Groovy glaciers and boinging bungees

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Hello readers!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. We've been whizzing around like crazy and haven't made it to an internet cafe. So, I hear you cry, how can we possibly be busy when we've been on holiday for the last 4 months? Well... here's what we've been up to...

We flew down to Sydney from Brisbane and spent about a week there, staying with my cousin Helen and Kelly, a friend of Sarah's. It was such a treat to relax in a proper house, with a kettle, tv and sofas. We really enjoyed our time and didn't do much sightseeing. It was fantastic to stock up on some home comforts, and great to catch up with Helen. She took me to the Lindt cafe in Sydney, which was really wonderful - full of chocolate happiness!! Helen also took us out to Watson's Bay, where I apparently went last time I was in Australia when I was 5!! It didn't ring any bells, but it was a lovely spot and great to get out to the sea. We also spent a night in the Blue Mountains, a couple of hours train ride from Sydney. Some friends of Helen's were very kind (not to mention brave) in having us to stay, despite not having a monkeys who we were!! We did a couple of lovely walks there and saw the famous 'three sisters'. At first we could only see one and felt a bit short-changed, but we realised further along the trail that the other two had been hiding behind the 1st one! Back in Sydney we went to stay with Kelly north of the harbour, so we had to get ferries across - a really lovely ride. Her flat is right by a beach, so we lazed around there for a few days. We (very bravely, I must add) went for a swim in the sea there, which was a ... refreshing ... experience.

We flew out of Sydney on 5th May and headed for Christchurch, NZ. After a few days trying to price up our various options for getting around, we opted for the Kiwi Experience - a kerazy backpacker bus which does routes all round NZ. We have since discovered that it is known as ''the big green f*** truck'' by the locals (how charming), so that should give you an indication as to its craziness. It's not ideal for us - we've spent a lot of hours on a bus and it is very dominated by the 18 year old English gapper market. It is just quite strange to be on what is basically a giant school trip with drivers who are sometimes great, but sometimes quite patronising, after travelling independently for so long.

As we couldn't leave on our Kiwi Experience for a few days, we took the opportunity to visit Sarah's brother's friend Rob in Methven, about 1hr from Christchurch. We spent a lovely couple of days there, doing some great walks in the gorge near Mt. Hutt. The water is an amazing colour round there. Being glacial, the river is a brilliant green/blue colour - it looks like someone has spilt a big vat of aquamarine paint down the valley - really beautiful. In typical us style, we spent the first half an hour of the walk wandering around in the undergrowth trying to find the right path. When we eventually got on track we had a great walk.

On the Kiwi Experience we travelled across Arthur's Pass to Westport, Greymouth and down to the Franz Joseph glacier. The first travel day to Westport was in quite poor weather, so not much to talk about there. Further down the coast at Franz Joseph we did an absolutely amazing full day hike on the Franz Joseph glacier, unlike anything I've ever done before. We got kitted out with boots, crampons, overtrousers, coat, hat and gloves and were driven to the national park. We then walked for a while to reach the base of the glacier. It was a really amazing sight to look up the valley and see ice pouring down it. We made our way to the 'terminal face' of the glacier. At this stage of the walk, there is a permanent access trail up on to the glacier with quite well cut steps and handrails. It was quite surreal to be walking on the ice and I was amazed by how blue it was. After a brief lunch stop, things got really interesting as we set off further up the glacier to explore the first icefall, known as 'defiance'. Here, we went more off the beaten track, our guide using her ice axe to cut steps for us. We slid along narrow high-walled crevices, and all expressed relief that we weren't too big to get through! We also went through little ice tunnels in the glacier. We made our way down again after several hours on the ice, with the sunlight reflecting off the surface. A beautiful view to round off an unforgettable experience.

After a quick night stop in Wanaka, we headed straight on to Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand. We watched some people from our bus doing bungy jumps - pretty horrific to watch actually, particularly when people can't jump and stand on the edge for ages. The only person who couldn't take the plunge had made the mistake of wearing a superman t-shirt, definitely not a good plan if you're going to bottle it at the last minute. We both managed to resist the temptation to pay a fortune to be terrified and dangled from a giant rubber band. We spent 4 nights in Queenstown, relaxing and looking round the shops. From Queenstown we took a day trip to Milford Sound in the Fjordland National Park. The driver of the bus was obviously having some kind of protracted battle with his company over the bus being too cold, so we were enlisted as temperature checkers and given a log book, head torch and thermometer. It was pretty hard staying awake in the dark that early in the morning and I don't think I did a very good job. He seemed a bit disappointed that it wasn't colder!! The views en route to Milford were absolutely incredible and we were blessed with absolutely amazing weather. On arrival at Milford, we got on a little boat and did a trip down the fjord. The sheer scale of the fjord was incredible, with the boat being an insignificant little blob in comparison to the land around. A really beautiful place and very dramatic. I have never seen any scenery quite on that scale before.

From Queenstown we headed back up to Christchurch, where we managed to get tickets to the Super 14 rugby semi final - Canterbury Crusaders vs. Bulls. I got quite overexcited at the prospect of seeing some rugby - it was really great timing to be in Christchurch on that particular day. We were offered some face paints on the bus en route to the stadium so we blobbed some red and black stripes on our faces to prove that we were genuine article Canterbury fans! The game itself was no classic and there was some pretty sloppy play and some seriously dodgy decisions, but fun nonetheless.

Next stop was Kaikoura, a lovely little town on the coast with mountains for a backdrop. You could go whale watching and dolphin swimming here, but I didn't partake. Next stop was Wellington. We had quite a boring ferry trip across the strait to the North Island, checked in to our hostel, then went to the cinema to see the Da Vinci Code. The next day, we continued in our quest to track down a lonely planet guide for Chile, but no luck again. Uh oh.... We also spent a few hours at the Te Papa museum. I recognised quite a few exhibits from last July's choir tour to NZ, but it was interesting. We both gave the special pay-to-get-in Lord of the Rings Exhibition a miss !!

Next up was Taupo. We were stopping here to try and do the day long Tongariro Crossing walk, but the crossing has been closed for several days continuously now, so we decided to cut our losses and move on as the chance of being able to do it was very small and we don't want to waste several days doing nothing only to not to able to do it anyway. It was sad to leave the Rainbow Lodge, the best hostel we have been to yet in Australia and New Zealand - very friendly staff, free yummy coffee, a sauna and freshly baked 'bad weather muffins' when it was pouring down with rain!! It was a shame to have to abandon the Tongariro Crossing, but I will just have to come back and do it another day. I also signed up for a Skydive when we arrived, but that couldn't go ahead either due to the stinky weather. You see... I do have a lust for adrenalin sports but the weather is just holding me back.... honest!!

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