Oh dear, so it's now the 22nd of July and I have had to put a hold on my travels to catch up with blogging...you get completely swept away with this travelling malarkey. It's incredible, you are constantly having fun, meeting new people, exploring places...always on the move, always something new, every minute of every day and I absolutely LOVE IT! So anyway, here I am, I have just said goodbye to my fellow travel buddies, James Bond (sorry Brown) and Mat Tramper. But let's go back to Abel Tasmin & Nelson Lakes National Park adventures!

I am in loving the scenery here, it's just beautiful. I look out of the hostel window and can see endless mountains, some of which have been beautifully decorated with a sprinkle of icing sugar, sorry getting carried away there, being stupid - I do really just mean snow. The Abel Tasmin walk itself was a lovely coastal walk but I would say that once you have walked for an hour along the track you have pretty much seen all there is to see (apart from the seals at Separation point & walking along the beaches beyond Awaroa). It is very similar to the Gold Coast in Oz, so it is stunning, especially in the sunshine but I think the true Abel Tasmin experience here involves a bit of walking, kayaking to different bays, chilling on the beach, maybe having BBQ's, and enjoying the open huts in the middle of the summer. It would have been nice to experience this, but also I have heard that the National Park is heaving in the summer so in a way we were quite lucky to have this place pretty much all to ourselves, bumping into a total of 4 people throughout the park. Heaven!

Good times; so Josh picks me up from my hostel and we drive to Nelson Lakes National Park. It's a lovely sunny day so we go straight to the i centre to plan a good trek. We decide to climb the mountain to get to Bushline Hut which was a "3 hour walk" up the mountain to a hut that sits right on the top. As it was half past 2, we thought this was the best walk so we would arrive just in time for sunset. We were not guaranteed wood in the hut, but we decided to go for it and deal with the wood issue, because the views were meant to be stunning, and much more impressive than just simply walking around the lake on the flat. Ok so I almost died hiking up the mountain, it was a constant uphill walk for a solid 2 hours (yes somehow we managed to climb it in 2 hours, but I was pretty much running after Josh, Mr. Machine! I eventually told him to go on ahead, he was storming through it.) The views up the mountain were so impressive. We were in the middle of the mountains, it felt like we were all alone, and it was at this moment I remembered picturing myself hiking in New Zealand and this is exactly what I imagined. A perfect setting. And it just got better. In all honest I was about to collapse by the time I reached the hut, it was a hard slog, and we ended up having to search for wood too, but half an hour into our wood collecting, we saw the most magical sunset ever. It was like we were in a movie, with a load of photo-shopped scenery...I couldn't believe my eyes, and I couldn't stop staring at the mountains with snowy peaks which went through a series of unbelievable colours from pink, to red, to orange...the sky kept changing and I couldn't look away. We just stood there staring into the distance with the biggest smile on our faces we were just so lucky to have been in such a perfect location to watch this. That evening, all we talked about was the sunset...as well as the smoke that completely filled the hut trying to start the fire. The chimney must have been blocked or something because the smoke really bad, so much that we were actually worried we wouldn't wake up the next morning because we would have inhaled too much of it. It hurt our eyes and made everything stink the next day, but we decided we would rather be warm and smoky than cold all night. The fire place was so small that we had to set our alarm every hour to add more wood, but our system seemed to work quite well and we took it in turns to reload the fire and put more wet wood on the top - now that's what I call team work! We didn't wake until 8am, so packed up our smoky gear and headed off back down the mountain...a more relaxing stroll today as our legs were killing us from the previous day. We ended up driving to Murchinson village which was a spooky quiet village (apartently in the summer it is packed with tourists it's really hard to imagine some of these quiet places full of people! I quite like being here at this time of year so it doesn't feel like a real touristy area...and the locals don't treat you like one either, it's nice.) So we checked into the only hostel that was there, called the Laughing Cow. It was just me and Josh, get in! We basically had our own house for the night, it was a really cosy hostel with a big log fire in the middle. I did some washing, enjoyed a nice shower, made some pumpkin risotto and relaxed on the sofa all night, it was lovely. And then I got to experience my first bed with an electric blanket...oh gosh, I fell in love. Getting into a warm bed was the best thing ever, I may well have to invest in one when I return. I can see why Megzy got so excited getting into bed each night now J. Yep Megzy, it reminded me of you for sure!

