Time to hop back on the Kiwi bus after two and a half great weeks in Taupo, and they pick us up at 7am after my 19km hike yesterday. Knackered. Our driver this time is Q, he's dead on.
Our first stop is in the National Park, where lots of these crazy people are jumping off a waterfall. I would have loved to, just didn't have my swim stuff handy. But it was scarily high. Met a guy from near us at home, soo nice to hear our accent again. (Even tho when you hear it on tv, you cringe.)
With a few hours drive ahead of us, Q put on a DVD but we were too far back to hear it. (Note for next time, sit closer to the front). Took opportunity to Skype while we had our McDonalds stop, Kenny had to drag me back to the bus. Miss them all. The rest of the drive to River Valley was really scenic, so many steep hills, up and down, and lots of sheep which the bus driver liked to beep at and scare away.

When we got there, we had to move all the bags outta the bus into a ute, as the bus couldn't make it up and down the steep windey hill. So the options for sleeping are a 32 bed dorm or 6 bed, so because I'm exhausted we go for the 6 bed. Great during the day when everyone's off doing activities, we watch a DVD on the new computer and hung out at the river but through the night our annoying roommates wake us up, and continue making noise for the next half an hour. (They got the daggers the next day.)

The next day we headed to the Windy City of Wellington, a 4.5hr drive, driving by the Gumboot capital of the world and watching the Hobbit on the way. This must be the 4-5th time I have tried to watch The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit, and I still can't watch one from start to finish. Q gave us a lot of interesting history on the city, and the hostel we stayed in, Downtown Backpackers, which was originally a hotel built purposely for the visit of the Queen in the 60s. So the hostel was fine; I'd say not the Queens standard anymore, but good enough for us. We didn't have much time to explore, but we got to spend an hour in the free Te Papa museum which was really good. They had a colossal squid; absolutely huge with eyes the size of the footballs. Then headed to Base to get our boat booked to Picton and Kenny got his favourite noodle canteen. Had a quiet night in with Revenge to try and save a few bucks.

The next day, we waited outside for an hour on the bus. Eventually get into boat ($58 through kiwi ex) and it was a really pretty sailing. Arrived into Picton on got on Q's bus. He took us the scenic route showing us the Sounds; like fjords. We drive through Havelough, the green mussel capital of the world, yum. Then onto Nelson where we stayed In Paradiso. It had free breakfast and veg soup with bread and bakery goods for dinner. Perfect. Couldn't complain!! Def saved us a bit. There was an Interesting bedroom set up; 10 beds, with 8 normal bunk beds and 2 above the calling in the hall. A nice little climb up and down each time but at least meant some privacy. Not so funny when Kenny fell off the ladder carrying to many bags. Lol. The weather was pretty s*** so we went to the cinema to see Hunger Games and walked to centre of New Zealand. Kenny had a little play with the many ducks too, they are everywhere. Nelson was a nice little place, where people had lemon trees growing in their gardens, just a pity about the weather.

On the last day, we were meant to meet at I site information centre at 2pm, and the bus didn't arrive until 5!! They didn't even call to let us know, so I was not impressed. To top it off, I had somehow broken my kindle in my bag so I wanted to cry as its my lifeline for these long bus journeys. All I needed was a bottle of wine to make everything better, but they won't serve me in the supermarket because I didn't have my passport (UK driving license isn't good enough in NZ). I'm 25 not 17. So I near had a little cry but Kenny made it all better by taking his passport in and getting it for me. Then a girl on the bus had just finished her book and offered it; I snapped it straight up, soo grateful and so started the emotional journey that is 'One Day'. We eventually make it to Kaiteriteri Lodge, to be told we can only stay one night because there's two buses coming up behind. Ok so where do we stay in this tiny little town? That answer, we would find out after our trek. The next day we did the Able Tasman Coastal Track, taking us via the Able Tasman sea shuttle to the top to start our day trek. On the way we were saw some seals and got a surprise show from some bottle nose Dolphins!!! It was amazing. Jumping up out of the water and followed the boat. Couldn't believe it! Perfect start to a perfect day. Did the 6-8 hour hike via beautiful beaches, overlooking pretty bays, seeing lots of pretty plants and the oyster catcher birds. Waded through some water at low tide, hoping we didn't sink. The weather was just lovely. A perfect day, finished off with a rope swing by the sea. We got back to Kaiteriteri and stayed in the motor camp in a tin hut next door, which was actually fine.

