Bula! I arrived safely into Fiji yesterday, I begin island-hopping tomorrow, SO excited! Fingers crossed for the weather though as I have arrived into what is supposed to be their wettest month. Goodbye tan, ha. Saying that it was beautiful today so hopefully it will continue. What a wonderfully tropical little place this is, I'm back to pot-holed roads, dripping humidity, people riding in the back of trucks and geckos on the walls! Everybody is SO friendly too, the hostel I'm staying in is run by a lovely Fijian family complete with a little boy 'Junior' who chased the cats away from my dinner and then followed me around for the majority of last night, ha. Before I go into all that though I must update you on beautiful New Zealand!
I arrived into Christchurch at the end of January and spent a few days exploring/organising my NZ travel etc. I spent the rest of my time admiring the very English parks, squares and gardens. I immediately saw the difference between the Aussies and the Kiwis. New Zealanders are much more humble and laid back, very friendly too, they also add 'ay?' to the end of everything they say and call each other 'bro' instead of mate. Love it. I cannot believe that I was taking photos of the Cathedral and now there's hardly anything left of it, what an awful awful thing to have happened, it's been so sad to watch the heart-breaking stories unfold on the television. A really sad time.
I decided to take the hop-on hop-off 'Magic' Bus as a north and south island travel combo was on offer for $349 (£175), my route was supposed to be worth about $800;quite a saving! The company also arranges accommodation and activities whilst onboard, a great excuse to be lazy. The bus was also a great way to get to know people as, during the south island trip especially, many people seemed to take the same itinerary; it was lovely to see a bus full of familiar faces in the morning! I met a lovely German girl, Jasmin, with whom I spent quite a bit of time, a group of really fun Dutch girls and a few British girls as well, fun times.
After my first visit to Christchurch (with new camera purchased; the third one of travelling!) I headed up the coast on the Magic bus to a beautiful place called Kiakoura. As we left Christchurch the scenery became more and more stunning, topped only by arriving into the turquoise waters and beautiful mountain ranges of Kiakoura itself. I had literally never seen anything like this place and understood immediately what people meant when they talked about the beauty of the south island. I could not get over the fact that people lived in this little town with these stunningly beautiful views around them everyday! I felt like saying to them "Do you know what's behind you!?' Ha. Kaikoura is great for wildlife spotting; we saw some seals on the way in, I took a boat trip and saw a pack of wild dolphins, and whale watching is another common activity. Perfect.
After a couple of nights I hopped back onto the bus and headed all the way around to Nelson stopping off at Picton to let people on/off the ferry. We stopped at various other beautiful points of interest on the way; a process I'd come to realise was all part of the magic experience. Nelson itself is basically the stopover for access to the Able Tasman National Park (named after the Dutchman who originally stumbled across New Zealand when actually in search of Australia). Jasmin and I decided on the four hour, 11kilometer walk including a coach out to the park itself and a boat journey out to the 11km point. My God it was hard work, we were trekking mountain hillsides, struggling through rainforests (and beach-resting!) along the way, all in flip flops may I add! Ha. I did actually cut my big toe pretty badly so I'm not recommending it, I just have no other shoes! The scenery was unbelievable and when the sun began to shine in the afternoon the waters and sands of the beach areas made all the hiking worthwhile, I really hadn't been expecting such wonderful beaches in NZ!
After Nelson we had a compulsory overnight stop in the tiny town of Greymouth….and grey it was. Our hostel had a promotion for a cheap bed and ticket to a rugby game, as we were in NZ and they are so passionate about the game we felt we had to really. I think it was between a Kiwi and an Aussie team (shows how much attention I was paying) as there was a lot of banter being thrown around. It was a draw in the end though.
We left the next morning and ventured down to the Franz Josef Glacier, by this point the weather had taken a turn for the worst and the rain had become torrential. I made it on the walk up to the Glacier (decked out in a poncho) but couldn't even get out my camera to take a picture! Despite this, the glacier itself was still an amazing spectacle; a HUGE glacier set in the mountains surrounded by lakes and GUSHING waterfalls.
The next day consisted of a long journey down to Queenstown via Waneka. A French couple on the coach were adamant that they'd booked their space despite their names not being on the list (to be fair they'd had to take alternative transport earlier in the week when Magic had messed up the list). The coach was a 49 seater with 51 people waiting to go so Jasmin and I decided to take the driver up on the offer of free alternative transport and a free night's accomodation in Queenstown. It meant that we missed out on some of the scenic stops but we didn't mind too much as we arrived earlier than the bus despite leaving later. All's well that ends well.
QUEENSTOWN! What a fantastic little place. Not only is it adrenaline-junkie capital of the world and a lovely town with an unmatched nightlife, it is also set amongst beautiful mountains (quite aptly named The Remarkables) and another stunningly beautiful turquoise lake! We had some fun evenings out doing the standard things that visitors must i.e. having a cocktail served in a teapot and drinking it from a shot glass in World Bar and ending the night in FergBurger. We spent the days chilling in town or by the lake and riding the Gondala up the mountain for spectacular views and 'Luging' (down-hill go-karting). When it was my turn for the advanced course I was thinking, 'I can't even drive, I don't think I should be go-karting down a mountain' ha. My caution proved to be my downfall though as I was going so slowly that another girl accidentally cut me up and shunted me into the side HA. Jasmin and I also went on a daytrip to Milford Sound from Queenstown. WOW. The drive down there, albeit a long one, was almost as much of a highlight as the boat trip around Milford Sound itself. We stopped at Mirror Lakes, snow-capped mountains and drunk from a glacier fresh water stream (best water EVER). I cannot begin to describe the beauty of some of the things I saw that day. The boat trip around the Sound was also absolutely beautiful, Mitre Peak is quite something close up as were the waterfalls and mountain ranges.
Jasmin had more time to kill so stayed in Queenstown slightly longer than I did so I said goodbye to her there. Really nice girl, her English was PERFECT but she'd say funny things like "Oh I hate those men in clubs with sunglasses on, why do they do it? Are they 'watching on boobs?'. Watching 'on' boobs, HA. The Dutch girls and I continued onward to the most Scottish town outside of Scotland, Dunedin. The weather was very Scottish too and as I was only staying for the one night I didn't really see too much of it. I did however walk up the world's steepest street there, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records and everything.
The next stop was Lake Tekapo via the naturally formed Moraki Boulders. The weather was quite dull so I didn't really experience the full beauty of the turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo but I could fully appreciate the magnificence of the place. The next day I left for Christchurch to catch a flight to Wellington on the north island where I picked the Magic bus back up three days later.
I will update on the north island as soon as I can although the first islands that I'm heading to tomorrow, The Yasawas, apparently have no running hot water and only have electricity in the evenings (if you're lucky) so I very much doubt that they'll have wifi for me. You never know.
Lots of love to you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx See you soon!