10am on Saturday 13th July I hopped back on the stray bus. The Stray group were awesome, full of energy, all really good fun, really welcoming...it was great! We stopped at a couple of places on the way to Punakaiki for some photos and supermarket shop before taking a look at the famous pancake rocks - so basically it's a load of rocks that over many years have compressed together and now look like a load of pancakes piled on top of each other. I guess that's the best way to explain it! We stayed in a lodge close by. That night our Stray bus driver suggested we organise a "Come Dine With Me" evening. So 29 of us had to split ourselves up into 3 teams, decide what we were going to make, buy the ingredients within budget (we all put in $8 each), and cook for 27 people! I was so impressed; the evening was a total success - each team cooked enough food for everyone, within budget, on time, and it was really good food too! So the starter group cooked onion and tomato soup with garlic bread to start; we then had spaghetti bolognaise and more garlic bread for main and finished with apple and rhubarb tarte type thing. Guess which group I was in? Hehe J So dessert wouldn't have been appreciated without some tasty whipped cream now would it! So that's what we did...it may have taken 5 individuals to stand there trying to each whisk a bowl of cream for an hour, but hey it was SO worth it, and rather funny at the time too! We had to plan activities for the evening too, so we had memory games, a bit of sherades, and a few other party games with a few drinks too! It was a very sophisticated evening and so much fun with a lovely group of people J

Sunday we drove south to Franz Joseph. It was a pretty chilled day on the road, just looking out at the views which never fail to impress me. We all checked into Rainforest Retreat and had a chilled afternoon chatting and drinking in the bar with a bit of bingo too - oh and I won a prize...a trip on the Luge in Queenstown so I look forward to that whatever it is! The main prize was 2 for 1 sky dive in Queenstown and some douchbag from one of the noisy buses won that, but I was very happy to get my Luge prize. Hehe.

On Monday half the Stray guys went on the glacier. It was a perfect sunny day for them they were all really happy. I went for a walk around the glacier with Becky, 2 Scottish girls and one Irish girl (can you believe there are 8 Irish on this bus!) We walked to a lake and sat and had lunch and then I ended up jogging up a hill for a bit more exercise before sunset. I went to the i Centre for some advice about the Copland trek and then spent the evening chatting, chilling and drinking with the Stray guys in one of their dorm rooms. It was cool just hanging out. Considering I had only spend 2 nights with them, I was sad to leave them the next day as I decided to stay in Franz. It's amazing how well you get to know people being around them for just over 24 hours. And you also find the people who you click with pretty easily too, so I'm sure Becky and I will stay in contact, she was a cool girl and we discovered we were maybe a little too similar to each other! Scary! The other guys will be a laugh and if we are ever in the same area, I will definitely meet up with them. They added me to their facebook group too which was awesome J

Tuesday I decided to be brave and take on the Copland Track! This was my own little challenge to myself as I had to take everything myself (no more Josh looking after me), find my way there, and make it to the hut before dark. I informed the hostel and the i centre to make sure someone knew I was going and to look for me if I didn't return the next day. Then I stood out the front to catch a lift to the start of the Copland Trek which was an hour South of Franz. There was a lady who just walked out of the church opposite the i centre and she kindly let me jump in the car! Her 2 kids were in the car too so it was nice chatting to some real Kiwis! I didn't get to start the walk until about midday, and the track was said to be a 6-8 hour walk, so I was a little concerned I was going to be walking in the dark...so crazy Kelly decided to jog a bit! I was also really excited, I think the adrenaline helped me jog the first part. I managed to cover 6k in 1 hr 15 minutes...and managed to complete the track in 4 and a half hours. The hike was SO MUCH FUN J It wasn't easy climbing over rocks, over fallen trees, through little streams, across some wobbly bridges....but it was a great challenge and I felt so free. I actually felt like I was Fredo from Lord of the Rings at one point it was such an adventure. I passed 4 lads who were on their way back from the hut and also bumped into a Dutch guy who was tramping alone too. We exchanged numbers as we were both heading south and obviously both into tramping...and he is now called Mat the Tramper J I made it to the top before dark YIIPEEE Exhausted! But it was so worth it! There was a volunteer living by the hut making sure the place was clean and I guess just being there to help. He showed me where the natural hot pools were and so we ended up chilling in them until dark. Two other guys from Belgium turned up so I spent the evening with them trying to light the coal fire (why coal, we failed and ended up being cold all night!) and watching a film on my tablet. I joined the lads the following day, and I'm so glad because it was drizzling all day and I was quite tired from the previous day especially with no sleep that night - they really helped me and set a good pace. We only took 4 hours to get back down the mountain which I think is pretty damn impressive! We literally stopped for 10 minutes to share my pasta dish and that was it. We were soaked through by the time we finished the walk, but lucky for me they had a car AND they decided to drive back to Franz Joseph so I was in luck with a free lift back to the lodge where I had left all my stuff. Somehow everything seems to flow since I've been travelling, everything fits together perfectly. I was in with more luck as I then bump into James Brown at reception. Cool guy, travelling alone in his own van. We got chatting, had a cuppa tea after I checked back in and then asked if I wanted a lift to Haas the next day. Yea why not! I had no plans and knew I wanted to move on from Franz so hey why not. The guys in my dorm were cool too, and I found out that 2 of them where on the same travel route as me. They had done SEA, Oz and were flying to S.America at the end of July for 4 months. So I spent the night in my dorm chatting to them and in the bar chatting with James and 2 Kiwi guys. Very sociable evening (not quite what I had in mind - I was planning an early night, catching up on my blog but hey, let's just go with it - don't miss out on opportunities J)