The next day we left for Westport with the driver 'Nancy', going via Lake Rotoroa. It was a pretty lake, with lots of eels and ducks. We done a few jumping pics. It was a long driving day, made all the more interesting by the sick humor and cursing of the driver; he says it as it is. We stayed at TripInn in Westport, a nice wee place but in a kinda strange town.

The next day we did a coastal walk to see the seals and visited Pancake rocks (Punakiki). They are as they say on the tin. Next stop was Greymouth to get costumes, then onto the 'Poo pub' near Lake Maniphua. We visited the lake which was pretty and brought a little picnic. Then we went back to get changed into our 'present' costumes, cardboard boxes which we wrapped in christmas paper and cut out holes for our arms and head. We even found the Bob the builder hat Jonny and Nicole had been wearing when they had been there the month before. The place was full of pictures, hats and other memorabilia from kiwi experience people over the last 25 years. Also the cheapest place in the South Island to buy jade so I got an infinity knot necklace for Christmas. We had a great wee evening and met more lovely people.

The next day we were on our way and Nancy boy was full of running commentary including pointing out lots of one way bridges, and we actually crossed a bridge one way shared which was shared with the train!! We visited Bushmans museum which had possums, eels, letters, interesting pies. The possums are a major pest in NZ as they have no natural predators which helps explain the reason for chemical release from the planes in the sky and the fact that you can eat them in a pie at this museum. We later had a photo stop at black/mirror lake and a walk around, then onto Franz Joseph. We stayed in Chateau Franz, which had free breakfast and soup at 6pm, and free internet, bonus. That day we went to glacier hot pools, got cheaper from bookme.co.nz. And I got to relax with my little face mask on, bliss.

Next day, whilst others got the helicopter up to the glacier, we just hiked to the glacier. It was a long enough ole trek but we went via Peters Pool and did Douglas walk, really beautiful.

The next day we left for Wanaka. We stopped at Lake Matheson (another mirror lake) for a walk and breakfast. It was absolutely beautiful, with great views of Mount Cook. Then to see a waterfall and then travelled along the infamous Haast pass. It has lots of rockslides, very up and down but again very scenic. We reached Wanaka just after 3pm and we stayed at Wanaka backpaka, which has beautiful views of lake. The weather was just perfect so we got into our swimmers and lay by the water. Kenny was feeding the birds whilst I got the best early Christmas present, someone gave me a cream doughnut as they had bought too many!! Thank you so much kind stranger, made my day. Wanaka is situated just below Mount Aspiring. It was a pity we didn't have more time to do some hiking or visit the winery, I really liked Wanaka.

The next stop was Queenstown, going via puzzling world, a fruit stall and cute little place called Arrowtown, where I found the most beautiful necklace with gold flakes inside. Maybe next time. Also had a great bakery that did amazing sausage rolls. It was absolutely roasting, and aircon had broken. Then onto Queenstown to stay at the Flaming Kiwi. It was a lovely wee hostel with free unlimited wifi. Apart from the crazy girl who kept us awake in the middle of the night by opening the door then preceding to have an extremely loud conversation just outside. We met up with Laura and Nick, and it was great to see them again. Went to xtreme bar, and met up with Hedia, Tim and Joe. Then onto Loco, say bye to rest of Kiwi Exp bus and finished the night drinking alcohol from Teapots in the Find bar.