Ok it has been a while since I wrote a travel journal, but I have been busy, honestly!!!!
After Rotorua we went to Taupo where I caught up with Ems from camp, which was really nice, she took us on some good nights out including a pub quiz which i was terrible at! In Taupo I got a new tattoo and Cat got her ear pierced to celebrate 3 months of travelling - wonder what we'll get after 6 months haha!!! Seriously though its a nice tattoo and I did give it a lot of thought before i got it! I then dyed my hair purple but that seems to have faded now!
The next day we did something incredibly awesome - SKY DIVING!!! It was so much fun, got strapped to a very nice man, spent a 40 minute plane journey sat on nice man's thighs and then he threw me out of the plane at 15,000 feet, wahey! Sky diving is so weird cos it doesnt actually feel like your falling and the view is pretty awesome! the parachute opens at 5,000 and we spent 5 minutes cruzing down and looking at mountains and lakes and loadsa cool stuff! it was fantastic and we'll so be doing it again soon!
Hiked up a mountain the next day which was cool, great views from the top.
Next stop wellington! where we were met by my lovely friend Goose from camp who looked after us really well for 2 days and showed us the te papa museam and the lord of the rings set and we climbed trees, lots of fun! For the rest of our time in wellington we stayed with 2 guys who cooked for us and we were very lazy for 4 days!
We left the north island on april 26th and got on the interislander ferry which was fantastic. the weather was brilliant and we saw some really beautiful scenery on the crossing! The magic bus took us wine tasting and then dropped us off in nelson where we made our way to our next WWOOF place. Well, what can i say about the place that acurately describes it - hmmm a complete mental house maybe! The guy was an absolute nutter who believes he can make it rain, and he has 4 dirty horrible children who lick all the food....yay for germs! so we managed to stick it out there for 5 or 6 days and then we went to Abel Tasman national park which was awesome! We were taken to tonga bay and saw the seals and then had a 4 hour hike, stopping off at beautiful untouched beaches and streams and waterfalls, which we really enjoyed! Managed to do the last part of our hike in nearly half the time it was supposed to take us so we didnt miss the boat - too much picture taking and laying on the beach earlier in the day!!!
After a wonderful sleepless night in a hostel we got back on the satan bus, sorry magic bus and travelled down to punakaiki where we spent an absolutely amazing week hiking and marvelling at the beautiful scenery. Toby who owned the hostel we worked out was absolutely great and showed us loads of cool stuff to do and provided hours of entertainment by just talking, he is one of the most amusing people iv ever met! Punakaiki was fantastic for caving and climbing random things, we both did plenty of that!
We met two lovely english people (something which is surprisingly difficult to find out here!!!!) and we did some hiking and spent a couple of evenings with them. by the end of our week there we were locals and the pub owner knew exactly what we would be drinking and when we were arriving, very funny!
Spent a night in greymouth where we observed how inbred it was then escaped back to the hostel where we ate dinner, and had baths, yay!!
The next day we were lucky enough to be taken to Franz Josef in a people carrier rather that on the magic bus as it was too full, our driver stopped at a few really beautiful look out points where you could see the glaciers and the glacier river which was fantastic! When we got to Franz Josef we checked in to our hostel and were lucky enough to get a room with a kitchen, TV and bathroom - pretty sweet!!!
So for the past few days we have been doing some really awesome hikes that have taken us through the bush, down streams, into creeks and gorges, across river beds and to some pretty amazing views so our legs are feeling rather tired! I have unfortunately got into the routine of making Cat breakfast in bed, sounds impressive but the 'kitchen' is about 1 metre from the bed haha!
Today we did a heli-hike which my credit card took a real battering for but it was worth it! We had a ten minute ride in a helicopter (tiny little death machine) and landed high up on the glacier. there were only 7 of us so it was a really small group! I love the ice and was jumping around so I spent most of the time talking to our very cute guide who let me play with his axe for a while - no dirty comment intended - (he thought I might like to cause a mini-avalanche!) , and he showed me some awesome little tunnels to crawl through which was awesome! the ice is incedible - its blue and white and theres so much of it, its 150 metres deep in some places and we got to explore some of the natural tunnels. Lots of fun and I really enjoyed the helicopter ride!
anyway thats it for now, me and Cat are off to drink wine and eat chocolate....oh the wonderful life we lead!
Hello to Barbara, David and Ted, it was lovely to speak to you the other day and I miss you lots!
xxxxxx
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