WELLINGTON TO PICTON: I'm not the best water traveller but have been on a few boats in my time and have been OK. We were warned that the ferry across from Wellington to Picton would not run if the swell in the water was 3 meters or above. The crossing is known for having quite choppy water but I thought we would be fine. We arrived at the ferry station and the swell was 2 meters high - not great, but given how large the ferry looked I was satisfied that we wouldn't have a bumpy ride. The ferry was large inside with a breakfast bar, coffee and a shop for anything else you needed. About 5 million teenagers boarded the ferry at the same time, presumably on a school field trip or something. They were just at that age which is incredibly annoying and LOUD! As we meandered through the fiords out of Wellington, the water was perfectly calm and I thought we were in for a smooth ride, that was until we hit the ocean crossing, where the boat started to sway and rock quite consistently along with the 2 meter swell. It was a horrible sickly experience, coupled with school kids running around like foxes in a chicken coup!! This lasted for about 3 hours, so as you can imagine we were one of the first off the boat as we docked in Picton. I'm glad that I didn't have to complete my journey of New Zealand by having to cross back again. As we got off the ferry, Christa and I bumped into Derek again from the first bus and he introduced us to Vicky (from The Wirral) and Charlotte (from Manchester) who turned out to be lovely. We found our new driver (Dave), who looked like an alcoholic werewolf but friendly enough (until the next full moon!). PICTON TO MARAHAU (ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK): The first stop was to do some wine tasting at one of the famous Marlborough wine making area's vineyards. We all sampled some of the selection of wines they had laid out for us, pretending that we knew what we were talking about. Between us, we walked out of there with a whole case of wine, which shocked the driver as normally Stray passengers don't buy anything. I think he was suspecting he would have his work cut out on this trip. We continued our journey south to a town called Nelson, where we stopped off for some lunch and supplies for the evening. We had been told that we were staying on a farm so would need some groceries. There wasn't all that much in Nelson, so we headed off south a bit further until we arrived where we were staying for the night - Marahau, on the edge of Able Tasman National Park. We were staying at a place called 'Old MacDonalds Farm', where they had dinner ready for us on arrival. Very nice of them I would say, but it was all plated out in advance and the fattest cat in the world had broken into our residencies and devoured some of the meat on the plates. I think the driver had the one that had been chewed the most!! In the evening, we just chilled out and got to know each other a little better, while drinking the wine from our visit to the vineyards earlier that day. Vicky taught me how to play backgammon (a game I have always wanted to know) out of two dice that I had made out of one of the wine corks. You have to improvise when travelling!! MARAHAU TO BARRYTOWN: We had the morning to ourselves as werewolf Dave told us that we weren't leaving until about 12:30. It was a beautiful day, so after Christa and I had introduced ourselves to some of the animals on the farm (mad goat, sheep, pigs, llama etc...), we headed off for a 2 hour walk through Abel Tasman National Park. It was absolutely stunning and there were some great backdrops every corner we turned. We got as far as a lovely little beach with caves and rock formations before we had to head back to the farm and get on the bus again. We waited on the bus for about 45 minutes as Vicky and Derek must have got lost in the bush. Just as we were about to send out a search helecopter for them, they rolled up and we headed off for Barrytown. Along the way, we hit the coast at Westport (an old mining town) and then headed south along the coast through Cape Foulwind. We were supposed to visit a seal colony there, but didn't have time as we were running late. Following the Buller Gorge we stopped off here and there to take in some of the sights and take some photographs. Just before we got to Barrytown, we stopped at 'Pancake Rocks' to have a look at the blow holes that have been carved into the rocks by the sea. It was dark by this point so we didn't see too much of the blowholes and it was really eerie walking through the overgrown bush path to get to and from them. Dave very kindly jumped out of the bushes in front of me, causing my heart to stop and fill my pants with my colon!! I have done that so many times to people, it's about time someone got their own back on me. I don't think I have ever screamed for my life so loud!! We arrived at Barrytown at about 