Picton to Nelson

After a nice 3 hour ferry ride to the South Island, we went to a vineyard for some wine tasting. They had obviously had the Kiwi Experience bus there many times, as they only offered us two sips at the risk of us drinking their entire stocks!

We headed to Nelson which is a pretty small place and had (another) roast dinner and a few drinks in town. The weather had got really bad over on the South Island and reminded us of home!

On the way to Nelson, I was just nodding off on the coach when I saw a suit case fly past the window and another, and another! the luggage compartment had come loose and we were loosing luggage at a rate of knots! Our driver Pam ("Taps") was pretty mental and only stopped about 500 meters down the road! They only recovered 2 of the 3 bags that were lost!!

Nelson to Westport

We went to the Nelson lakes which were stunning and Pam convinced everyone on the bus to buy insect repellant from the visitors information centre. Think she was on commission and totally over-reacting, we didn't see a single fly! suckers.

Arrived in Westport in the afternoon and went for a walk to the beach with our room mates which was lovely and dipped our toes in the sea!

Westport to Lake Mahinapua

This was a very surreal part of our trip to the South Island. The day started off normal enough. We went on a long walk along the cliffs to a seal colony and then got dropped off to see some pancake rocks which were very impressive.

We headed to our accommodation for the night and pulled into a little hotel called Lake Mahunapua Hotel or the Poo Pub!!

The location was perfect, 10 mins to the lake and 5 mins to the beach and the weather was perfect. We had stopped in the afternoon to go shopping as we were told that we had to go the pub that night in fancy dress and our costumes had to be made from bin bags!!! The hotel was run by a 81 year old guy called Les and he had been doing this party night with the Kiwi Experience for over 10 years! he was an absolute legend! He got on the bus when we arrived and gave us a speech about what we could and could not do. The only rules were that you could not use cardboard for your costume or drink your own beer as there was bar but you definitely had to have "a bloody good time!" he must have said it about 10 times!

He cooked up a real feast first of all, steak and salads and everything and it was only about 4 quid. We all then went to get ready and our costumes were fantastic (even if we do say so ourselves!). Lucy went as an IPod and I went as a Guinness can (check the photos if this seems a little strange) and everyone looked fabulous!

The night was great, although Nigel (Nigella) looked far too comfortable in his women's clothes and wig! Les was still going strong at 2am clearing away glasses and asking if we'd all had a Bloody Good time!

Lake Mahinapua to Franz Joseph

The next morning was a bit of a struggle for everyone I think, there were a few sore heads and the first stop at a greasy spoon in the middle of nowhere was perfect! There was a resident deer as well which kept everyone amused. The museum on the otherhand was not overly popular surprisingly!

We headed to Franz Joseph from there which is a village based at the bottom of a glacier. The weather was perfect when we arrived and everyone was very surprised seen as it rains 280 days of the year here!

Given the massive night at the Poo pub, everyone took it easy and we had a meal in the bar and then an earlyish night. We both developed colds here as well so our room mates had to put up with the coughing and sneezing all night! we are popular!

The next morning the weather was great again so we got to go on our Heli Hike that we booked. It was really awesome, we got all booted up and then went up in the helicopter to near the top of the glacier. Everyone else from our trip had chosen the half or full day hike so we passed over all of them on the way up! We landed and had to get our spikey shoe attachements and our little pick axes and then our guide took us on a 2 hour hike. We also got to sit in the front of the chopper which was awesome, much to the annoyance of a guy with a big camera lense (must have been related to Boris in Kakadu) who spat his dummy out when they wouldn't let him swap seats!

The guide cut steps out to avoid us going onto our botties too much and we climbed through ice tunnels and Lucy had to climb out of a tight hole in the ice. All very exciting stuff but obviously not exciting enough for one of the guys who followed his own route and made it much too difficult, using his little axe at every available opportunity - I think he thought he was on cliff hanger at one point!

We felt like we'd been on a big artic expedition and even made a pact about what to do if we got stranded - we promised we would not eat each other no matter how long we were up there. (dramatic I know but you have to be prepared!) Although I think Lu got the raw deal there cause she would have had a good few meals from me whereas there is no meat on her!!!

After our fantastic walk we headed back down in the chopper (us in our prime seats!) and back to the bottom of the glacier. We'd had an awsome day. Sweet as.[ NZ lingo for good]

That night we went for a very well earned curry (It was all we could taste with our colds!) a few drinks for medicinal purposes in the bar before heading to bed,

We added an extra day to our stay in Franz Joseph but the weather had turned so we did a walk up to Wombat Lake in the morning and then came back to town for a nice cup of tea.

Franz to Wanaka

After a big travelling day and some very winding roads, we arrived in Wanaka which is a lovely little lake town. Big on walkers and travellers and our hotel had tv's in the rooms which we loved, until we discovered we were sharing the room with Cliffhanger man! and to make matters worse there was a lady in our room who can only be described as a grumpy old bag. Needless to say we were not in a rush to get back to our room that night and went for a late dinner. Had to wait ages for a table at this nice restaurant so had a couple of glasses of the old vino blanco (even though today was supposed to be our first dry day since arriving in nz three weeks ago!) and then we had a real meat feast with Lu having a nice jucy steak and me having ribs. The photos say it all - I had half a pig on my plate and it is possibly the first time in my entire life when I have left half my food (its true believe it or not!)

We obviously didn't have enough vino blanco because the old lady snored all night and at one point was groaning in her sleep, we were so disturbed by her that we didn't have much sleep at all!

