New Zealand!

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Finally made it to New Zealand!

My departure from Australia was surprisingly easy, I walked out of the hostel and straight onto a train that went straight to Sydney airport. Flight was ok, spent the last 20 minutes gawping out the window at the scenery. Landed in Christchurch and realised actually how cold it is here, on my first night it got down to -2! When I arrived at the hostel it turned out the driver of the shuttle bus had dumped my bag down in the trailer so hard my shampoo had burst all over my clothes and bag. When he realised what had happened he just said "at least my hands smell good now!". Yeah, cheers mate!

I only spent a day in Christchurch getting myself sorted, there didn't seem to be much going on there. Nice place though, it really does look like an old english town. I booked myself onto the Magic Bus which is a tour company that takes people around the main points on both islands. That night I was watching tv and I eventually realised I'd been sitting next to my Airlie Beach roommate who'd waved at me in Surfer's Paradise! That was a bit weird, I thought I'd stop meeting people I knew in New Zealand.

My first day on the Magic Bus took me up the east coast to a town called Kaikoura. There were only a few of us on the bus, but we were all staying at the same hostel so we hung around together for the day. The scenery was brilliant, once we got out of the rolling hills we hit the coastal road, with the sea on one side and the hills/mountains on the other. After checking in at the hostel a few of us rented some bikes and took a ride down to a seal colony just outside the town. A lot of whales and dolphins are in this area and there are loads of tours, but I pass through this bit again on my way up to the north island so I thought I'd save it till then to do that. The hostel was really good, we took a dip in the hot tub on the deck for a bit (getting out was nasty!) and then found a log fire where we sat around playing the standard backpacker card games.

Most of the people had already done the south island and were heading up to the north, so it was only me and an american guy called Josh who were left from the night before after we passed through Picton. Our bus driver Bev said it would be rude not to stop at some winerys on the way to Nelson so we stopped off and did some tastings at a winery and distillery. This afternoon we arrived at a town called Nelson on the north coast of the south island. Josh and I took a walk up to a point which is supposedly the centre of New Zealand. The sun set just as we got to the top and the view was amazing, you can see why people talk it up so much.

Tomorrow we stop off at a town called Greymouth which every person I've met so far has said is terrible! Apparently the only thing there is a brewery so everyone just heads there for the day. After that the next stop is the Franz Josef, there I'm hoping to do a glacier walk if the weather is good (Bev said that it rains two days out of three at the moment).

Loving New Zealand though, after Queensland it's good to see some places that are relatively quiet and not absolutely overrun with backpackers!

p.s. my time has just run out for the internet, so i'll reply to my emails tommorow

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Comments

[Rob]

Shizzle
Do quad biking in Franz!! And check out 2-4-1 indoor ice climbing if it is still on. Think we did the superman zipwire thingy near greymouth. You're getting around NZ alot quiker than we did and if you think christchurch is cold wait till you get to queenstown. Gave in and had to buy a 2nd jumper and gloves there. Take care dude. Think i've been rogered - someone just brought another pair of sunglasses on my card before I had a chance to empty it. Balls. I aint getting home on the money I have atm. Haha, classic Rob.