7:00pm, just in time for a spitroast dinner that they had laid on for us. The accommodation was at a pub strangely enough and quite conveniently I might add!! Now, we were all a little curious as to why we were staying 2 nights at Barrytown as the Lonely Planet doesn't even list it, but there is a very good reason for that in hind sight!! It's a s***hole to pardon my French. A small provincial villiage in the middle of nowhere, not unlike the 'local' villiage of Royston Vasey ('League of Gentleman' fans will understand). The locals appeared a tad inbred and beyond wierd. I'm sure I saw that on eof them had a tail!! In fairness, the whole following day was spent doing something really dreat, but I can't talk about it on the website because what I did forms part of a Christmas present for someone and I don't want to ruin the surprise. All I will say is that I didn't think I was ever capable of making something of such high quality using the raw materials that I was given. Whoever gets this present will very much appreciate it. BARRYTOWN TO FRANZ JOSEF: We continued our journey from Barrytown towards Franz Josef where there is a huge glacier. I had only really read about glaciers in GCSE Geography and don't ever recall seing one before, so I was really looking forward to this trip. On arrival we all went to the tourist office to book our trips for the following day. Vicky, Christa and I deceided to do the helihike, which involved being taken high on to the glacier face and then hiking for about 3 hours around the top and then being choppered back. Sounded amazing, however we were disappointed to learn that the weather the following day would not be good enough to allow the chopper to fly, so we had to opt for a full-day hike up the glacier, which would take us up as high as where the helihike went anyway - just more effort to get there. The following day, as forecasted, it rained. We went out to the glacier anyway to do our hike with the hope that the weather would improve as the day went on. Not bloody likely. All day, for 6 hours, I trunged up that galcier in the pouring rain. I was wet through to my underwear and colder thn you could possibly imagine. The glacier and the walk is actually quite spectacular, and I'm glad that I did it, however the weather did really take the shine off it. It was an experinec though and I have never hiked up a glacier before, dicing with death on the slippery slopes with nothing to stop you slipping other than the rusty cramp-ons attached to your boots. Vicky got 'red-carded' off the glacier after about 1 hour because she was slowing the whole group down and Christa was feeling the cold a bit, so went with her. I found them in the pub back in Franz Josef with a beer each and a big bowl of chips when I got back!! FRANZ JOSEF TO HAAST: After we had all done our hikes and packed our stuff on the bus, we headed off to our next destination. Also, we picked up Paul, Penny and a couple of others so our numbers were growing. Again, en route, we stopped off at various stops to take in the sights and take pictures of the incredible scenery. The scenery is getting much more dramatic by this stage as we approach the Southern Alps. Many of the mountains are snow capped and just bounce the light off them in the most spectacular ways. There isn't really very much in Haast apart from the campsite where we stayed. We really didn't do very much when we got there apart from eat and try to get warm by the big fire that we had. Our wet clothes from the hike were scattered all over the place and the place had a certain stale humid smell about it. Nevertheless, we all slept very well that night. HAAST TO QUEENSTOWN: We turn our backs on the Tasman Sea, which we have been travelling along for the last few days and head inland along the Haast Pass. We wound our way through the maountainous region of Mount Aspiring National Park, taking in the beauty of Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka along the way. Some people carried on to have lunch in Wanaka town whereas some of us got off the bus at Puzzleworld (just before Wanaka) to bring out the kid in us. We wandered around a maze, which was really difficult and frustrated me somewhat and also took in som eof the illusions and exhibits that they had on offer. It killed a couple of hours, before the bus came back and picked us up again to take us to Queenstown. Before we got there, we stopped off at the famous A.J.Hacket bungy site at Kawarau gorge where Derek had booked a jump. We stood and watched him as he plunged to his death off the bridge, getting dinked up to his waist in the water below, before being snapped back up by the bungy cord. It looked quite cool and I was tempted to do it myself, however I just couldn't justify the cost of it and I had more important things to spend my money on in Queenstown. QUEENSTOWN: We arrived in Queenstown on Saturday afternoon