Day 15 to 20 - Queenstown to 25th February
The Adrenaline Capital of the World! Have been here for 5 days and pretty much everything has mish mashed into one big blur! Unfortunately the weather started off pretty badly, but to be honest I think this suited pretty much everyone due to the heavy night of drinking at the base bar and the world bar to celebrate the end of the Kiwi Bus of the South Island. Me, Rich, Fabian, Hayley, Fiona, Emily, Laura and Charlotte (now officially known as the Kiwi Family) all managed to get a dorm together again and in 5 days being a fly on the wall you can learn a LOT about the female of the species.
After a day of lounging, me, Fabs, Emily and Fiona walked into Queenstown Park to play Frisbee golf - basically exactly what it says on the tin - throwing a Frisbee at various points and trying to keep in par. Quite fun, we lost count pretty much after the first go, and after interrupting a bowls game, nearly decapitating some old people and Emily repeatedly hitting Fiona with the Frisbee, we called it a day. We were all winners. The next day Fabian left the family to take the bottom bus, and more importantly the hunt for my newly acquired Havianas began.
After another night out with a lot of shenanigans - mentioning no names, all the Kiwi family know the details....Irish, Norway, Muscles, Billy Elliot etc etc, we woke up late and then visited the gym for a hardcore work out. Actually because we had a day pass to the gym we went TWICE and worked on our guns.
I believe the next day was the adrenaline day and also the last day before the girls departed. We woke up early to get the bus down to do the Canyon Swing - similar to a bunjy but with more of a swing effectively. 109m high with a 60m freefall then a 200m swing out over the canyon and river. The highlight of this was there were about a million ways you could jump off - backwards, forwards, upside down and even on a chair. I went first for the chair option after watching Laura's video. The idea is that you are strapped to the chair and basically lean back as far as you can as if you're going to fall backwards on the chair - instead you fall backwards off the cliff! The guys try and scare the pants off you to by grabbing you, then pulling you back then eventually letting you go when you least expect it. All good fun. Rich jumped off backwards doing the Saturday night fever dance, then we decided to do a second jump too because of the discount. Rich did the Gimp boy where you hang face down, I did the elvis cutaway where you lie down over the edge and are released. Awesome stuff. The afternoon involved River boarding. After learning a girl had drowned last year with this company, we were a bit nervous shall we say. Even though I'm comfortable in the water, it was tougher than I expected. You go down the Grade 3 rapid on a board basically trying to avoid the currents - it involves a lot of kicking and a lot of leg cramps. But it was good fun. The ride hanging on to the back of the jet ski and the swing and slide were also good fun.
The last night involved a lovely meal at Winnies the pizza place before our last night together in the World Bar. The last night with the girls was epic for the drama that occurred. Girls, boys, drinks, foreign countries = many late night stories and laughs The photos speak louder than words!
The next day we woke up late again and wandered around the town for a bit, did some shopping and then we went lugeing! Met up with my new friend Natalie from the Kiwi Bus, a lovely liverpudlian girl with a confused look and beaming smile, Rich and a couple of others to head up the gondola to do 6 luge runs - good fun again and quite easy to pick up a lot o pace. Rich was a bit too gangly and definitely should have broken at least an arm or a leg! Again headed out in the evening - we were definitely outstaying our welcome at the hostel bar - thought about doing a cheap bar crawl but decided against, and eventually settled for pool and drinks with Natalie as it was her last night. Called it a night early as was knackred, and went back to the room to see the corridor and toilets resembling something of a brothel. Need I say more?
Up early this time to check out of the hostel and move to another down the road. Today was a day with an epic walk! We fancied a bit of a hike and we hiked up a mountain. We took the Ben Lomond walk up to the summit - quite a steep hike with a little tiny bit of climbing for about 3 odd hours or so. Some absolutely stunning views from the top overlooking Queenstown - much underated for its natural beauty and setting. Quite a surreal feeling to be at the same level on foot as planes and helicopters and even being able to say "hi" to a passing paraglider. We sat for lunch at the summit, talked to a German traveller called Jonny then headed back down to the lake for a very cold swim and then an epic barbeque for dinner. Good day all round.
Day 21 - Milford Sounds - February 26th

The 4 hour coach journey to Milford Sound went by quite quickly mostly due to the random head bobbing sleeps and the pretty awesome scenery along the way. Loads of glaciers on the mountains, and land slides sculptured into the land due to the heavy avalanches that take place in the winter season. Arrived at Milford and boarded a ferry to take a scenic ride along the fjords. With the weather and clouds giving a slightly mystical feel to the scenery, now on the fjord it just became slightly annoying due to the large amount of rain that came with it. The views of the fjords and mountains were slightly disappointing because it was just too misty to see far enough away to appreciate it. Also the rain made it soaking wet to be on the outside of the boat. Still, it was still possible to see how stunning it actually was, plus the buffet was nice. Hopped back on the coach to head back to Queenstown for dinner and an early night.

Day 22 - Queenstown to Geraldine February 27th

A day of travel today as we left the party town of Queenstown to head over to Geraldine to stay at the lodge there to prepare for the white water rafting the next day. It took slightly longer than it perhaps should have to get there, mostly because our driver waited for about 10 minutes for a girl who was actually already on the coach (sounds worse when there were only 8 people in total on the coach...). Arrived anywhos and cooked lunch, played table tennis and watched the 40 year old virgin in the evening.

Day 23 - February 28th - White Water Rafting in Geraldine

Woke up in the morning for breakfast and an early lunch (we were told we'd need our energy for the rafting..so I ate an extra bananna) and got ourself kitted up for the rafting. I was VERY excited about this, slightly nervous about the size of the rapids having never rafted before on grade 1 rivers, let alone grade 5s. Also found out that white water rafting is in fact the highest level of insurance you can get - ie the most risky - and also discovered that I probably wasn't insured for it! Got down to the river anyway with our guide Cam and 4 girls who we met on the coach. Me and Rich were up front, and off we went. Were on the water for about 3-4 hours, initially learning what to do when we hit the rapids (hold on, Get down, paddle etc) and what to do if we fell in (feet first, avoid rocks etc). Was great fun on the rapids, probably the best thing for me I've done in New Zealand so far. On the last set of rapids we got down ok, but 2 boats directly behind us capsized, meaning everyone went feet first down the river trying to avoid the rocks. Was quite an adrenaline rush seeing people shoot past and trying to grab hold of them with the paddles. Our boat managed to drag two people in, and the rest ended up a bit further downstream but still in one piece. We also managed to retrieve a paddle and a throw bag further down the river. Excellent fun.

Headed down into Christchurch and went drinking in the hostel bar - quite a good bar but quite empty. Ended up spending a lot of the night wondering why people do some of the things they do on a dance floor when fuelled by a bit of alcohol!

Day 24 - March 1st - Christchurch to Kaikoura

Back along our original route at the start of the south island to get eventually to Picton to catch the ferry to Wellington in the North Island. Kaikoura hasn't changed much since the last time we were there, although this time the weather was finally hot and sunny! This meant a full day of tanning (burning) on the beach. Literally sat on the beach for about 7 hours chatting to a London girl called Sophie who knew some of the members of Cajun Dance Party so I was slightly star struck. Later on in the day we "hiked" to the big supermarket to get our fully cooked Roast Chicken that we had been craving all day. This was pretty much it here, got a relatively early night again for the early start tomorrow..