New Zealand - South Island

Hi all

We just about managed to drag ourselves out of Australia to fly to New Zealand. It took us a little while to settle in and the withdrawal symptoms from Oz didn't help!

It was pretty wet and freezing cold to begin with but it is really beautiful here. I usually love sleeping on long bus journeys but just had to stay awake and stare out of the window as every corner you turn the scenery changes, it really is very beautiful. Unfortunately the lakes are only 56% full compared to the level they would usually be at in the Winter so New Zealand may be facing a blackout soon (which seems very archaic!), as everything is hydro-powered.

We spent the first couple of days staying with Jane, who is an old friend of Lisa's mum's, and Doran, her hubby, staying in the comfort of their lovely home in Christchurch where we just chilled out and caught up on washing etc, went to the local mall to get some warm clothes and went out for a nice meal with them and their daughter, Hazel.

We then set off - well fed and rested - to catch the Magic bus which is our transport around New Zealand and drops us off at hostels and arranges trips out at discounted rates for us.

We stopped off at Kaikoura first which was a very small and cute little town and went whale watching that afternoon. Apparently they usually have 1-2 sightings per trip but we saw 5 sperm whales, a seal jumping out of the water and a few dolphins!!

Nelson was our next stop where we went on the world's first skywire speeding 1.6km at 90kph over the forest! We'd also booked to go on a "Seal Safari" and walk at Abel Tasman National Park the next day and were picked up at 7.30am by a very grumpy bus driver who said he would drive away without us if we didn't board the bus dead on time! We were then picked up by the water taxi which stopped off at some rocks on route and the driver said "and here are some seals" and we drove off after 2 minutes without any information about them and continued our day which did not consist of any more seals - so much for the "Seal Safari"!

The trip then took another turn for the worse as we were dumped at our drop off point in the National Park for our 1 1/2 hour walk, as advertised, only to be told that the water taxi would not be back for another 4 hours to pick us up so we could either sit at the pick up point in the cold, freezing and bored to death for 2 hours, or walk on to the next bay which was 7 kilometres on, so with limited choice we ended up doing a 13 kilometre hike in the forest on a muddy track which was nothing spectacular compared to some of the walks we have done plus we had to walk at top speed for the second walk for fear of missing the water taxi pick up from the next bay!

Once we'd trekked to the next bay for our pick up, the tide was out so we had to take our shoes and socks off and go wading knee deep out to the water taxi, with several dead crabs floating past us, and the sea was absolutely freezing cold!!!!!! The bus driver had again been pretty specific about timing for the return journey and said we needed to be back on the bus by 4pm, but at 8 minutes to 4pm we were stranded on the water taxi with the driver having got out and waded back to shore to go and get his tractor which he then drove into the water, loaded the boat up on to the back of it with us in it and drove us to dry land delivering us to the bus door - very comical for most apart from the grumpy bus driver waiting in the car park to collect us!

We stopped over at Greymouth the next night and then set off for Franz Josef and were looking forward to our Heli Hike we'd booked, only to find that it was cancelled because of the weather so we re-arranged our itinerary to stay an extra day in the hope that it would go ahead the next morning.

We went out that evening to the Ice Blue Cafe where the whole of Franz Josef (which you can drive through in 2 minutes!) and the whole of the Magic bus were piled into because there was a New Zealand v Ireland rugby match on. We had a nice meal in the restaurant downstairs and then went up to the bar where we got chatting to a few people from our bus and discovered they had been given free shot vouchers from their hostel. Well obviously we were a little jealous so told the bar man that we were on the Magic bus too but staying at the geeky YHA hostel instead and could we have free shots and we were given a blue coloured shot which was actually quite nice. A few glasses of wine later Lisa and i started to hassle the bar man for another free shot at which point he poured out a "red peril" for us which was red and murky and looked pretty disgusting! Deaks dipped her finger in it and pulled a face saying there was no way she was drinking it but Lisa and i didn't hear her say it was spicy and thought she was just being a wimp as usual, not being ones to turn down a free shot we knocked them back and it was the most horrendous tasting drink we have ever come across!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We reached for our wine which had no effect on taking the taste away and then guzzled as much water as we could which again had no effect at which point Lisa grabbed my arm and pulled me downstairs to the toilets where she was violently sick. We somehow managed to continue our night after 10/15 minutes when the burning in our throats had got to a bearable level! Back upstairs everyone said they couldn't believe we were still standing and most people who get caught out with that shot are apparently sick and have to go home, but being British, us girls soldiered on and continued our night!

I was yet again insulted about my age as a young 22 year old Kiwi boy asked me how old i was and when i told him, he pointed to my denim skirt and said "But why are you dressed like an 18 year old?!" I had no idea i was supposed to have moved on to a twin set and pearls yet!!!!

That night i hardly slept at all because my chest and throat were burning and i felt really ill and thought i was going to be sick - plus the transexual (Deaks thought she was Lisa and i didnt!) sharing our dorm was snoring so loudly it sounded like a lawnmower although Lisa woke up and told me to stop it as she thought it was coming from me - how rude!