and werewolf Dave said that if we met him in a pub down the road later that night he would be able to get us some 2 for 1 vouchers for drinks. It seemed rude not to. So after waiting a few hours for the girls to get ready we headed off into the night. It turned into a bit of a bar crawl until we ended up dancing the night away in a club until the early hours. It was a great night - much was consumed, there was dancing on tables, Paul tried to crack on to Christa once he found out that she and I were not a couple and werewolf Dave got refused entry into a couple of clubs for being too drunk. It was at this stage I was kind of glad that I wasn't going to be getting back on his bus out of Queenstown!! The next day was a bit of write off, especially for Christa who stayed in bed all day nursing the hangover from hell!! I however, got up relatively early and explored some of Queenstown to get my bearings. It is a smallish alpine town which surrounds Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded by The Remarkables and Coronet Peak mountain ranges, which are all snow capped and utterly stunning. Later on in the afternoon, Vicky, Charlotte and I went up the Gondola to a lodge which is set in one of the mountains. There were fabulous views over Queenstown and we just sat and admired the beatuty of it all over a hot chocolate and crisps, discussing who did what and who said what the previous night. The following day, Vicky and I did the Shotover Jet, which is a high powered, high speed jet boat which races up and down the Shotover River. It was really exhillarating as it came within inches of the canyon wall and pulling several 360 degree turns every now and then. Geat fun. For the next few days we went skiing in The Remarkables, which was the activity I was most looking forward to in Queenstown. I managed to remember a lot of what I was taught when I last went skiing 18 years ago, so by the end of the 3rd day, I was ripping up the slopes like a pro. Paul appeared to pick it up really quickly considering he had never skied before, Christa was good but skied like a girl and didn't have as much confidence in herself as she should have, but the funniest by far was Vicky who didn't get to grips with it at all. In fact, I saw her skiing backwards more than forwards!! There's something about winter sports and Vicky that just don't mix!! The following Saturday we had planned to go out again to cap off our time in Queenstown. The girls went to the hairdressers in the afternoon to have their hair straightened while Paul and I just killed some time. We played Circle of Death in our rooms again with vodka and Amarula before venturing down to the bar to meet a couple of other friends who we had met, Nicole and Graham (a couple of Australians who were in New Zealand on their honeymoon!!) - lovely people. We had a few outstanding dares to complete (following circle of death game) in the bars before we could really let rip. I'm not sure that I can really detail the evening from this point as it's all a little hazy, but Vicky was successful in her manhunt that night and her bed lay empty until 2pm the next day. We were all feeling rather tender on Sunday, so didn't do too much apart from going out for a farewell meal to celebrate our friendship and good times on the trip so far. The following day, we all knew that were going our separate ways. Christa was off to Fiji, Paul was not travelling with us and going straight to Dunedin, but Vicky and I were getting back on the Orange bus to continue our Stray journey. QUEENSTOWN TO MILTON SOUND TO TE ANAU: The journey to Milton Sound was incredible as we wound through the mountains from 3,000 feet above sea level down to sea level. The roads were very narrow and there was evidence of avalanches all over the place. In some places, the road had been covered by snow and there were still diggers on the side of the road from when they cleared the snow away. We also travelled through the Homer Tunnel, which is an unlines tunnel through a mountain and slopes twoard Milford with a gradient of 1 in 10. We stopped at some lovely waterfalls and filled our bottles up at a natural spring. There was also Mirror Lakes, which on a calm day will perfectly reflect the snow capped mountains in the background to make a perfect picture. Unfortunately, there were some ducks there when we went and they kept messing up the water so it didn't really work for us!! At lunchtime we arrived at Milford Sound and took a scenic cruise for a coupleof hours around the sound. There were dolphins swimming along with our boat which I managed to get some pictures of and the driver took the boat to the foot of a waterfall which get us all wet at the front!! The scery here is just incredible and it looks like nothing on earth. Following the cruise, we made our way back to Te Anau, where we would be staying for the night. The holiday village was