Well it's been over a week since I last blogged. That's not very good.

We're now in Picton. The glacier walk in Franz Josef was good, very sunny and hot actually. I felt like I had been shrunk to the size of a Borrower and found myself in a massive freezer. It took a lot of time to get anywhere. We had lots of different nationalities in our group, including some Brazilians whose English wasn't great, so they had some trouble understanding what was going on! We didn't get up that much of the glacier but it is huge and would take a couple of days to climb the whole thing. I will hopefully post photos soon, but it's near impossible to find places that will even connect to my camera, let alone actually upload photos.

After the climb, we went to the hot pools. I don't think they were naturally heated. We had a good time relaxing there, but weirdly it was only after that that I started to feel aching and stiffness in my legs. The next day, last Wednesday, we took a coach to Greymouth. On the way we stopped in a town called Hokitika, which has a small aquarium, where it was giant eel feeding time. I fed the giant eels bits of raw meet using tongs. The fully grown ones were huge but pretty slow. The juveniles were really vicious and had strong jaws. It was quite an achievement because I really don't like eels.

In Greymouth, we stayed in a nice hostel called Noah's Ark. The rooms were animal themed. Ours was the kiwi room and was decorated with a mural of kiwis doing extreme sports, which were pretty funny and cute. The hostel had several hens in the garden and a cat and a big lazy golden retriever, who was friendly but very slow. The garden had nice hammocks which we spent quite a lot of time relaxing in, recovering from the glacier walk. The town of Greymouth isn't so nice. It's not really got much of a town centre and there's a couple of miles between the railway station and the sea. The beaches are nice, stony but with interesting shells and coloured stones (some of them are precious apparently, but I don't know which ones) and loads of driftwood. We saw some dolphins swimming off the coast and lots of birds.

Last Thursday, we went to the Shantytown historical gold mining town. We were there early in the morning because we got a transfer shuttle there and there was no one else around so we had a few goes on the flying fox in the playground. It was very fun but a bit scary when it hit the end and we got flipped backwards. No injuries though! The Shantytown was cool. Apparently Prince William was there a couple of weeks ago. They had a steam train which we went for a ride on, then we watched a gold sleucing demonstration, then had a go at gold panning. We both got a minuscule amount of gold in a little plastic bottle to take home. Could fetch a few quid at a 'Cash 4 Gold' shop though... They had some old-style shops and a Chinese village too.

Last Friday, we travelled to Nelson, then stayed with friends of my parents. On Saturday we went into central Nelson, doing a bit of shopping and stuff. We also booked a trip into Abel Tasman National Park. On Sunday we were taken around some local coastal sites and had some ice cream with real fruit in it. It was showery but thankfully not the torrential rain that had been forecast.

Monday morning we set out very early and got picked up and taken to Marahau, a small settlement on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. It's apparently the smallest national park in NZ but also the most visited. There's loads of companies doing trips out there, it was hard to choose one. We chose a 2 day trip in the end. We started taking a water taxi (motorboat) to a beach called something like Onetahui. We got on the boat while it was loaded up on a trailer being pulled by a tractor. Then the tractor driver took us to the beach and into the water. It is very shallow so we were towed out quite a long way until the boat could float, then the boat driver reversed off the back of the tractor and we were off. There were loads of tractors abandoned in the bay, which looked odd. The boat took us first to look at Split Apple Rock, which is a fairly self-explanatory sight, pictured alongside this blog post, if you're not sure. Then we went into the National Park for about 40 minutes. When we arrived, they unloaded the kayaks from the back of the motorboat and we paired up and after a briefing and putting on some cool equipment - a buoyancy aid vest and a spray skirt (the thing that keeps the water out of the kayak), we set off. There were 6 of us in our group and our guide. Sea kayaking is different to the lake kayaking I'd done before. The kayak has a rudder at the back which is controlled by the back person, using foot pedals. There were waves to worry about, although it wasn't too rough. There were also rocks which we had to try to avoid. Luckily no one got stuck on a rock or capsized. It was difficult to get used to the steering and not end up zig-zagging about.