The next morning I had to rush to the pharmacy and get some indigestion tablets to ease the pain before we did our Heli-hike i felt so rough! It wasn't until later that afternoon Lisa had spoken to a couple of boys in the sauna about our experience the night before and they told her that the bar man saves the shots for backpackers and dishes them out to any one unsuspecting or obviously people begging for free shots and it is made up of vodka, tequila, sambuca, absynth, tabasco sauce and the strongest chilli sauce in the world which is found in Christchurch - no wonder we'd felt so horrendous and i struggled to eat for a couple of days afterwards because of the burning in my chest, i might think twice about free shots from now on or be a bit more cautious like Deaks!!

So glad we stayed in Franz Josef for an extra night to do the Heli- hike as it was brilliant! We got kitted out in very attractive waterproof trousers and jackets and bum bags and were flown in a helicopter over the glacier. Franz Josef is one of the only three glaciers in the world that ends in a rain forest. The helicopter was pretty scary - being scared of heights - as it nose dived forward when we took off and felt like we were on a rollercoaster! We got to the top and were set down in what was like a massive bowl surrounded by snow capped mountains with the glacier in the middle. We were given crampons to attach to the bottom of our shoes which had spikes on them and were told to walk very confidently pushing our feet hard into the ice to get grip, i felt like i was having a tantrum stomping around everywhere! It was absolutely brilliant the ice was a pretty bluey white colour and we trekked for a couple of hours across it and climbed into ice caves. The helicopter flew us back and the freezing temperatures were definitely a good way of getting rid of our hangovers!

We left Franz Josef the next morning and set off for Queenstown where we were stopping for a couple of days. When we got on the bus the driver said that if anyone wanted to do a skydive we could stop on route at Lake Wanaka. Lisa and Deaks definitely did and i had a chat with him saying i was scared of heights and wasn't sure if i could do it but after a little counselling session from him and a few passengers i decided to put my name down and thought i could always back out at the last minute.....but i can't believe i actually did it!!! It was amazing i have never been so terrified in my whole life and then so happy afterwards as the adrenalin kicked in! You didn't get much chance to think about it as they kitted you out, interviewed you quickly for your dvd then bundled you into a plane. The 3 of us went up together to 12,000 feet, the plane was tiny and even scarier than the actual jump, we were strapped to the front of the instructors who do the tandem dive with you and basically push you to the plane door so your legs are dangling over the edge and tell you to smile for a photo as there was a camera on the wing of the plane - haven't checked that one out yet but i imagine i will be looking petrified! Olli who i was attached to, pulled my head back and rocked us out of the plane, it was really cloudy as we floated through the clouds first and then could see the ground but it didnt feel like we were going that fast more like we were floating, then after 45 seconds he opened the parachute which luckily worked (phew!) and we floated down taking in the views. Would definitely do it again and recommend it to anyone we were so hyper afterwards when the adrenalin kicked in and couldn't stop smiling!

We celebrated that night with a few drinks out in Queenstown after the bus driver decided to dig at my age by saying over the microphone on the bus that everyone needed to bring their ID out with them unless they were of course really old like me! We went to Buffalo Bar and met up with our driver and everyone from the Magic bus and then went on to World Bar where you are given cocktails in a teapot and shot glasses to pour them into - very dangerous and obviously i was back on the shots straight away after the bad experience in Franz Josef ha ha!!

The next day we had planned to do whitewater rafting but it was fully booked so we went for the Shotover Jet ride which was really good. 12 of us piled into a small speed boat and the driver sped off up the river at 75 miles an hour narrowly missing jutting out rocks and branches to get us screaming and did a few 360 degree turns on route. It was really funny but we were so cold we felt like we'd had botox by the time we finished because our faces had gone numb!

Dunedin was the next stop, it's a very small university town. We spent the afternoon having a wander around and then went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory there where we walked around the factory eagerly watching the process of Easter eggs and our favourite chocolate bars and were given a goodie bag full of some fun size bars of chocolate! The smell in the factory was a little overpowering, not sure i could work there as i'd have to keep sneakily eating as i worked! Not much else to do in Dunedin so we left the next morning stopping off at Baldwin Street which is the steepest street in the world and in the Guiness Book of Records and then we travelled on to Lake Tekapo stopping off at the Church of the Good Shephard when we arrived which is a very cute little church on the coast where apparently 600 people a year get married. I was pretty shattered so stopped in at the hostel to watch Titanic with some of the others staying there while the girls went off ice skating.

Travelled on yet again the next day (we've hardly stopped in NZ!) to Christchurch where we stayed with Jane and Doran again for the night where we slept in their new sleepout they decorated in time for us and had a massive delicious roast before flying to Wellington on the 14th June (Lisa's birthday!) where we are meeting up with Rachael Ineson who used to work at DLA and lives in Wellington.

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