I have my blog head on so here goes..

I arrived in Queenstown after a fairly lengthy bus journey from Wanaka. I was due to spend 3 nights here but ended up staying for 5 instead. I couldnt travel on the Saturday as I had arranged to speak to Ciara that morning and my bus didnt travel to the next destination on the Friday so I had to leave on the Sunday instead. Still, it was nice to stay in one place for a while. Queenstown is a lovely place with loads going on, live bands, cheap meal and drinks deals, tons of different tourist activities but it can be quite pricy overall! Queenstown is on the edge of Lake Wakitipu with mountains in the distance across the shore. The views around there are amazing, as with everywhere else in NZ!

I arrived fairly late in the day so after having a wander about and getting a feel for the place I grabbed a bite to eat and went to watch Shutter Island at the cinema as I'd been looking forward to it for a while. I

My next day there I decided to do something as I had spent my time in Lake Wanaka doing absolutely jack. I went up the side of the hill which overlooks Queenstown in a cable car, the Gondola as they call it and went lugeing on the track they have at the top of the hill. It's not the type of luge that you get in the Olympics, its a more manouverable one with handlebars. You pull the handlebars back to brake and forward to go and gravity does the rest. I had to have a go on the basic track to start with and then had another two go's on the advanced track which was good fun and had plenty of hairpin bends, tunnels and sudden slopes to race down! I had to really lean into some of the bends as I was pelting round the track at a fair pace! I made a point of pulling a mega cheesy grin for the photo finish too, had to be done, ha ha. I couldnt wave my arms around as I would have lost control of the luge and tore my elbows up like a guy I saw that found out the hard way that his luge didnt have any working brakes, oops!

After getting some great shots of the views from the top of the hill I took the cable car back down and went for a Fergburger. A Fergburger is basically a huge gourmet burger but made with the freshest ingredients I've ever tasted in a burger. The lettuce was super crisp and green as was the rest of the salad in it. The meat patty itself was totally chewy and fresh and not at all greasy or fatty. A blast of tasty relish in there finishes it off. They're surprisingly nice! I made the mistake of ordering fries with it as I was starving andf ended up giving them away as I was stuffed. It's no wonder the place is always packed full of customers at all hours of the day and night. Mmmmm... Fergburger.... (drools)

Afterwards I bumped into a couple of Dutch girls, both called Anne who had arrived in Queenstown a day earlier and had stayed in my room at the hostel in Franz Josef. We went for a coffee followed by a couple of beers in the World bar, one of the main bars in Queenstown. We met up with more Dutch folks who are travelling on the Magic Bus and sat and had a drink together. I wasnt really 'feeling' being out that night so went home after a while.

The following morning I went out souvenir shopping for Ciara and my family and spent the rest of the day writing postcards and buying a new pen to write them with as I had foolishly dropped my other one into the harbour by accident. I cant for the life of me remember what I did in the evening but it cant be that interesting if I cant recall it!

On the Friday I went up to the Shotover river (where parts of Lord Of The Rings were filmed) and had a ride on the jet boat - a $250,000 powerboat that is stupidly fast! Along with 15 or so other people I went for a spin up and down the canyon. The boat literally skims along on not more than half a foot of water in certain places and whistles past the canyon walls with bare inches to spare, its ace! The driver signals and then does a 360 degree spin which usually involves a good soaking, especially for me as I sat on the edge of the boat. I found my whole left side was drenched when I got out. No worries though, unlike the UK it's nice and warm in NZ at the minute which meant I dried out in no time, ha ha. We had a good 30 mins up and down the canyon on the boat, it was good fun!

That evening after a couple of beers at the token Irish bar in Queenstown I met 'The Dutch' at the World bar and had beers with them and another lone Englishman, James. I wasnt completely alone as a nationality, ha ha. Although they all speak very good English so it didnt matter. We got told that if we drew a moustache on our faces and said 'Hey Pedro, where's my sombrero?' that we'd each get a free beer at the bar. I along with some of the others got there a little too late as it only lasted for 15 mins and then they finished it. I felt pretty stupid as I'd drawn a wicked handlebar on the inside of my forefingers which had gone to waste, shame really, ha ha. After heading to the Buffalo bar and drinking some more we went back to the World bar again which by this point everyone had sloped off home. I caught my beer scooter home and crashed out about 3am. I had a good night, I havent been out too much in NZ or Oz for that matter so it was good to have a blast and escape the boredom of an evening spent sat in the hostel. Plus the Dutch are a great crowd so I had a top night.

