I haven't updated my blog in a while so I am going to do one big post, let's hope you find it interesting and aren't asleep by the end of it!

I left Wellington and travelled to the South Island. We left at 7am to catch the 9am ferry to Picton in the South Island. The ferry was long but luckily the water was quite calm, I just read and slept the whole way! We were travelling to a place called Kaiteritiri which is by the beach in the Abel Tasman national park. I decided to stay three nights. We arrived at 6ish cooked some food and then went to the bar and did the pub quiz. We started well and blitzed the round on food (see dad all those masterchef episodes paid off!) but overall came about 4th. I went straight to bed afterwards and apparently 4 people came into my room really drunk and waking everyone up and I slept through the whole thing! So my plan for kaiteritiri was to sunbath and chill on the beach all day, well it rained pretty much all the time I was there, which messed up my plan of getting a tan! I think the sun came out for two hours on my last day so I did a couple of walks in the national park and to hidden beeches and then it was time to leave. It's a beautiful spot but just a shame it decided to rain for three days.

From kaiteritiri we travelled to Westport. Apparently the scenery was amazing but it chucked it down the whole way there and the bus was so steamed up that I couldn't see a bloody thing out the window! We arrived in the town and stayed at Bazil's hostel. It was really quirky. I spoke to mum and dad there who thought I was living in a tin shed. Everything was pretty much closed so I went to the cinema to watch the hunger games (it was still raining outside) came back to make my dinner and had an early night. It seemed like a pretty pointless stop but I think it breaks down the long journey between the towns in the South Island.

We travelled from Westport to Lake Mahinapua. We stopped at a seal colony on route and saw about 20 seals on the rocks. It then started to rain again, can you tell all it's done is rain for a week!? The bus stopped at a couple of walks, the first I stayed on the bus and just as the guys walked down to the walk it was he heaviest rain we had seen and the second only a handful of people went because it was raining. I don't have a coat or proper shoes so staying on the bus was definitely the right call! The hostel at lake Mahinapua is called the poo pub and traditionally the one big night for the kiwi bus to have a fancy dress party. We stopped at a two dollar store to get our outfits and arrived at the pub. They cooked us a big steak dinner and we all got changed. A lot of people dressed up in Christmas outfits and there were angels, pimp, bumble bee. The bus driver 'Dave/cuddles' dressed in an outrageous outfit (photos to follow). It was a fun night and beer was cheap so everyone had a good night.

We left in the morning to travel to Franz Josef. Franz Josef has the Franz Josef glacier and we had booked in to do the ice explorer on the second day. We arrived at the hostel and booked in for our 9am trip. It was about 4pm at this time. We just had a quiet night and a few drinks but it was mainly a day of travelling in the rain and everyone was pretty fed up and wanting an early night. So the day of the ice explorer arrived. You travel up in a helicopter and have three hours being guided around the ice. There were fifteen of us booked on the trip so five went in one group and ten in the other. We all got kitted up in our ice gear and made our way to the helicopter. The first group went up, we had our safety brief and then the guide pulled us to the side and said we couldn't go as the clouds had dropped to low. They said they would keep checking the levels and if there was a break we would get u there. That was us hanging around for almost 3 hours and then we were to the weather had got worse and they had cancelled all the trips! So that was us all gutted and missing the only chance to go to the glacier. :( there were a couple of girls who had been waiting 4/5 days to go up but every time their trip had been cancelled, just disappointing.

We decided that we still wanted to see the glacier so there was a walk you could do to get to the glacier. We hopped on a shuttle and walked for about 45 minutes to get to the closest point to the glacier (so mum you were right I did go on a hike rather than do the ice explorer) It was cool and there were a lot of amazing waterfalls and the rate at which it is disappearing die to higher temperature means it could have been my only chance to see it. We got a group photo at the top view, Ellie, Shane, Georgie and Jonas walked with me) With the ice explorer we got free entry into the hot pools. Although we got a full refund as our trip was cancelled they didn't take our wristbands off so me and Georgie went to the hot pools for a dip in 38/40 degree waters (for free :) where it normally costs $25) We left there and you guessed it...it was chucking it down again!

I bumped into Leslie and we decided to go for tea in the bar at about 5.30pm, I don't think I left the bar till about 12am (don't worry I wasn't drinking all that time!). There was a limbo competition on and you could win a canyon swing as first prize. I didn't have a go as I am the least flexible person ever and I would never want to do a canyon swing! It was a funny competition and my friend Ellie came second and won a pub crawl around queenstown. Bed it was as we were up early again.

From Franz Josef we were heading to wanaka. We stopped at lake Matheson. It is a beautiful reflective lake, one of the best I have ever seen. Arriving in wanaka the sun finally came out!! Yay. The drive over to wanaka was amazing. The pic on this blog is from there, mountains, snow, lakes, waterfalls. The bus driver told us Shania Twain used to live in wanaka and houses now cost in the millions to buy. I can understand why as most houses have a beautiful view of the lake, even the view from my hostel window was amazing. I spent the afternoon walking around the lake and taking photos with the Sophie and Fiona. We cooked tea together and everyone had an early night. I think we had all tired ourselves out the previous evening with all the limbo excitement.

Right so that's me all caught up until today. We left the hostel at 9am and went to puzzle world. It's a huge maze, where you had to get to the four towers in each corner and then had to find your way to the exit. I was going around with Sophie...we may have only made it to two towers and used the emergency exit to escape but no one else needs to know that! From there we went to an illusion room and it was amazing. I have a few pics which I will upload. There was an offer on a bacon sandwich so I had that, what a mistake as the ketchup sprayed in my face, all over my top and my jeans. Luckily I was wearing a black top and had planned on doing my washing tonight!

So we are currently stopped at a fruit and veg shop on the way to queenstown. It's not raining at the moment so let's hope it stays like that! In to queenstown for the adrenalin activities...I don't plan on doing any of them, no chance I'll be chucking myself off a bridge! xxx