I like to throw myself off things...

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Today is my last day in beautiful New Zealand, and I'm sad to say goodbye but looking forward to getting to Oz!

I was on the Stray tour for 3 weeks (a hop-on, hop-off bus pass) and it was such a laugh. Tim and I stayed in Christchurch for one night then decided to make our way up to Kaikoura, 2 hours north of Christchurch and start the bus tour from there. Apparently there was a 4.0 aftershock during the night in C'Church but I didn't feel it! The first night in Kaikoura was great, we went to a hostel and overheard people saying that $1000 was put behind the bar if the rugby game they were showing was a draw at half time... well lo and behold, it was 6-6 come the break, so we had a great night with free jugs of cider and baileys (not together, I should add)! After that we went over to an Irish pub where there was live music and everyone was singing and dancing. It was so fun, and completely spontaneous!

So the Stray tour started 2 days later, and our first stop was Abel Tasman National Park. We caught a water taxi up to a bay along the coast called Tonga, then walked about 3 hours back to a closer bay (Torrent) and got picked up by the water taxi, which promptly broke down 100m off the shore. Reminders of Cuba...! Had a good night with everyone getting to know one another, since we were going to all be together for at least 2 more weeks. The group was really cool and everyone got on, which made it so fun.

Next stop was Greymouth - not too much to say apart from we did a quite boring brewery tour spiced up by helping yourself to beer and a nice meal plus Singstar after, and then we went down to Franz Josef glacier. Most of the group chose to do the full day glacier hike, so we all trouped up the glacier with crampons and ice picks. It was really beautiful but not quite what I was expecting - I thought there would be times where all I could see was ice, but since it was formed in a valley, there were massive cliffs on either side of the glacier. The guide, Ben, told us that in the 2 years that he's been working as a guide, the glacier has melted by about 10 metres. Crazy. That night we played killer pool with everyone from the Kiwi Experience bus (I was out in the 1st round) and the next morning, I did skydive no.2! I hadn't planned on doing another one, but I'd wanted to do it over the glacier in the first place, and Lizzi from Buxton was doing one too, plus I didn't want to regret not doing it. And it was awesome!!! The views over the glacier were absolutely amazing, and I think I took in a lot more of the jump, from 12000ft this time, than the other one over Lake Taupo. Loved it!!

We left Franz Josef that morning and headed down to Queenstown, with a short stop in Wanaka. And on the way to Queenstown, I did my bungy at the original bungy site - Bridge Karawau. I think I was about 100 times more nervous about the bungy than the skydive, but it was great! I was the only one in the group doing a bungy there, so I had about 15 people cheering me on from the side, which I definitely appreciated! If any of you read this, then thanks guys!!

Queenstown was great - we were there for 4 nights so I spent quite a lot of time doing nothing and wandering around the centre. Special mention goes to Fergburger for an awesome falafel burger. Yum!

The rest of the tour round the south was really chilled - we went to Milford Sound, which was beautiful, but no more beautiful than a lot of the rest of the country, and stayed at somewhere in the middle of nowhere called Gunn's Camp, where we had to keep a fire burning all night because the power was turned off at 10:30pm, but we ran out of coal around 11pm. Next was Invercargill (lots of chavs and mullets, but I finally got to see The Hangover 2), then I hopped off the bus for a couple of days with Lizzi and Lewis from Wales. We had a few relaxed days, went to the cinema (Cars 2), the Sports Hall of Fame, Otago Museum etc, then hopped back on the bus and rejoined a few members of our original bus group - Nicole (Chile), Karen (Holland), Matt and Bec (Oz) and Marejke (Holland). Up to Mount Cook, then Rangitata, where we had our last night together on the tour. Probably my fun and funniest night of travelling so far, I think I can sum it up by saying that flipcup and 3-storey bunk beds are not my friends!

So, it's my last day in New Zealand today - I'm sleeping at the airport tonight as I have to check in tomorrow at 3am ready to fly to Melbourne! And most exciting of all, I have my ticket booked to see Harry Potter at the IMAX on July 13th!!!!

Speak to you soon from Down Under... x

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