We kayaked along the coast for a couple of hours, then stopped for lunch. The guide produced sandwiches, fruit and muffins and also a Trangia and made hot drinks. The kayaks have waterproof luggage hatches in. She also brought some snorkel masks. Simon went off snorkelling. I'd never tried it before and I think there was something wrong with my mask because it kept letting water in. I saw 1 fish, which I have to say I didn't particularly like. I think I'd rather watch fish while not in the water myself. There were oyster catchers walking around the bay, which were cool. There were also sandflies though unfortunately.

We kayaked for a couple more hours in the afternoon, then arrived in Anchorage Bay. There, we spent some time on the beach drying off, while some people got on another water taxi and went back. We then got in a little motor launch and were taken just off shore to the Aquapackers boat, a backpackers hostel on board a catamaran. It sleeps about 18 I think, 7 each in 2 dorms and then 2 private double rooms. The private rooms had the advantage that the occupants could actually stand up! I could just about stand up in our cabin but Simon couldn't. There was about a foot between the top of the mattress and the ceiling on the bunks. There was a good sized indoor area for sitting and chatting and eating and on the top deck they did a barbecue and we sat around and ate and chatted. Simon and another guy from our kayaking group, Vini, climbed onto the roof of the boat and jumped into the sea. They didn't stay in long though because apparently it was very cold!

It was cool looking over the sides of the boat and seeing fish. They threw some leftover meat in and we watched the fish scrambling for it. We went outside at night and we could see more stars than I've ever seen I think. It was amazing. Also one of the guys rattled the anchor chain and all these little glowing lights appeared, apparently the plankton glow when they're disturbed. It was really magical. I could also see some white fish when I shone a torch in the water, which looked kind of ghostly and swam away from the torch light. We had an early night really by my standards, because we all felt exhausted and ready for bed by 9pm. The boat gently drifted round and round all night, so every time I looked outside, we were facing a different bit of the shore.

In the morning, I managed to get up without whacking my head, and I went outside. There were 4 ducks waiting expectantly next to the side of the boat, looking up. There were also hundreds of fish, fairly small silver ones and some slightly bigger ones, mostly between 10 and 30cm long. When I pointed out the ducks to a crew member, she gave me some bread to feed them with. They were amazing, actually catching it in their mouths before it hit the water, so the fish didn't get it. A few times though the fish would converge on the ducks and they'd jump up in the air quacking and fly away, but they'd soon be back. I also gave some bread to the fish.

We then got the motor launch back to shore and a group of us walked back to Marahau. The DoC signs reckoned it was a 4 hour walk. We took a few detours and explored some beaches though, so it took us more like 6 hours. It was hot but we were mostly under shade in the native forest. There were huge numbers of sandflies on the beaches. They look kind of like fruit flies, but they bite. I put some insect repellent on, the 50% DEET tropical strength stuff I got in Boots at Heathrow on the way. It is like a sticky gel. The sandflies were landing on me and getting stuck and dying. It was horrible, there were at least 6 of them on my leg within a couple of minutes. Apart from the sandflies, the Abel Tasman National Park is your Monday morning office job fantasy holiday location, deserted beaches of golden sands and clear seas turning emerald green further out, with palms, ferns and other trees behind the beach and on the headlands. I have to say though, it didn't feel right to me being away from shops and takeaways for that long! We made it back to Marahau, hot and tired.

Today we got the bus to Picton. Another early morning. We got here at about 11am, checked into our hostel and went out of explore. It is a small town but there is a nice park and small beach and the harbour is pretty. For some reason though, there's a statue of Donald Duck! We couldn't figure out why - answers on a postcard please... We went to the aquarium, which is small but has large open-topped tanks so you can see the fish from all directions. We got there for feeding time, which was interesting. The groper fish has a scarily big mouth. They rehabilitate injured wildlife there and the keeper brought out a blue penguin which had lost a flipper and let her go for a swim in a tank with some of the fish. The poor thing was struggling to swim, splashing about like a small child in a swimming lesson and at first just going round in circles. But then she got the hang of it more. Apparently she is pretty vicious but she looked cute.

So, I think that brings you up to date on us. A long post. Tomorrow we're going to Kaikoura to hopefully see some whales, then on Friday I'm going to Wellington on the Interislander ferry and Simon's going on a diving trip.