The South Island

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Wow, the last two weeks and the whole of the South Island have gone by in a blur. First of all I will go into how I travelled around the South Island. While in Pihia I decided to travel around the South Island by tour bus because it was the easiest cheapest way to do it, I only had two weeks so I knew I could see more with a tour. So I signed up with Stray a tour company for young people that is supposed to ahve a friendly, youthful atmosphere. I am not saying that it did'nt its just that as most of you know I do not conform to the ÿouthful norm, I do not for instance enjoy singing along to Queen for two hours after being on the bus for two hours after getting up at 7. While writing this down I cannot help but laugh at myself, look at my on the other side of the world, having the adventure of my life complaining because the people on my bus were too enthusiastic! Anywaise I did have some very good times with Stray. Barrytown especially will be remembered because I won a free bungy jump. I will not tell you how, I will just mention that it involved a bottle of white wine, and a few screwdrivers too many!

So to talk about individual places. First place we went was Able Tasman National Park. It is a beautiful place with lots of nice walks, but I must say that I still had visions of the crossing in Taupo, and it is not as georgeous in comparison.

Franz Joseph glacier was also increadibly interesting. I went on a hiking day trip with guide who brought you up teh glacier to look at ice formations. It was not untill I was halfway down when my mind clued into the fact that this glacier hike bore many simmilarities to trying to walk to school in the middle of a Canadian winter.

I started off my time in Queenstown with the bungy jump I mentioned winning earlier, if you ahve not done a bungy then you have no idea what it is like and tehre is not way I can explain it, it is out of this world. It is not so much the actual freefall that is amazing, it is the actual act of jumping off of a ledge. I started off all cool and calm while the guys tied the ropes around my feet we joked about how they sometimes dunked people into the stream bellow, and I told them that I wanted to be dunked. but just to my hair. Well lets just say that all the jokes ended as I found myself on the ledge, desperately clinging onto the wall next to me for reassurance. The only thing that got me off that ledge was the bungy guy telling me to look at the bridge in the distance and jumping for it. He counted down from five and I was off! I screamed all the way down, still screaming when they got me in the boat, and spent the rest of the day with a huge grin on my face, good times. (Oh yes it was good screaming like Yipee not like Auurrggg). The rest of Queenstown was rather a dissapointment, I expected it to have much more vibes, but instead it was rather quiet and withdrawn, except at night. Deffinetly the party capital of NZ, but none of them will be winning NZ idol anytime soon!

Currently in Christchurch which is supposed to be NZ's most European city. I suppose it is but not so much as Montreal is Canadas most European city. Christchurch is my third favorite city after Tauranga and Wellington. Like Wellington it has lots of good, cheap ethnic food, and lots of nice city walks which is what I spent my days doing.

Heading up to Tauaranga for Christmas, I will check in then!

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Comments

[Bronwyn]

i cant believe....
i can't believe you went bungee jumping with out me!!!! YOU KNOW I REALLY WANT TO DO THAT :'*( ok ok just k8idding you can go with out me but IM STILL SUPER JEALOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS i hope you had a fab ulous xmas i missed spending xmas' eve's eve with out you!!!:'( ok wel i cant wait for your next blog and i'll tttyl!!!! BYEEEE!! -brownie

[funny guy]

tarantula on the foot
you got tell us how you come to have tarantula on foot in the picture? Did it hut?