayak (or does that make it a canoe?!) which was lots of fun, and in the afternoon our guide got all of us to raft up next to each other (there were four boats in total) and he got the front two corner people to hold the corners of a sheet which was also tied to the ends of the back two corner people's paddles which they held up in the air, creating a makeshift sail! We coasted along while our guide paddled alongside making it look like we weren't going very fast at all telling us local Maori legends and listening to our travelling stories.

Aside from the physical activities and adrenaline rush seeking, we've also managed to squeeze in a fair bit of partying (surprise, surprise!). In Westport (where I did the horse riding) we did a three-legged pub crawl around the local town which was very funny and a good way of getting to know some of the other people on the bus as everyone had to draw a name out of a hat to have as their three-legged partner. My partner Pete and I proved that it is possible to play and win a game of pool while attached at the leg! Then the following night we had a fancy dress party in Lake Mahinapua with a green theme in honour of St. Patrick's Day, which culminated in the seven of us girls dressing up as bunches of grapes… We each bought green tights (from a school shop - mine were age 11-14!) and green t-shirts which we then haphazardly sewed green balloons onto until we were completely covered! Needless to say it wasn't long until people started trying to pop us and we eventually turned on each other, chasing one another round the bar until the bar lady started to get a bit annoyed with our shrieking… The night ended with us all heading down to the beach where the guys had built a huge fire and our driver guide and a couple of other locals did a rather drunken version of the Hakka for us! We did look fantastic in our outfits, even if I do say so myself, and we won the best-dressed prize (voted for by everyone on the bus the following morning) of a canyon swing which unfortunately we've been told we can't do with all seven of us tied together… I think we're going to try and sell it as it's worth 180 dollars! The seven of us all go our separate ways when we leave Queenstown as Kirsty and I head to the very southern tip of New Zealand and the others carry on back up to Christchurch, but we're hoping to meet up again and re-unite the vineyard in Sydney for Kirsty's birthday. Fingers crossed!