The beginning of the South

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After arriving in Christchurch we decided to relax for a couple of days and try and work out how we were going to travel around the South Island. Everybody told us that we would love Christchurch as it was a very 'English' city. We're not entirely sure how they worked this one out as it was very small and quite pretty, although it did have the mandatory cathedral. So after visiting the prime tourist attraction; being a highy overpiced 10 minute tram ride, we decided to get down to buisness and start researching bus companies. Two days later after several visits to STA, where we annoyed the staff with our indecisiveness and several unsuccesful phone calls to different bus companies begging for a discount (being the supreme budgeteers that we have been forced to become) we chose to go with Magic. They would drop us at several towns and cities around the country, book our accomadation for us and find many other ingenious ways to swindle money from us at various tourist attractions.

Our first stop was at a town called Kaikoura, which was a beautiful town built on sandy beaches with turquoise water and huge mountains literally by the sea. I think it is one of few places in the world that has mountains so close to the ocean. So as we checked into the hostel and all our fellow bus mates went off to do their dolphin swimming and their whale watching, Tom and i being almost completely broke (cheap skates) went for a 14k walk. I think this was one of the best decisions we made whilst on the South Island as the views were magnificent with the mountains and the sea. We also visited a sea colony on the way which was quite interesting until Tom being the 'man' that he is decided to ignore the signs and get really close to the seals saying 'i think that i can run faster than they can'. To this day, it is a topic of great debate, but as soon as the seals started growling and making a move i think we both ran a mile. Not so cute and cuddly after all!

The next day we travelled onwards to Nelson where we checked into 'paradiso' on the recommendation of an, in hindsight, possibly crazy girl. The name should have really given it away. But in we went to a hostel that embodied the spirit of hippies, 50 years too late, slash Magaluf. Strange place. To top it all off we were put in a tiny 4 bed room which we shared with another couple who had lived there for a month. Needless to say they had stolen every lacking inch of space and both bottom bunks! The next day we went on a trek through Abel Tasmen National Park which again had breathtaking views across sublime beaches and lots of jungle to explore. We also met two really nice Danish girls who it turned out were actually on our bus so we spent most of the day with them before returning with dread to 'Paradiso', although it was actually alot better the second time around.

Most of the following day was spent on the coach heading towards the next stop Greymouth. The scenery on the way was stunning, as it is over the majority of the South Island. Travelling through vineyards, gorges and huge mountains. When we reached Greymouth there was very little to do but to compensate they have fantastic accomodation. We stayed at Noah's Ark, which as you can probably guess was animal themed. We stayed in the Zebra room which was pure luxury compared to Paradiso. (Sorry, as you can tell hostels seem to have become somewhat of an obsession.) We chilled out for the night doing lots of menial tasks like budgeting and then ringing home to complain about lack of said budget, before heading over to Franz Josef the next day.

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