We crossed over from the North to the South Island on Monday the 9th of March. The crossing takes about 3 hours as the ferry crawls along. Our first sight of this half of the country was the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, which is only a small introduction to the stunning scenery of the South Island. We spent most of this crossing trying (and failing) to catch up on sleep, an activity that has quickly become the norm for us. Once on the other side we were met with a new kiwi bus which took us to the coastal town of Kaiteriteri. We spent our first evening there down at the beach with new and old friends from different buses. Sadly we missed the sunset, but did see the moon rise above the horizon, unusually large and almost orange.

It was an early start again the next morning as we'd decided to go kayaking along the coast of the Abel Tasman national park. If we'd paid more for a longer trip we would have been able to actually enter the park, but even just kayaking along the coast was incredible. We were a small group of four meaning we could spend slightly more time out on the sea. The water was crystal clear and we stopped on a beach so we had a chance to swim out to the famous split apple rock.We'd decided to treat ourselves that evening to a proper hotel, so after a couple of hours incinerating ourselves on the beach we trekked up a steep hill with our backpacks and foodbag for a night in luxury. That evening we ate fish and chips on the beach while what seemed like the entire seagull population of the south island attempted to join our meal. Not quite the relaxed dinner we'd imagined. We returned to our private room where we sat in our hot tub, Skyped our friends and family and watched a film. It was the sort of evening you dream about after a month of hostel dorms and paying for bad Internet. The next morning, after a free breakfast, the receptionist even offered to drive us down to where we were meeting our next bus.

We spent that day travelling to Westport, another sleepy seaside town. A group of us found a supermarket, then headed down to the beach where we were told you could make a fire. We finally arrived at the beach after a much longer than expected walk and saw why this beach was a bonfire favourite: there was driftwood covering the shoreline. Starting the fire was fairly easy and we spent a few hours on the beach getting to know the new group we were travelling with, though unfortunately the stunning sunset was taking place in the opposite direction. During our journey along the coast the following day, we had the oppurtunity to walk down to the "pancake rocks". These are unexplained rock formations that form millions of layers, one on top of the other, ressembling as the name suggests, a series of american pancakes.

The drivetook us on to Lake Mahinapua, which really is little more than a lake and a pub. This pub/hostel has been playing host to the kiwi experience buses for about two decades - every night a new bus comes in and they serve them dinner before throwing the traditional fancy dress party. Our theme was "first letter of your name", so Martha went as Madonna and Sofia went as all of the Spice Girls. This proved entertaining when songs by both these artists were played that evening. It was only a short drive the next day to get to Franz Josef, where the bus stopped for two nights allowing us to catch up with people we'd met previously. The reason the bus stops this long is to give people an opportunity to fly up onto the glacier, but as this was rather expensive we opted not to do it. Instead we did the 3 hour walk which took us to a point 250m away from the glacier. Unfortunately the view is no longer quite as spectacular as it used to be from here as it is rapidly shrinking due to global warming, but the glacier is still an impressive sight.