Wanaka to Queenstown

First thing we stopped at Puzzle World which basically is a museum of illusions and it really messed with our heads! We lost a few people in the maze as well which is a bit worrying, then headed on to Kawarau Gorge which is basically where the bungy jump was born. We did the History of Bungy tour which was really interesting although when you watched how they make the bungy cords it was very worrying. Basically they take long strands of nicker elastic and tie them together. No I am not joking. There is no special materials, it is kind of an improvisation!

A few people from our group did the Kawarau bridge jump which is the original bungy and is 43 meters high (about the same height as the one that me and Claire did in Greece that time) and everyone went a bit mental after that once the adrenaline kicked in! One guy was so giddy that he did it again straight away!

Then we headed on into Queenstown (party capital of New Zealand for those who haven't heard of it) and did what our driver called "Battle Prep" for the big night out tonight. Basically it is eating a lot to line your stomach and then getting an hours shut eye.

The night was great as there were people from our two other buses as well so it was like one big party. Very randomly we had cocktails in tea pots in World Bar and then everyone had a good boogy. I had to call it a night at 1:30 as I had to mentally prepare myself for the next morning's events.

We had to meet in town at 9:45 but they kept you waiting for a full hour before driving out to the deserted cannon which is the home of the Nevis High Wire. This hour of sitting and waiting was enough for us to chat about how high the jump was going to be - 163 meters which is almost 4 times the size of the bridge jump! AAAAH. We were told it is the 2nd highest permenant jump in the world - the others are all seasonal or temporary and the highest is in China and is over 200 meters! Then for the nice little story of the morning, the South African jump has been closed as someone grabbed one of the jump crew guys as they went over the ledge and basically he was not attached to anything. Oh my god.

Nobody spoke on the coach and worse, a hangover from the teapot party was starting to descend. The cable car that takes you to the jump pod was the scariest thing I have ever been on in my life, it was really windy up there and it rocked like mad. Once in the pod, the jump crew blasted a bit of basement jaxx out of the stereo so the pod was rocking and blowing and basically I wanted to die, but was giddy at the same time! They then make you sit in like a dentists chair while they strap your legs up and give you the safety speal. I didn't realise that you have to release a cord on your legs when you are on your second bounce upside down so that it puts you in a sitting position and they can winch you back up. The first 3 guys to jump didn't manage it and they had to be whinched upside down which was pretty halarious and they had major blood rush going on!

So that was me, I was ready to go and I did just that! didn't look down, just looked straight out and then went for it. It was AMAZING!!!! I felt like I was flying and its 8 seconds of free fall before you know if the cord is actually going to bounce! Managed to pull the cord so I got winched up and the views up there were fabulous.

In the afternoon I had to do stage two of the big adrenaline junkie challange ( a challange laid down by Matt and Toby from work who booked and paid for everything in advance) which was the Ledge swing. I headed up to the Ledge which overlooks the whole of queenstown on (another) cable car but was told my Swing would be delayed as there was a film crew filiming some Aussie actor doing a bunge jump from the ledge. They asked if they could film me doing my swing which I obviously agreed to (no fee unfortunatley). The Swing is a static line and you are in a harness and they whinch you out so you are sitting in mid air then you have to release yourself ! I screamed like I have never screamed before and when I had finished the sound guy hugged me because he said it was the perfect sound for their programme " Things to do Before you Die" which is going to be on in June on Channel 9 (Oz's equivalant to ITV) so I may be famous for my scream on the other side of the world which is handy!

I couldn't sleep that night becuase my adrenaline levels where sky high and I think Lu probably wanted to gag me by the time we got in bed! She had been in bed all day!!

We were up at stupid o clock the next morning to go to the famous Milford Sounds which everyone told us about. We spent 8 hours on the bus in total and when we got there it was raining and misty and you couldn't see a thing! the underwater observatory was good and we saw some seals. We will have to take everyone's word for it that it was spectacular scenary!

Had a reasonably quiet night when we got back as tommorrow is Saint Patricks Day and is going to be messy!

Our Saint Patricks day started off at lunchtime with a little treat by going on the Shotover Jet which is a really really really fast speedboat which goes on the shot over river and does 360 degree spins and gets really close to the rocks on each side! It was cool, Lucy got really wet but we loved it.

Saint Patricks day celebrations had already started by the time we got back into town and everywhere was heaving. We went for gormet Pizza's at Winnie's (Toby's recommendation) and it was really great. Green was generally the theme and the quote of the night was a Canadian girl asking in the toilet "I haven't got a clue who this Saint Patrick was but I Love him!"she had the full gettup on with Irish flags painted on her face and everything .... bless.

We qued to get in an Irish pub and got our hands stamped with a Poges stamp, there was jigging and general dancing going on and it was a fabulous atmosphere. Our friends that we've been hanging around with have Irish parents so that made it all the better as they really had something to celebrate. We ended up dancing the night away in World Bar and taking a stupid amount of photos and drinking from tea pots, very random. Finally rolled in at 5am and what a fantastic night we had had!

Queenstown to Christchurch

Last day on the bus was a long one, travelled 500 + KM to Christchurch. The city is really quaint, with a river winding through and there are those boats like they have in Venice (not going to attempt to spell it!) The rest of the city is like Sratford on Avon and it is really lovely. Had our last night our with Bearnie and Marg and the rest of the crew from the bus which was really good and we saw a live band.

So that's it from New Zealand, we did the lonley planet walk on our last day and we are now heading to Fiji for 5 days of sunbathing and trying not to move at all, except maybe to reach for a cocktail or two!

Bye for now x