In the meanwhile I have crossed the entire South Island. Last time we spoke, I was in Nelson, today I am in Queenstown where it has been raining for 3 days straight! Yuk! But before I will elaborate on the very interesting things we have been doing in Queenstown, let's start with Abel Tasman.

Abel Tasman is one of many national parks here in New Zealand. Unfortunately when we arrived there it was raining, and raining very hard! Not to worry though, there were nice huts in which we stayed and the outside kitchen which we were using was completely covered. Our bus drivers organized a big BBQ so we all ate together as a big Stray family, good times! Nathalie and I went to bed rather early that day. The next morning was luckily very nice! All the clouds receded, making sun shine very warm on our faces! That day Nathalie, myself and some other people went for a 20km walk in the national park. We got dropped off in the middle of the national park, at Bark bay, by a water taxi and had to walk all the way back to the hostel. The walk was long… but beautiful. It was not as good as the Tongariro crossing even though the weather was a lot better here. The national park is all jungle and beaches, which is incredible, but the Tongariro crossing is a much more varied landscape, making it more interesting to walk. In the end of course we were happy we all did it, I mean 20 km… It is not nothing! Again we had an early night, everyone was super tired.

From Abel Tasman we made our way through to another small town of which I cannot remember the name. We did stay in great lodges there with about 10 people per lodge, great fun! Our next stop was more memorable, Franz Joseph. This is one of the largest glaciers in NZ, Fox glacier is the largest. We had the opportunity to do a guided glacier walk. It was great! A helicopter dropped us somewhere in the middle of the glacier and from there we started walking. The helicopter ride itself was already super cool! The walking was a bit scary at first because you get these spikes attached to your shoes, they are called crampons. So when you walk you have to stomp your feet to dig the spikes into the ice and get grip. We walked for about 2 hours and then were taken to the helicopter again. After we got back to the little town of Franz Joseph we got on the bus again to go to the next stop, Wanaka.

NZ weather is very unpredictable and it had been raining a lot in the past days. The excessive rainfall caused an avalanche near the Hast-pass, this is a road we had to cross. Luckily the day we had to go through it, this pass was open again. If it had not been open we would have had to make a detour of 11 hours… Which is what some other busses before us had to do. We arrived in Wanaka on time. This is another beautiful time located by a lake and surrounded by mountains. The entire bus decided to go to the pub and watch the All Blacks play Australia (Rugby). We had a great night, because the all blacks won!

After picking up some people from doing their skydive in Wanaka, the bus took us to Queenstown, to the Nevis Bungy site, where we had the opportunity to do the highest bungy, 134 meters or the largest swing in the world, 300 meters! And those of you who are friends of mine on facebook know that I did the swing! It was really scary, but sooo cool in the end. I am really happy I did it. I did not do it alone though, Steffi, a German girl did it with me. Adrenaline rush: check! I did not expect there to be a freefall of about 70 meters… Super happy and proud of myself that I did it! After everyone did their jumps and swings, we had a small BBQ at the site after which we drove on into Queenstown.

Now Queenstown is a well known party town. Lots of bars, lots of competitions to win in bars, prizes include free drinks and thrilling rides such as the bungy. That night we all went to Loco, the bar next to our hostel where we could get 5 dollar drinks, it may sound expensive, but for NZ this is very cheap! The competition in the bar today was a bungy run. The price a bungy jump and swing. One person was attached to a bungy rope and had to run and try to get a cocktail shaker, run it back to his partner who then had to skull it. And of course for every item of clothing you took of, some seconds would get deducted from your time. The fastest time would win the prizes. Needless to say, I did not enter this competition, but witnessed many people making a fool out of themselves. The winners ended up being an English girl, completely topless and a guy in his boxers. It turned out to be a fun night though, all the people on our bus were out dancing and having fun.

The next morning Nathalie and a whole bunch of other people took the bus down south, to go to Milford Sound. This is fjordland is supposedly one of the most beautiful places on earth. When we went it was pouring down with rain. The rain and the low clouds prevented us from really seeing a lot of the fjords, but at the same time thousands of waterfalls came down the mountains, which was quite the spectacular view. After we did our little cruise in Milford Sound our bus driver took us to Te Anau, a quite little town with absolutely nothing to do other than walk. The amazing thing about the accommodation we were staying at was that everyone got their own room!!! Wow your own room! Privacy, your own space!!! Yihaa. It sounds weird, but after a long time of not having your own room this is just awesome. So all in all, Te Anau was not too bad. The next day we went further to Invercargill, a town that is the gateway to Stewart Island. A lot of people went to Stewart Island from there, but the ferry was 150 dollars and I did not think it was worth it for one night. So about 8 of us stayed in Invercargill. Nathalie and I walked to the Queens Gardens, which were incredibly beautiful. All the flowers were blooming and there was a small zoo with farm animals, Alpacas an Ostrich and some deer. After the walk I went to the movies with Gael, it was cheap Tuesday, so only 11 dollars! We saw Runner Runner, which I recommend anyone to see! After the movies we went to Dominos for our 5 dollar pizza. Yes as a backpacker you soon find out all the good deals.

The next morning our bus driver picked us up to go to the Catlins. The coastline more east of Invercargill. This coastline is beautiful and is famous for its sea lions, penguins etc. We saw sea lions, scary big animals they are, but no penguins unfortunately. The sun was out though and we enjoyed this beautiful day. In the late afternoon we went back to Queenstown where I have now been for a week, and it is awesome here, but I'll tell you more about that when I leave! Bye bye

Tine