We arrived into Picton on the south island at around 12 pm and headed straight to Nelson for the night. We were both still feeling worse for wear even after a little sleep on the ferry so we treated ourselves to a thai green curry from the pub restaurant at the english owned hostel/pub we stayed at. it was mint! and sorted us right out. We chilled with a few dvds that night and met a group of girls from kent who were our new friends for the next few days. We left Nelson the next morning and stopped off at Nelson lake national park for a picnic courtesy of our very good bus driver Smiley! But we got bit to shreads by loads of sandflies :( . We continued our journey onto Westport which was literaly the worst place i have ever been in a while. It was a small hick fishing town known a the home of the mullets and there even is a mullet family! Fortunatley we didnt get to see them though as I spent the whole evening in bed alseep after a million pain killers because 2 nights before i slipped and landed on my hand and crushed it underneath me. But the 2 days previous there was little pain so i assumed i just sprained it or something. Anyway at 12 at night i woke up and decided i better go to hospital because it was killing and i couldnt hack the pain (sissy i know). We walked to the 'hospital' in hicksville aka Westport as it was only a 10 minute walk. The hospital turned out to be more like a doctors surgery from a horror movie with 2 nurses there who said i couldnt get an xray there but they would bandage it for me until i could get to a better hospital the next morning. So the next morning when we stopped off at a place called Greymouth on the west coast i went to a+e whilst everyone else went shopping for their outfits for the fancy dress night later that evening. I was in and out of the hospital like a flash, had 4 x rays and the doctor said that he thinks my hand is broken but i would have to wait another 2 weeks and get it x-rayed again because the bone i broke doesnt fuly show its break until it starts to heal???? confusing...yeah i thought so too. So they put a stupid splint on my hand which i have to wear for 2 weeks. That evening we went to lake mahinapua where we stayed at a place called the poo pub run by an 84 year old man called uncle les....legend! The fancy dress theme was sluts and geeks and we all had an enjoyable night laughing at lads attempts to be sluts.

The next day there was some very sore heads on the bus! we headed down the west coast onto Franz Josef as this was going to be our stopping place for the next two nights. On the way we stopped off at the Bushman Centre where we saw some possums and watched a short video about NZ hunters of the old day....nutters! These guys used to jump out of helicopters and wrestle deers and stags to the floor!!! When we got to Frans Josef we chilled out with a hot spa and got our heads down ready for the Glacier trek the next morning. We were up early and at the Glacier trek office for 9am, we got kitted out with the gear crampons etc and jumped on the bus for a short ride to the glacier start. The glacier looked so close but it was infact an optical illusion as it was a 45 minute walk away, also it looked a short distance from 1 side of the valley to the other but it was a whole km wide! we walked to the base and put on our crampons ready to get going. We went in the fast confident group even though Caz wasnt confident and I had a suspected broken hurting hand! But to both our suprises Caz grew in confidence as the trek went on and my hand managed fine. The views and experience are undescribable! It was a great experience which we will probably never get to have again....explains all the pics! We were on the ice for a total of 6-7hrs and got 600m up the Glacier which was 5km long! It was definatley worth the sore feet and mega blisters. that night we treated ourselves to a well earned pub tea and had lots of free cider because our meal took an hour more than it should have ;) .

Wanaka was our next port of call and we stopped off at various lakes and waterfalls on the way to break up the journey....again lots of beautiful scenery and lush rainforests were in abundance. The lakes were especially nice because they were mirror lakes meaning because of their sediment they reflect alot (see pics). We got to Wanaka and had a walk around the lake and fed some big trout! Had a quiet night in as we had our own room and enjoyed a nite in front of the rubbish nz tv! The party town of Queenstown was our next destination and we were all excited to get somewhere with abit of a nightlife. That night we went to World bar where they serve cocktails in tea pots. Our bus had a password and we had to say it to the bartender and we would get a free drink or if you are caroline or harriet...lots of free drinks. The password was 'why does KFC not have toilet paper???? because its finger licking good! Very random but it was fun and a cheap heavy night. The following morning i had a hangover from hell and decided that its best cure would be to walk up the mountain to the gondola.....bad idea that was. We were in such a fragile state we had to stop every 5 minutes for a rest! But the views from the top was worth it in the end, what made it even better was that the gondola back down was $12 and i got talking to the ticket vendor who was randomly from Pontypool so he let us get it for free ;) pays to be welsh sometimes! In the evening we had the famous fergburger which is basically a cow in a bun the burgers are that big.

The next day was roasting so I persuaded Caz to have a game of mini golf, turns out i was playing Tiger Woods for the first 9 holes as caz was kicking my butt and even got a hole in 1! but she made a big error on the 10th and had a hissy fit like a child whilst i was rolling around in laughter and from then on regained composure to win the game. Victory was sweet ha! After that we went for a walk around the botanical gardens and chilled down by the gorgeous lake until late evening with some friends. We played some pool in the bar after that and enjoyed our last night in Queenstown and said some more byes to good friends.

The next morning was a killer 8 hour journey from Queenstown up to Christchurch on the east coast. The good weather made it so much worse as the bus was like an oven! When we arrived in Christchurch we went for a wander around the city and chilled out with some films that evening. We wont bore you with long stories about our time in Christchurch as we didt get up to much for the 3 days we were there. We used it as a chill out time and enjoyed the browsing around shops, Sumner beach and walks around Hagley park which is the third biggest city park in the world. Also we bumped into some old friends, 2 swiss lads mattheiu and steffan who had been on our bus previously and werent expecting to see them again. After our 3 days in Christchurch our final stop in the south island was to be the coastal town of Kaikoura which means 'to eat crayfish'. Kaikoura is famous for its marine life, dolphins whales, seals etc but the boat trips were expensive so we gave them a miss and left that activity for the future. Instead myself and evil knievel rented some mountain bikes for the day and had a nice laugh driving up to south bay where there was a seal colony and then around the coast and back. A group bbq was arranged that evening and we had a good feed with the team before heading back to Picton the next day for our ferry back to Wellington on the bottom of the North island.