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Before the Bungy!
Nervous faces all round Well, we are relieved to tell you all that Micky and Sarah went through with the bungy and are here to tell the tale. Both would say that it was one of the most nervewracking but at the same time exhilerating experiences that they have ever done.Unfortunately for kim she had to save her pennies but thoroughly enjoyed watching and will definatly participate in a bungy in a few years to come!
That evening before making tracks to Milford Sound we treated ourselves to the first real burger of our travels, Queenstown's famous Fergburger! It even makes us hungry thinking about it.
During our timein Queenstown we had become friendly with our "roomies", three guys from Norwhich. They took part in the bungy experience with us and also followed us in convoy up to Milford Sounds national park. Unfortunately, the weather in Milford SOund wasn't good and the beautiful views were not at their most beautiful. However, this was not suprising with Milford Sound being the most rained upon place in New Zealsnd.We didn't let it defeat us and ventured out on a couple of walks, the second one of which was very eventful; it was a rocky path to
One, Two, Three, Jump!!!
134m valley...on the way down! a waterfall and on our journey back to the van Micky slipped and fell, banging her head on a rock. Thankful that the guys were with us, Paul ran back to get the first aid kit so that we could do some temporary bandaging up before reaching a medical centre.Just as it began to get dark, we reached the van and made our way to the nearest town, Te Anau, which was over an hours drive. We rang out for a doctor on the emergency number and Micky was then shortly treated with stiches in her head. Talk about drama!
The drama continued onto the next evening just outside Wanaka.We set up a campfire and one of the guys stupidly decided to start cooking near the fire and light his gas canister a bit too close. Of course, the gas canister caught fire and in a panic he kicked it towards a wooden fence. Luckily the gas burnt out quickly before anything else set alight but nervertheless it caused a slight momentary panic. We were beginning to think that our group of six carried bad luck. That evening we were joined by our other two room mates from queenstown
Milford Sound
Before Micky's accident! for some drinking games in the camper. Eight people in a campervan was a challenge. Sardine spring to mind.
The next day was a travelling day and after going two hours in the wrong direction we got back on track and arrived in Franz Josef at 5:30pm. See the bad luck lived on! We had an early night in preparation for our glacial track the nextday which was something we had all been looking forward to.
The Franz Josef walk was a six hour treck up the steepest commercially guided glacier in the world. The first partof the walk took us to the valley floor and from there we began our hike up the glacier. Taloons (spikes) were worn to give us extra grip and theoretically make the trek easier, however Kim had a dodgy oair which continually cam off her feet, holding up the group each time. The highlight came as we reached our highest point, walking through a narrow crevass. This crack in the ice was a brilliant blue colour. After getting pretty wet inside the crevass we used a rope to climb up due to the walls being so high. Desperate for showers we sneaked into
Camp Fire in Wanaka
Before the cannister went up!!! a hostel where our friends were staying through the back door and watched T.V. with them that evening.
After a stressful laundary experience, we hit the road with our next stop being Barrytown. It has a population of 17 people and within 5seconds we had entered and left the place so had to turn back. It consists mainly of one pub which states, if you turn up in fancydress happy hour continues throughout the night. This sounded very good to us indeed so we rummaged through the fancydress boxes. A tour bus also turned up to barry town whos theme for dressing up was "shotgun wedding". They kindly invited us all to the wedding and we attended as an elderly clown, a granny witch and a hula cowgirl. The nightwas alot of fun and included dancing on the bar- coyote style. (Yeh right!)
We decided to continue on our own the next morning, saying goodbye to the three guys and heading to Abel Tasman National Park, where that evening we set up camp on the spit that jutted out into the sea. A very beautiful setting.
Unfortunately the weather on our first day here was pretty grotty so we
decided to postpone our walk until the next day when we hoped the sun would shine.....and sure enough it did!!! We booked ourselves onto a coastal walk in the park which included a water taxi ride to our starting point, Tonga, and a return trip at the end of our walk, Anchorage. Our walk took four and a half hours taking us through thick lush vegetation, over pitoresque rivers and waterfalls , and ever so often opening out onto white sandy bays. Definitely a walk to remember.
Once back at our van we were hoping for a quick getaway, however, once again our bad luck continued as the van would not start due to a flat battery!!! A couple of hours later after the AA men had come to our rescue the problem had been solved and we were on the road to Nelson.
Yesterday we crossed over to the North Island and are now in Wellington. We have less than two weeks left to pack in all that this island has to offer and are looking forward to seeing Max, Alex, Tiff, Kav and Matt in Auckland. We shall keep you posted.
Love the girls xxx
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Aussie
non-member comment
1,2,3...Bungy!
Yeah girls! So happy you did the Nevis! Kim - u will have to come back over and do it with me! U girls sound like u are still having an awesome time, Mickey I hope ur melon (head) is ok! Photos from NZ are so beautiful! Cant wiat to hear of your trip from the North! Love u ladies and miss u lots! MWA xoxox