NZ Southern Loop

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Saying bye to some of the 'Stray' group was really difficult. I really didn't think I would get that attached, but it's so intense traveling, eating, sleeping with the same people 24 hours a day for 2 weeks. Ah well...the show must go on and we still had the majority of the same people for the Southern Loop of NZ and Mambo was still our driver!

First stop on from Queenstown was Milford Sound. It was one hell of a long drive to get there and everyone was feeling drained, but it was just incredible once we got out there. We all booked ourselves on a 2 hour boat cruise. I almost didn't do it because I wanted to save money, but I'm so glad I did. It was another one of those moments, like what I experienced in Angkor Wat when I was in complete awe! I really didn't talk to anyone else on the group when we were on the boat. I just wanted to stay in a corner on the deck on my own and soak up the sights. It was fantastic...so beautiful!

After Milford we boarded the bus again; destination Tuatpere aka 'The sausage capital of the world'. It was a complete ghost town...really quite creepy at first, but it's charm grew on me. When we arrived at the hostel we had been on the bus for a good 16 hours so the general consensus was that we all just wanted to have our dinenr and head straight to bed. However, there was the sudden realisation that it was Shrove Tuesday (Pancake day), which changed everything. We did a quick whip round and agreed we would make pancakes for dessert that night and we did. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we had quite a few people on the bus who had never tried pancakes before so it was a real treat for them. After dinner I really should have gone straight to bed (I had calculated earlier in the day that I had averaged only 3 hours of sleep a night for the past week), but NO...I hooked my dvd player up to the huge TV in the lounge and a few of us stayed up till after midnight to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall. At least I didn't get drunk again anyway.

The next morning we boarded the bus at 7am, but thankfully I only had a short trip ahead of me. Half the group were going to take the Ferry across to Stewart island to stay for the night and the rest, including myself, were to stay in Invercargill. Stewart Island would have cost me too much so I was quite happy to stay on the South Island and have a relaxing day. Now then...Invercargill is an interesting place housing lots of people with interesting style choices...namely THE MULLET! They were everywhere!
I spent the first half of the day chillaxing in an internet cafe uploading my photos to facebook and then went to the cinema again for some alone time. I had the screen completely to myself watching Angelina Jolie's 'Changeling'. When I got back to hostel Dave and Christofer were in the TV room watching the first of The Lord of the Rings movies so I joined them whilst knitting a scarf with some wool I picked up on my way back. The weather was still bad at this point and I just really needed something to keep me warm and occupied. Throughout the day the rest of the group joined us in dribs and drabs. It was very relaxing.
Later that evening a small number of us went for a game of Ten Pin Bowling which didn't take up much of the day. It really was a struggle to find anything to do in Invercargill. There was a nice pub next door to the hostel, but I needed a break from all alcohol for the time being...or at least for the afternoon. Most headed off to bed early that night, thankful for the relatively late start we had the next day once the rest of the group were back from Stewart Island. I on the other hand stayed up with Karolina talking for most of the night. We even went to the pub for one drink before going back to the hostel kitchen to eat all her leftovers from dinner. It was well past 4am when we called it a night. I didn't feel like sharing a dorm that night, plus I was coming down with a coldd, so I brought all my sheets to the TV room and held up there for the night. It was definitely one of the better nights of sleep I had had in a long time.

The following afternoon we boarded the bus again to make our way to Dunedin, a Scottish student town. Mambo warned us that it was Fresher's week there so it could get messy. It was a race against time once we arrived at out accomodation (The Leviathan), because we had signed up for the Speight's Brewery tour and we were well behind schedule due to traffic. We made it with seconds to spare and began the tour. I really can't remember all that much about the history of Speights and I doubt anyone else on the tour could either, but it was pretty cool seeing all the machinery. The highlight was the last 30 mins where we all got ushered into the Speight's bar and had free reign to try all of their beers on tap. We could even go behind the bar to pour the drinks ourselves. It was an hilarious 30 minutes of everyone getting in as many free drinks as possible; Dave even resorted to drinking straight from the taps. By the tiem we left we were all a bit squiffy and in the mood to go out on the lash. First things first though...FOOD! I ended up eating a great little Thai restuarant near the Octagon with 5 others. It was exactly what we needed to line our stomachs. We went to meet the rest of the group at Stock Exchange. By the time we got there it was clear they had already downed a few bevvies. I wasn't really in the mood to catch up, so spent about an hour playing table football and pool with Dave whilst enjoying watching everyone else get pissed. Moving on from the Stock Exchange a couple of hours on, we ended up in Captain Cook, which was apparently a well known student hangout. I don't know it I saw any students, but there were definitely a lot of twats! It probably wasn't all that bad and I'm just out of touch with the younger crowd, but I really didn't enjoy it in there. I'm sure most of them were underage, but I guess it's hard to tell nowadays. Final stop for the night, having lost a few people to the evil drunkeness, was The Monkeys, which is an old converted church. It was more like a rave when we got in there. I had a couple of drinks, but still wasn't really up for a big night so sat down at a table looking after everyone's bags with Iain. It wsa again a sad night where we would be losing some quality people the following day, so I soon bucked up and danced the night away with Karolina. It was 4am by the time we got back to The Leviathan and probably close to 5.30am when we stopped talking and left the courtyard of the hostel to get some shuteye.

