New Zealand - Abel Tasman

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So getting up in the pitch black again was totally fun! I hate having to pack in the dark it’s such a ballache.. Well in my case titache. Had a rather good nights sleep actually! We were ready quick enough and checking out downstairs. So I saw some delicious looking orange juice on the table and loads of glasses so I thought I would help myself. Just as I poured 2 glasses for me and Louise, the guy on the desk was like 'OI YOU HAVE TO PAY $5 FOR BREAKFAST'.. i was like sorry what? There was a TINY none existent sign and I was like ffs you could have made it slightly more obvious than that. So I thought he might be a gentleman and be like 'oh doesn't matter have it anyway' but no.. I never got my orange juice. I had to leave it full on the table for him to pour back into the bottle, what a freak. Sooo dragged my backpack to the bus stop that goes to the ferry wharf. What a nightmare.. I am an idiot with my backpack y'know. Not only is it far too big for my body but I have also crammed it with 23kilos worth of stuff. It's more like a suitcase on my back than an actual backpack. Also it has wheels attached which makes it that little bit heavier. I know you'd think 'why don't you just wheel it then?'.. because that's even MORE painful! I get super sore hands dragging it along. Anyway so we caught the bus there, amazingly managed to find the ferry and checked ourselves on. It absolutely stank of cattle everywhere. I had an amazing full english brekkie though which was awesome. I amazingly wasn't feeling hungover at all. I also managed to have a little nap towards the end whilst watching Where The Wild Things Are. It's a cute film, I already saw it with Zoe back in Newtown. AWWW that made me think of Newtown, I miss it so much you guys. Ugh let's not get all emo over Sydney again. Although I am looking forward to getting back there on the 22nd.. however I arrive in the evening and then I'm leaving the next morning again.. LOSE! No quality Sydney catch up time WHATSOEVER.

So eventually we get off the ferry in Picton.. HELLO SOUTH ISLAND!! Wow it's only been a week but it feels like I've been travelling with these guys waaaaaay longer. When you're doing so much every day it definitely drags the week out, not that I'm complaining, it's awesome! So we're going down the whole west coast towards Queenstown and we're starting in a National Park called Abel Tasman. This place is beautiful! It's meant to be the best place for flying and water activities. So we're back on the bus and pick up a couple of people along the way. Our bus is definitely filling up now! We stop at the supermarket on the way, pick up some food and drink. Me and Louise decided to treat ourselves to a humungus bottle of southern comfort! Also got some goon just as an extra to last us! We have a bbq there so we all put together to arrange a kick ass meal for that night. Me, Steffi and Chief did the shopping, another 3 are doing the cooking and the final 3 are clearing up.. quite a nice little arrangement! We happened to do an awesome job with the shopping too. So Abel Tasman is our first 2 night stop, which means I can unpack and not have to pack up the next day, yay! We're staying at a place called Old Mcdonalds Farm.. is that not kick ass or what?! And also we chose to be cheapskates and stay in tents, but it's added experience I guess. This also means that the stray bus in front of us were there, and the driver of that bus is a guy called Ariel who happens to be Cougar's partner, so she was very excited to be seeing him again! So the minute we arrived some weirdo guy bounces on the bus and grabs hold of Cougar's mic.. so I auto thought he was Ariel, turns out he was just some random guy from the other Stray bus who likes the sound of his own voice. He starts explaining about a drinking game he is arranging and that he 'likes to party'. Next thing he's walking up and down the bus taking down peoples fucking names on a piece of paper of who is joining in. Only Scott signed up, obviously. The rest of us had food on the brain.. we then picked out our tents. They happened to be 4 bed tents which was a little awkward for our group so we stole a tent from another one and put it in the big one to make a 5 bed tent, mint! Our tent was actually great, really spacious and ours was the only one with electricity.. amazing much? Anyway we got straight onto the bbq. The others did a great job cooking and soon we were all munching away on some delicious burgers and downing some soco and coke. Perfect combination! After a lot of eating and drinking we head to the other part of the camp where the other stray bus were hanging out, Cougar was there reunited with her man! She was a bit pissed too. Aw I love Cougar, she really is the most awesome leader. She calls me the 'team mascot' because I'm so small :D. So everyone is just hanging out getting to know each other and we're all sitting round a fire and suddenly tiredness hits. It's been a loooong day and we're all kayaking tomorrow so gonna have an early one! Me, Louise and Steffi head back to the tent.. the stars were AWESOME! The most clear sky I have ever seen, the milky way was seriously blatant. I've never seen so many stars in all my life. So soon enough we passed out only to be woken by Scott arriving back shouting later. nice!

tata! xxx

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