"Wanaka is awesome and I could really see myself staying here forever". Man these immortal words of fantasy almost turned into reality when I sudddenly realised that beautiful as it is, it's almost impossible to leave the place due to heavily booked out buses. True there are worse places to be stuck in the world but for a bloke with limited time I wanted to get out as soon as. So after staying another 3 days and meeting a few randoms along the way I was finally able to leave the place and head up to Franz Josef.

New Zealand it has has some of the friendliest and most helpful people on the planet. Nothing is to much trouble and everything is done with a smile on their face. This illusion was gloriously shattered though by the appearance of our bus driver. Amongst probably on of the the most miserable people I've ever met (and I come from Medway!) he definately tops it. His beef with me was the fact that I had brought a bag of my foodstuffs on the bus (this is the thing here by the way. Everyone goes to the supermarket and carries around with them little blue cool bags from hostel to Hostel. Refusing to do this though and join the blue bag club I use supermarket bags). Anyway before saying welcome to the bus, an interrogation begins. "Is there milk in there?" "Err no just Yoghurt" i replied. "I don't want any spillages on this bus....no milk allowed". "....OK so it's a good job I don't have milk then" I replied. "Because milk spills and it'll make the bus stink". "OK" I said " I don't have milk so not a problem then". Man alive I wasn't expecting this. Anyway I get on the bus and find out that Pukey Sue has crossed the Tasman Sea and is on the bus to Franz. I actually felt a little sorry for her though as this was a mini bus and wasn't going to be pretty. Anyway 5 minutes later we make our next stop (the town car park) and Pukey Sue has to get out to do her business. I went to have a look at the lake for one last time when I was suddenly yelled at by the driver. "Whos bag is this" pointing to my belongings, I replied that it was mine. "No milk in the bus if it spills onto the bus it's going to smell". "There's no milk in the bag, it's yoghurt!" "Why's it damp underneath....no milk I said". "It's called condensation as it's been in the fridge". Not only was this man a complete moron, he was actually the first Dairy Fascist I've ever met. Anyway after a few stops along the way and thankfullly a change of bus to a much nicer bus driver with no lactose issues, we arrived in Franz Josef 4 hours later. I met Dave and Lea-Anne on the bus and we all checked into our hostels and arranged to meet later. Sue was also at the check-in desk looking a little worse for wear, but nothing a good shower would'nt sort out. Anyway I digress.

Culture time......The Franz Josef Glacier is the fastest moving glacier in the Southern hemisphere, moving along at about 1.5m a day. Yes people I read the gumpf and took it in. This is a major achievement for me and it shows that after 8 months the brain is still working. Anyway. as Dave was on a flyby visit, Lea-Ann and I made the trek up the valley to take a look at the greatness. It was extremely spectacular if a little damp. By a little I mean lots and after that encounter, I'll never moan about the weather in the UK again. Anyway the pics I took will show you what it's like and after an afternoon of walking it was back to my glorious old ways of lounging around eating junk food and watching movies at the hostel. Perfect.

The next day and yet another bus trip. I was slightly concerned that after the last trip my contraband dairy would'nt get on but thankfully, this bus driver was open to all culture partcularly il cassei immunitas (in yoghurt joke there) and we all got on. The added bonus of our trip to Nelson was taking in the amazing scenery of the West Coast. Again it was amazing and we got a few opportunities to take some pics and make a stop off at the Pancake Rocks with their blow holes and amazing scenery. The rain again wasn't good and added with the snow we almost had to stop en route to Nelson. Luckily we made it over the pass and travelled through a real winter wonderland before getting to Nelson town at 8pm. The hostel I booked was brilliant. Among it's chief benefits were free breakfast and free chocolate pudding in the evening. Wahoo. Nelson has two claims to fame. 1) it's the sunniest place in NZ and 2) It's also the geographical centre of NZ. It's also an ok town for a few days to hang around in. It's here though that I rediscovered a major bug bear of mine, over enthusiastic travellers. I had to listen to these guys relaying travel stories about how they had a hard time in Thailand. Basically it amounted to them being ripped off by a tuk tuk driver. Well whoopdedoo. Sorry to be an elitist but Thailand is perhaps the easiest country to travel in the world and getting ripped off by by a tune of $1 is no major. Get the eff over it. ahhhhhhhh rant over and rapidly back to the plot.

I suprised myself again by being strangely organised, booking bus and ferry tickets to get over to the North Island. Somewhere along the way, it was bound to go wrong and it did. I realised that I'd left all my food at the hostel in Nelson meaning that I'd have to buy it all over again therefore destroying my budgeting, then after making it to the ferry port for our crossing we were told that it had in fact been cancelled. I think they were suprised that we just laughed as evidently I think some people had been a little ticked off. It meant that we had to stay over in Picton which as it turns out is a really nice town. I would have like to stay longer, but cest la vie. Crossing the next day however turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the views across the cook straight we amazing once again. The crossing was ok although it started to rain as soon as we got into Wellington. Madness.

Anyway, I'm almost at the end of 3 days in town and I can safely say that it is a great city. There's more cafes her per capita than NYC and they are all coffee holics. Thankfully this also extends to beer so good times all round. I managed to meet up with some friends I've met on the south Island and we are now going to road trip the north. Also after managing to evade the Italian for 3 weeks she managed to stalk me in Wellington and make me spend more maney than I was going to. Bloody Europeans! . So it's off to Taupo next (skydive arrrrrrrghhhhh) and presuming I survive that, I'll be buying new underwear and then heading to Rotoroa, Auckland and possibly further north before coming back down to Auckland to fly to LA!

Congrats to all new parents and guys with new employers. You can buy me a beer when I get back and I'll bore you with my pics.

Sweet as Bro

Will