Thursday 18th July 8.30am I jumped in James' van (true Manchester adventure lad who is joining the army soon!) and off we went to Haas. It was a horrible rainy day so a good day for travelling, although the scenery was meant to be amazing through Haas, but never mind, there's not much one can do about that! We arrived in Haas - there is nothing there so stopped for lunch and moved swiftly on to Wanaka. As we went south the weather seemed to improve and we could see mountains all around us, tons of waterfalls on the side of the road, the lakes below us...the views were overwhelming, and the pictures just don't do it justice. You have to be here, you don't just see the views, you feel something. It's impossible for me to describe, I'm not even going to try. So we arrive in Wanaka - small city or town, or whatever they call it here...the main road is next to Lake Wanaka which is surrounded by mountains. A beautiful setting. I'm actually sat on a bench by the lake now looking out with the mountains in the distance. Unreal but no better way to spend my day writing my blog J For some reason all the hostels were fully booked, so James kindly offered me to stay in his van for the night. We checked into a campsite, made dinner and chilled in the lounge.

Friday was a dream - snowboarding all day in the sun with the most outstanding views you can ever imagine. How is anything going to top this day! James was great company, we had a laugh, we only had 2 layers on it was that warm, took some awesome photos; the slopes were pretty quiet despite the kids being on school holidays...and then there was après ski! By 4.30pm we were chilling in Water Bar by the lake with a nice mulled wine. We got chatting to some kiwis and met up with Mat the Tramper too. We stayed there for most of the night and enjoyed some ciders during Happy Hour. Then we treated ourselves to a burger and chips in BOA - flippin' delicious. I think we were in bed in Shelia (his van's name!) passed out by half 10 we started drinking a little too early!

Saturday was another sunny day so James and I decided to climb Mt Roy. I got woken up with a nice cuppa tea and we were hiking up the mountain by 11am. It was a constant incline for 3 hours! But well worth it J You could see for miles...the lakes, the town, the mountains, the clouds - it was COOL. And a good work out too (had to work off those ciders somehow)! In the evening we invited Mat round for dinner so we made pasta bake and chatted with some more locals in the campsite lodge all night. Mat bought Vienetta for dessert! YUMMY.

Sunday 21st was a cool day. We had a lazy morning; cake and coffee by the lake and then took some kayaks out to explore Ruby Island. It was a bit of a paddle and hard work getting there because the wind was against us but it was good fun and we had bought a pie to enjoy when we arrived on the Island. We explored the Island, tucked into a nice warm steak and bacon pie and had a chilled paddle back, at times, just floating with the waves and chatting away. When we got back to shore, we headed to Mat's hostel and made some pancakes J Delicious! We had ham & cheese, apple & sugar and ended with a Viennetta pancake for dessert. After a quick shower we headed to Water Bar for Happy Hour. We spent the night chatting there, getting to know each other, it was lovely.

And it's now Monday 22nd...I was woken up with a cup of tea again (I could get used to this - never even got that from the X!) We had some scrambled egg for breakfast and went to see Mat at Wanaka Backpacers...and that is where James dropped me off and picked Matt up. I decided to stay here a couple of days longer to catch up on sleep, chill and write my blog but I plan to see them on Wednesday in Queenstown so it's all good. Here I am camped out by the lakeside all afternoon with incredible views, some good tunes on my ipod and typing away. I could get used to this life quite easily J I best head back to the hostel for a shower before the cinema at 5pm!

Love you all xxx