SOUTH ISLAND PART 1

So we had left Australia feeling a little sad but very excited about our next set of adventures in New Zealand!

We arrived in Christchurch Monday 2nd February all set for a quiet night in after a tiresome journey. After being persuaded to join a group of German lads on the balcony for a drink the next thing we knew we were in the bar sipping 2 for 1 gin and tonics! With everyone from our dorm room joining us we had a brilliant night with lots of silly antics! The two main culprits were our lovely roomies Alice and Dallas and the next day the antics continued as we all took a tour around the beautiful city and its botanical gardens.

With not much to do in Christchurch we were very excited to get on our first Kiwi bus the next morning and begin our journey around the South Island....

Our first stop was Kaikoura. After a few stops along the way we soon spotted the sea and the quaint little town in the distance. It is a really pretty place but to be honest a little like a retirement town as it was so quiet there! During the first day we took a walk to see some seals bathing on the rocks, but the real adventure would start for one of us very early the next day as Katie was about to live a childhood dream... swimming with dolphins in the wild! Kaikoura is a fishing town as it has a cavity at the bottom of the ocean which means it’s a great feeding ground for the sea life, so it is hugely popular for whales, dolphins, seals and all kinds of fish.

The alarm went off at 4:30am.... how ridiculous! But Katie was too excited to even care as she chucked on some clothes and headed (quite scared in the pitch black!) to the dolphin encounter where they geared her up and got on the boat. The briefing before stated that the best way to attract the dolphins was to act 'dolphin- like' in any way i.e. dive down hands in, spinning around, making high pitched noises- it was obvious she was in for a funny experience!

As the boat started about 20 mins in you'd start to notice a dolphin jumping out here and there until finally in absolute awe you realise there is now a pack of about 200/300 jumping and playing all around- it was out of this world! They followed the boat and we stopped once we were surrounded, ready and raring to jump in at the sound of the first siren... Oh my God!!!! It was actually quite scary at first as you go under with your mask and snorkel as the dusky dolphins swim all around you and you just see these big things flashing past! But once you’re over the initial shock it literally was the most amazing thing- making eye contact with one and spinning round and around numerous times together in sync was definitely a highlight to say the least. Naughtily I will admit although you're not meant to I did try and lure a couple in and try to touch them... to no luck :o( hehe! But it was fantastic!!!!

Back on the bus at 9:30 and our next stop was Nelson - The sunniest town on the whole of the West Coast! Perfect! As our tans were already fading fast!! After checking in we sat in the lovely sunny beer garden of our hostel (more like a converted townhouse, really cute!) with a few people from our bus....little did we know that these boys would become our best friends over the next 2 weeks! Josh our bus driver, Andy the Geordie, Cory from OZ and Olly who b***** me lives just outside of Stevenage! We all sampled a Kiwi roast dinner and of course the alcohol began flowing. With our new friends in tow we snapped up a great backpackers deal at 'Shark' the local Pool bar and the competition was on! Hehe. After numerous rounds of doubles and some chalk on our face later we staggered across the road to the local club 'Little Rock'. Here we cheekily sectioned off our own little VIP area and truly danced and laughed the night away!

With a nice early wakeup call from Andy and the sun shining it was time to sample the local sand and hit the beach! Being 'Watungi Day' which is New Zealand’s national day we thought that the towns would all be crazy however we soon learnt that this was a very different affair to Australia Day and so we decided to make our own fun. We put together a picnic with of course the vital ingredient of cider and trekked up the very steep hill to the Centre of New Zealand! Here we chilled out with our iPod and watched the sun go down over the whole of the town - amazing!!! A few more ciders and we were soon up dancing and Jemma took it upon herself to teach everyone some dance lifts! Very amusing to watch the boys but I’m pretty sure everyone was loving it!

One of the good things about meeting friends on the Kiwi bus is that you are together for the whole way round the Island should you follow the itinerary they suggest and so it was really nice to have the lads on the bus with us and to go to all the places together, the banter was brilliant and we were obviously the loudest there! Hehe! On the way to our next stop in Westport we stopped at Lake Wakatipu and took some amazing pictures of us jumping off the jetty and into the lake. Look at the gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains in the background- like a postcard!

Westport was again very sparse in population and without much interesting to do. Luckily we got there in the afternoon and we were leaving the next morning. The highlight was again a fantastic evening we made for ourselves by sneaking a box of beer (against the rules of course!- despite Andy's scaredy cat nerves!!) and playing drinking games around our dorm table- we had the best dorm room there, it was like our own little studio flat with a kitchen (where we whipped up a fantastic Spag Bol for our boys!) and of course meeting Adrian and adding another member to our newly formed gang! Heading down the west Coast we knew we were in for a good time!