On the Saturday I chatted with Ciara on the webcam for a couple of hours, we had loads to catch up on and I'd been looking forward to it all week! :) I had an energy drink to shift the hangover and I was right as rain for chatting! Afterwards I spent the rest of the day doing washing and having a nap as my hangover returned with a vengeance. Getting old you see...

I left Queenstown the next morning, kind of glad in a way as if I had spent any longer there it would have sapped my funds for the remainder of the trip. Long way to go yet! I got some surprise news that morning before boarding the coach about the earthquake in Chile. I was also told there was a tsunami warning for the NZ coast, right where I was headed in Dunedin.

I arrived fairly late in Dunedin, which is basically a student city on the East coast. I didnt see any of Dunedin as it didnt look too spectacular and I was only staying 1 night so didnt see much point. I went to the supermarket, bought a tin of beans, enjoyed them with toast, drank some wine, watched I am Legend on TV and went to sleep. The next day I found out the tsunami was actually a wave no higher than a couple of feet! The sea did go out quite a way which indicates a warning but nothing came of it. On leaving Dunedin we stopped at the worlds steepest street which isnt recommended for an early morning climb! It's so steep it has steps on the pavement!

Next destination was Lake Tekapo, a really chilled out small town next to, erm, a lake. I spent two nights here, the first of which was spent down the road at the hostel where The Dutch were staying. I was glad to get there as gale force winds were blowing in across the lake, it was like Mordor out there!! At the other hostel I cooked a curry for the two Annes and along with some others we ended up doing a 1000 piece jigsaw well into the late evening. They all had to be up to leave the next morning so it didnt get finished that night. I was really getting into it too. Nerd.. I mooched back to my hostel afterward and called it a night.

My next day in Lake Tekapo I had a run in with the hostel's geriatric cleaning lady who scolded me for being in the kitchen and making myself a bacon sarnie whilst it was clearly her time for cleaning the place. There were two signs warning me of what time she cleaned and I had read the 'wrong' one. Foolish me! She was quite territorial and I was lucky to have escaped with my life. I'm not in the business of arguing with old ladies so just ignored her. I spent the rest of the day chilling by the lakeside, soaking up the sun and reading. There isnt a great deal to do in Lake Tekapo, its just a place to relax. In the evening I sat down in front of the TV and watched a crap reality TV programme that a girl sat next to me was engrossed in. Bret Michaels out of the 80's hair rock band Poison chooses a bride-to-be out of a bunch of hopeful bimbos, all of them b****ing with each other whilst they get eliminated one by one. Utter garbage. Disgusted, I went to bed.

The next morning I had a peek round the door to see if the cleaning lady was ready to strike me with a blunt instrument. The coast was clear so I made a run for it, ha ha. I got on the coach and headed up to Christchurch, where I had first started my travels in NZ. Not a lot to write about my night there really. I watched Bruno on the TV in the hostel, drank a glass or two of wine and crashed out.

I travelled up to Kaikoura the next morning and stayed a night at the hostel I had previously stayed at 2 weeks earlier and as luck would have it, the sun was shining which meant they were putting on another BBQ at $5 a head! Sweet. I grabbed some beers and got stuffed on plenty of nice grub as well as dessert. After chatting with some other guests I called it a night as I had another early start. Because I had to travel the Christchurch, Kaikoura, Pitcon stretch twice it means having only a night in each place which also means 3 consecutive days of travelling which to be honest is pretty tedious day after day.

I left Kaikoura early the next morning and got dropped at Picton where I caught the ferry over to the North Island. On leaving the South island the ferry passes through a part of the Marlborough Sounds which are beautiful to look at. After sailing across the Cook Strait I arrived in Wellington where I've been for the last 4 days.

I've already rambled enough so I'l leave Wellington til next time. Besides whats left of the sunshine is dwindling so I may head for a well deserved cold one in the sun as it's my last night here!

Ta ta people!