I have no idea why, but I was wide awake by 8am the next morning so went for a walkies around the town to get a feel of what it was like during the day. The only place that was open that early was the McDonalds....that was good enough for me! I stayed there until close to 10am before making my way back to the hostel to checkout and get my things on the bus. First stop of the day was the steepest street in the world. We only stopped there just long enough for people to walk up and back down again. I cannot lie, I wasn't up for the walk so just took pictures from the bottom like a true tourist. Next stop...Queenstown...again! Not that I didn't want to go there, but I really enjoyed Dunedin. It reminded me a lot of Bristol. I considered staying another couple of nights, but I just didn't have any spare days in my plans.

I was feeling really ill by the time we got to Queenstown so my first stop after checking back into the BASE was the Pharmacy. Once I was suitably drugged up I went to cook myself some dinner back in the hostel kitchen. I had so much food left over and only a couple of days left in NZ that I offered to cook dinner for the boys who had got sick of waiting in line at Fergburger. It was nice all sitting down together for dinner. That evening we met up with Mambo and went to a couple of stylish bars, this time staying well clear of Altitude and World Bar. I went for a quiet walk on my own along the pier once it was dark and then made my way back to the dorm for an early night. Our last full day in QT I went to the park with about 5 others and played lawn bowls. I was losing dreadfully against Andreas and Christofer. At one stage they were both on 8 and I was still on 0. 5 games later I had beat them both, 10, 9, 9 :o) I don't think they were too happy about that and because of that fact I felt the need to rub it in their faces more. We all had a good laugh about it in the end though. It was another quiet eveing for the group we now called 'The originals' (Me, Iain, Emily, Ruth and Tyler), who had been together on the bus longer than anyone else. We chilled out in Chicos. I wasn't drinking at all because I had resorted to taking antibiotics. If forgot to mention that I didn't have time and was feeling too sick to use that free skydive I won my first time through QT so I sold it to some girl for a large amount of money. Result!

The final stop of the bus tour...Christchurch. Again, it was a very long day on the bus and although I was still enjoying the company, traveling on a bus the majority of the day was started to wear thin on me (as I'm sure it did for everyone else). We were also sick of staying in BASE hostels so chose to stay somewhere further from the city centre called Coker's. What a mistake that turned out to be. The decor in the place reminded of the hotel from The Shining and any second I expected the doors of the lifts to open and for blood to come gushing out. I wasn't too impressed, but had definitely stayed in worse so decided to stay put. On the plus side, they had a really nice pub attached (really can't remember the name). That's where 'The Originals' including the bus driver, Mambo, had our farewell drinks and we gave Mambo his presents. They were just a few small tokens of appreciation for being the best driver and guide we could have had. I couldn't sit in thebar for too long a time because for some reason they had a smoke machine and my cold had already gotten the better of me. It was a shame that I couldn't just relax with everyone for the night, but I really did feel like shite. After everyone else had gone to sleep I stayed up late watching Lost Boys and Kalifornia in the TV room with Andreas and Christofer. I soon drifted off to sleep on the couch, which I planned since I didn't want to keep the people in my room up all night with my coughing. When I woke up early in the morning to bid some of the group farewell I was the only person there and some sweet soul had even drawn the curtains for me during the night so I could sleep in. :o)

I said 'See ya later' to Mambo and one of the integral guys in our group, Tyler (from Vancouver). He had been with us near enough since the beginning and he was the life of the party, it was disappointing to see him go. The great news is, he is planning to be in London in June this year so at least I know I'll see him again and it's not goodbye. Once the bus left I went straight back to sleep as did the other guys. I was up again around 11am walking into town with Iain. We sat in an internet café for a fair amount of time before going back to the hostel to chill out. The remaining people mostly leaving the following day, including myself, so we decided to cook a group dinner and chill out in the hostel for the evening. We had a seafood noodle dish and then played a varied version of Cranium in the upstairs TV room whilst drinking some beers. It was a relaxing night and I got loads of videos of everyone embarassing themselves.

The following morning I woke up to find that I had slept in and I missed my chance to say 'see ya later' to Julie and Ruth. At least I still had a few of the other guys left. We all walked into Town with no particular mission in mind, just to chill and ended up eating brunch at The Honeypot Café. It was a really stylish place with brilliant food. At around 2pm we all went back to the hostel so Emily could get her bags before leaving for Sydney. Abother one bites the dust...our numbers were depleting rapidly. The next one to leave would be me in the early evening. I spent the afternoon in the TV room watching American Pie: The Wedding with the 3 remaining strayers (Iain, Ellen & Christofer) and as sod's law would have it the airport shuttle arrived early so apart from a quick hug for each person, I didn't have time to say bye properly. Within 45 minutes I was at the airport, had checked in and gone through security. It must have been the most depressing 2 hours so far on my travels waiting for my flight.

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