Hi, sorry it has been so long since i last wrote, i have been mostly in the middle of nowhere with no reception and no internet. I actually just spent over half an hour typing this only for me to some how accidentally delete what i had just written, so i have going to have to try and write all this quickly again....
On Monday Sam and I were joined by a group of people in the bus who had come down from the north isalnd. the first thing we did was go to a winery, something which i had not done before. cant say that i liked the wine all that much (dare i say that they all tasted pretty much the same? i didnt say that to the woman that had the 'wine degreee'). we also got to try some liquers which i much preferred, and i also got ttry the worlds best gin, alghouth i had just had a butterscothc liquer when i tried it so it was a bit lost on me.
The next day we went to Abel Tasman National Park, whcih was really beautiful. we stayed at a campsite called old macdonalds farm, whcih had al-paccas and chamels (sheep camel crosses). I went on a full day kayaking through able tasman park, whicih in total was about7 hours kayaking and 10kms in the sea. it rained very heavily in the morning, but was beautifully sunny in the afternoon, although still very cold at 8 degrees and i was soaked through!
Wednesday was mainly a drving day alhtough in the eveing we went to a brewery which was much more my scene now that i am a beer drinker. the tour of the brewery was pretty boring, but afterwards we got to drink as much beer as possible, and i also got to have a go at pouring my own beer. the was in greymouth
The next morning a few of the girls and i went bonecarving. i made my own neckalce out of cow bone, which was surprisingly difficult and hard work! It took about 4 hours in total. I am really proud of it though. my pendant means 'new beginnings, growth and harmony' in the maori tradition, which i like. and the woman who helped us designed my pendant herself, so there wont be too many of the same design around.
On Friday i did a full day glacier walk on the Franz Josef glacier. We walked for over 6 hours and it was very tough. I purposly put myself in the slowest of the slow groups, which i was really glad about, as we went at a good pace but still managed to get to all the bit the other groups did. in fact it was better as the other grousp spent a lot of their time cutting throught the ice. I had all the gear, crampons (which i managed somehow to snap) and wlaking sticks etc. It was very tough but the higher we got the more beautiful and blue the ice got, truely incredible. we crawled through tunnels and deep cravasses that were so narrow i could hardly fit through them. there were also steps cut into the ice in some places but the biggest trouble i had was simply my stumpy legs. one part in particlyar, we had just got through a cravass and some of the guides had started to cut steps into a sheer wall of ice. they cut the stps diagonally but were too far apart for my little legs to reach! i ended up just grabbing on to a rope they flung down, digging my crampons into the ice and having faith in the the rope and trying not to let it slip to pull myself up. it was really hard and i dint think iwas going to be able to do it, but i was really proud when i did. In the evening we went to a really nice spa, which had three pools at 36,. 38, and 40 degrees (which was actually too hot) after that we went for a really nice meal in a restaruant and i had a roast dinner (for the first time since i have been away!).
Yesterday and today have just been travelling days, adn i am now in queenstown. tomorrow i am going skiing!!!! which i have never done before so i am really excited, although i have a nasty cold so i am not looking forward to my 6am start tomorrow. will add photos and update more when i can!