very clean and we all had our own rooms for the night. There was no food on site and Vicky and I couldn't be bothered cooking, so we headed straight off to the pub for a generous meal and a couple of beers. When we got back, we were just in time to join the others watching a film and a bottle of wine before retiring. We had an 08:00am start the next day, so didn't stay out too late. TE ANAU TO INVERCARGILL: We headed South East through Lake Manapouri and Riverton to Invercargill, which is New Zealands Southernmost city. I was expecting it to be tiny, however it was actually a lot larger than I had imagined. It looked like a cross between Southport and Lytham St Annes and had a strong Scottish influence. I hung around town on my own for the afternoon, just taking in some of the city while the rest of the people from the bus went to the cinema to see various flicks. In the evening we all met up again to partake in the pub quiz down the road, which we were 30 minutes late for so they wouldn't let us join in!! Neverthe less, we all sat around an open fire in the pub and chatted the night away getting to know the new folf on the bus a little better. Vicky was laid up in bed with a fever caused by Tonsilitis - bless her!! The hostel was one of the nicest in New Zealand a super clean. I certainly had a very pleasant stay here and felt well rested before leaving to the next destination. INVERCAGILL TO DUNEDIN: We drove East along the bottom of New Zealands coastline taking in the sights of The Catlins. Normally this would have been a great trip, but the weather really spoiled it for us as the rain and wind would not let up. The wind was coming straight from Antarctica, combined with cold rain and hail did not make the pit stops very pleasant. Even so, you would find us leaving the bus in this weather looking for blasted sea lions and frigging porpoises, only giving in when our eyeballs started to freeze over!! It got to the stage where we had to tell the driver 'no more' as we really weren't getting the most out of it. We just wanted to get to Dunedin. When we got to Dunedin, I was pissedoff and cold, only to find that the luggage compartment of the bus had leaked water all over my rucksack so it was drenched. I dragged it into the hostel (twice as heavy now) and checked into the hostel. I was expecting something nice, but this place was was frozen in the 1950's!! Everything looked like it was about 100 years old, falling apart and a strange 'unclean' kind of smell to it. It was like checking into an old folks home!! That evening a few of us went on a (Speights) brewery tour to see how "The Pride of the South" was brewed, followed by a tasting session. This was by far the best bit as they just let you pour your own beers behind the bar. They weren't very big glasses, but you could have as many as you liked, which was very generous of them. We met the rest of the clan afterwards and went out for a few drinks to try and rock Dunedin alive, but I fear the place had died a long time ago. DUNEDIN TO CHRISTCHURCH: It's a long way to Christchurch from Dunedin, so we set off early with the intention of doing something along the way to break the journey up a little. En route we stopped off for lunch at the unusual Moeraki boulders, which are big round lumps of rock, which just appear out of the sea like large dinosaur eggs. Again the weather was a bit drizzly, but I still found these things really interesting and they are absolutely ancient also. We expressed then to Christchurch, when I got the chance to finish my book (Digital Fortress). Vicky and I listened to Jack Dee on her CD walkman to pass the time and raise our spirits. CHRISTCHURCH: Christchurch has a really good vibe about it on arrival, maybe because we had now timewarped back into the 21st Century from Dunedin and it looked like there were lots going on. We settled ourselves in and went for a big night out at the bar downstairs and then onto a few clubs. It was a different crowd to that of Queenstown, but all the same these people knew how to party and party hard. I'm not quite sure what time I got in, but it was almost daylight and I got back to the dorm to find Debbie asleep in my bed. Carefully ushering her to her own bed, I slept like a log until about 10:00am when housekeeping were taking covers off me, as in the night I must have ripped duvets and pillows of some of the empty beds for my own comfort!! Oops! I'm still in Christchurch as I type this, however I leave tonight for Singapore. It's also Vicky's birthday tonight, so I have to leave the celebrations at about 2:00am to go to the airport to catch my flight. I have promised myself not to get too drunk because they may not let me on the flight and I have booked myself into the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore, so I don't want to miss that!! My next update will be from Singapore. Miss you all. Stephen xxx