Week 2 on the big green bus

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Continuing on..the next day we left Taupo and had a little walk in the NP, saw a couple of waterfalls, etc then we were off to River Valley, this was my favourite place we stayed! It was literally a hostel/outward bound centre on a river and that was it, we parked the bus at the top of the drive and had to walk down! :-) By the hostel the river was very calm so we could swim and there was a rope swing/pully bridge across the river which you could jump in off. They also had a cosy way of setting up some dorms-8mattresses in a row on the bottom bunk and another 8 on the top bunk, good job we all knew each other by this stage! The scenery here was just beautiful and the next day we headed off to do white water rafting-amazing fun but hardwork! It was a grade 5 river and technically challenging at times but we all survived despite a few hairy moments, we had to go save Tracy, John, Richard and Doug at one point! It was raining while we were on the river and things kept changing!

Anyway that afternoon we all headed to Wellington, the capital city, known for being very windy! It wasn't too bad while I was there. That night we had a few people in our room and a little party before going to the bar for a few but the next morning we were up very early to catch the ferry to the South Island! I slept the first part of the journey but then we all went outside and enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful scenery of the Marlborough sounds before arriving into Picton. Then we had a short journey from Picton to Nelson where we were staying and by the time we got there it was raining again so we didn't do the walk to the centre of NZ-views wouldn't have been great. The hostel was more a pub/hotel (The Prince Albert) with nice dorm rooms out the back so we did free beer tasting, had a lovely roast dinner and played a few drinking games with everyone. In Picton we had met lots more people getting on our bus so it was good to get to know them.

The next morning we all headed off to Nelson Lakes NP and stopped for our lunch at Lake Rotoiti which was stunning then we drove through the Buller gorge to Westport. Here me and Jen went horse riding which was great fun, we cantered through some narrow sandy tracks and took in the scenery. When we returned to the hostel everyone else had gone to the beach but apparently we didn't miss much. The town itself wasn't amazing either and is just a bus exchange place really I think but we all went out for pizza that night to get to know everyone, including Morrie better which was nice.

Then the journey down the West coast really started, first we headed to Cape Foulwind for a cliff top walk and saw a seal colony, then another walk around pancake rocks, where we also ate pancakes! :-) Finally we stopped in Greymouth for a shopping trip and then it was on to Lake Mahinapua. Here the hostel was again in the middle of nowhere but on the main road, you could walk either to the beach or the lake in 10mins max so we did both, although we only swam in the lake as the sea was freezing cold, not that the lake was warm but...

Les the guy who owns the place is the oldest publican in NZ, I'm not sure anyone knows exactly how old he is but very old and set in his ways. He cooked dinner for us all, venison stew and then we had a big rubik's cube fancy dress party with more drinking games and lots of fun!

Our next stop was Franz Josef, a glacial town. Here me and Jen wandered round the shops and then after eating dinner headed to the hot spa which was a lovely place to spend the evening relaxing. The next day we did our full day glacier walk, it was great, not as hard as Tongariro but still challenging at times. We nearly lost John at one point as he jumped down and disappeared through the ice to his waist but he just had a few cuts and bruises and it was his own fault! We also got to go in an ice cave which they had just found the day before which was really fun but cold! :-) That night we ended up back in the bar, caught up with friends we had made earlier in the journey (as this was a 2night stop) and heard everyone else's adventures.

Then the scenery somehow managed to become even more stunning-we went to Lake Matheson where the highest mountains in NZ are reflected onto the perfectly still lake. Then we drove through Haast, took photos of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea which were huge and just couldn't be captured on camera, as with most places here! When we arrived in Wanaka we headed to the lake and had a quick dip, here I acquired some really bad bruises from the slippy ladder climbing back onto the jetty! :-) Surprisingly that night we spent in the bar, again!

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