The next day on the bus we made a very important stop - we needed to shop for fancy dress costumes for the party that night! With the theme being films/TV characters and our original power ranger idea now out the window it was time to get our thinking caps on!! We wandered around the huge warehouse store looking for inspiration and finally settled on the idea of Peter Pan and the Lost boys!!!! Shopping trolley loaded with feathers and scruffy clothes we were soon back on the bus and on our way to Lake Mahinapua Hotel more commonly known as the 'Poo Pub.' We were greeted by the owner Les an 84 year old swearing witty old man who has been running the theme nights for the Kiwi bus for years!! After a gorgeous steak dinner (we avoided the venison on offer! Poor Bambi!) It was back to our room to get grubbed up and transform into scruffy little boys - a very tough job as you can imagine hehe. Some rolling around in the mud later (quite literally!) it was time to get the drinks in and join the rest of our bus to see what costumes they had come up with...some really good efforts with a girl who had made a Marilyn Monroe costume out of white bin bags taking the well deserved first prize! Our lovely Andy dressed as Pan managed to claim 3rd prize so we were pretty happy with that! Definitely was the green tights that tipped it! Hehe. The evening took us down to the lake where a few of the boys took a skinny dip (our clothes stayed firmly on!) with the very scary walk through the forest home with the only light coming from the glow worms! A brilliant night!!!

Onto Franz Josef- a stop we were most excited about as we'd heard so much about the Glaciers and how beautiful it was. Shame about the rain that fell but it didn’t stop us from having a great time! Off the booze for a night (come on you were all thinking we'd mentioned consuming alcoholic beverages quite a lot so far!) we entered ourselves into a killer pool competition... and good job we did!! Katie couldn't believe her luck as she beat her way through boys and girls to come 2nd place and win the amazing prize of a go on the Nevis Arc in Queenstown (you've seen the pics!) worth $170!! Jem didn't go away empty handed either as she managed to win a Pub Crawl ticket for.... err... well we're not really sure but I think the bar manager probably just fancied her!! Overwhelmed and very tired after the last manic few days we headed for the sack as we had a big day ahead of us.

We arose ready and raring to go- the expedition: an 8 hour Glacier hike... easy peasy!! All kitted up with huge boots, waterproof trousers and a rain mac we started our trek towards the glacier- the trail through the forest at the beginning was the hardest part, we were pretty worried it was going to be this challenging the whole way!! Once you get on the glacier it was enough to take our breath away- every time you looked up you just can't believe where you are! Absolutely stunning. With our metal spikes attached to our boots we stomped our way up and down as Troy our guide (what a guy!!) made steps with his axe, through ice holes and avoiding icy cold water holes- Poor old Adrian had a little slip though and drenched his leg- much to the amusement of us hehe!! We had a spot of lunch up on the ice and then made our way back down the mountain, it was quite hard finding your step at times but the more we walked the more confident you become. Back down to the bottom and we were all absolutely knackered! But please- did that stop us from having the night of our lives?!...

Being the domestic goddesses that we are a luxurious curry was soon laid out on the table ready for our lovely lads to fill their tummies! After a fun shower together (will explain another time!haha) we decided it was time to re-establish ourselves as girls again after hanging out with boys and even dressing as boys it was getting silly! Hair blow dried and make up on the lads barely recognised us when we came downstairs and even had the cheek to comment that "we scrubbed up well!!" haha. With spirits high we took full advantage of the goon in happy hour and made Andy and Cory the pool sharks play two locals for the table...of course they kicked butt and soon the doubles contest was on once again! Olly and Katie were now the reigning champs and Jem just played with whoever would have her! :-( The night was awesome with a group of lovely girls from our bus also joining in with the shenanigans!!

Sadly just before the night was due to come to an end Jem was shockingly stopped in her tracks and the drama began.... The lovely Cory took Jem to the bar to buy her a drink and in return for a glass of wine all she was served is water!!Haha! Honestly not just saying this but we were not THAT drunk, we were behaving ourselves and generally just having good fun! When another girl went up to the bar to try and get the wine for Jem once the bar manager cottoned on to who the drink was for, that was a no go too! Outrageous but Hilarious! But uhoh then Little Miss Vye got wind of what was going on and she was NOT happy! Not taking too kindly to what 'in her opinion' was discrimination of her lovely friend Jemma she told the bar manager exactly what she thought of the situation and him - the "very important big man!!" Not too happy about being challenged by a girl - a mouthy English one at that! We were asked to leave the bar! When Katie asked for the reasoning behind this decision he replied "because no one likes a smart arse!!" hahahahahaha! Given 5 seconds to finish her drink Katie slowly sipped away before asking if he was going to push her out?! Looking like he was about to thankfully Cory and Adrian stepped in and escorted us out of the bar!!!

Filled with rage we stumbled across to the kitchen where we located two beers and Katie’s rampage began - a pen and paper in hand she took it upon herself to defend Jemmas honor and write a lovely letter to the ever so friendly bar manager! Unfortunately I cannot divulge what was included in the letter as it was private and confidential but it was one of the most abusive things I have ever seen and not one of Katie’s proudest moments! Not content with kicking us out of the bar we were then kicked out of the laundry room as apparently we could be heard from the bar??!! So you get the picture.....a bloody brilliant night full of naughtiness with a worried moment from Katie thinking she was going to be deported!! hehehehehehe!!!!!!!!! To be cont……