New Zealand - South Island

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I was sad to leave Sydney, having felt very settled there and got used to not having to move hostels every few days. I had felt very at home with John and Mel over Christmas and New Year, which considering how far from home I am, was a very nice feeling. John drove me to the airport and wished me well, but I will see them again when I head back to Australia at the end of March.

When I arrived in Christchurch I couldn't find Douglas, who I was going to be staying with, because we had never met or felt it necessary to describe/send a photo/ anything sensible like that. I eventually found him and Kerri and head to New Brighton, just outside Christchurch where they live. It was freezing (compared to Sydney, not snowy England) and I had to layer up! I met some of their friends that evening for a BBQ which was good fun and the next day I went to Akaroa, a little fishing village and had fish and chips for lunch and looked around the shops there. I also spent a day in Christchurch looking at the Botanical Gardens, a couple of museums and the Arts Centre where there are lots of arty crafty places. The day after I started the Kiwi Experience, a tour bus around the whole of New Zealand. I met some great people on the first day, a girl called Hannah who I sat next to and we ended up going all the way to Queenstown together, which was great because it was a bit of a shock to realise I was now travelling by myself. We stopped at a place called Kaikoura and I went whale watching on a boat and saw 6 sperm whales and a pod of Hector's Dolphins that mainly live in New Zealand and are endangered. It was so cool. I got some really good pictures of the whales diving as well, with the tail up in the air and everything.

The next place was Nelson where you can walk up a nearby hill to the centre of New Zealand. I'm not exactly sure how it is measured but there you are, I was there, in the middle. I visited Abel Tasman National Park and went on a tour of the coastline in a water taxi, to see some of the bays, split apple rock and some seals. Then went on a walk with Suzi, who I met on the bus to the bay that we were getting collected from through the park and across some other beaches, it was a lovely walk and the weather was much improved on what it had been that morning - bucketing down rain to bright sunshine - brilliant.
I stayed in Nelson for 4 nights because the buses were really busy out of Nelson but I made the most of it. One day it really rained all day so I watched a film called the Whale Rider, made in New Zealand and about a Maori family. Another day Suzi and I hired a car and drove to the Farewell Spit, the most northern point of the South Island and it was lovely, we packed a picnic and stopped in a town on the way for coffee and when we got there it was really sunny, unlike rainy Nelson. That night I went out with some people who were going to be on the bus the next day, Shannon from Canada and some guys from the Uk, there are always a lot of people from England no matter where I am.

The next morning 2 buses arrived to take us all down the West coast of New Zealand. We visited a very cold lake in Nelson Lakes National Park but some still jumped in! Then I went Jet boating on the Buller River near Westport, really good fun. Westport is a very small, old mining town and there really isn't much there. We all made the best of it and went to a nearby pub though.

The next morning the bus took us to Cape Foulwind where we all walked along the coastal path, saw seals and took lots of photos. Then our lunch spot for the day was Punakaiki, the pancake rocks, so named because they supposedly look like pancakes stacked up, though I have to say it wasn't the first thing that sprang to mind looking at them. Very interesting though. After lunch we stopped in Greymouth to try and find something to wear as a costume to the tight and bright themed fancy dress party that evening. The night's stop was at a place called Lake Mahinapua fondly onown to Kiwi Experience-ers as the Poo Pub. Very near a beach and a lovely brown lake (pretty until you jump in and realise) it was a very remote location to say the least. The evening started with an immense BBQ where there was just so much food, I felt like I didn't need to eat again for a week, afterwards, quite good when you are on a budget, haha. Great party though, boys will tend to dress up as girls at every opportunity!

At Franz Josef there is a huge glacier which many of my bus group went for a hike on, it wasn't cold at all until we stopped to let the guides carve a path with their pick axes. It was a really good day, squeezing through little gaps and going through caves and generally walking on the gigantic glacier that has carved a valley. I went to some hot pools afterwards which were lush and spent about 3 hours there getting more and more prune like and dehydrated until they eventually closed. It was a fun place Franz Josef and I also went for a skydive there. It was gorgeous weather and I went up in a very little plane with another girl and threw myself out. I wasn't even scared and immediately wanted to go again, it was so much fun, maybe on another trip. Awesome.

The scenery from the bus on the way down the West Coast is incredible, it changes all the time from mountains, to rocks and creeks and then to fields of sheep or cows, a lake, a waterfall; so much to look at, though some of that time is inevitably spent asleep or trying to sleep! The drive from Franz Josef to Wanaka isn't actually very long but we stopped at a million different places. Lake Matheson is supposed to have a mirror refelction of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook but unfortunately it was a bit windy for the perfect mirror reflection to be perfect. Had a walk around the lake though. There were a few other places we stopped at as well for photos but we all got a bit fed up of getting off the bus and just wanted to get there so at the last place we had a 'photo stop' noone got off the bus. Funny. We evetually got to Wanaka, which is very pretty and has a lovely lake perfect for swimming but noone really went in because it was quite late, annoyingly.

Then we got to Queenstown. It is quite small but busy at the same time. Certain places are a bit infamous, the World Bar and their teapots of cocktails, Fergburger and their gigantic burgers, AJ Hackett Bungy Jumping and any other adventure sport or activity you care to think up! I stayed a week there and Suzi and I went to Invercargill, the World's most southern city and Dunedin, where they make Speight's beer and had all sorts of other fun times. Leavign Queenstown, there was only one person I knew on my bus and 2 other people I knew were in Christchurch when I got back there so we had, yet another night out and had a good farewell.

Next up New Zealand North Island and then Fiji. (I am, as always behind by months on this...) but at least you have something to look forward to haha.
I'm now back in Oz and fly to Uluru tomorrow. I am so excited.
Lots of love and hugs,
Jenny xx

p.s photos will be posted when the internet connection is good enough to do them all in one go!

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Comments

[Sally]

Jealous? Nah
Hi Jenny No matter that your news is always 2 months+ out of date - just keep it coming... Me, jealous? You bet. NZ sounds wonderful - definitely somewhere I'll hope to travel round one day - but maybe not including a tight and bright party or FergBurgers... but you never know! Spring has eventually arrived here, herrah. Palm Sunday this wkend. The vicar interviews were yesterday, but we won't know for a bit what / if an offer has been made or accepted. V frustrating!! Hot news - Robin and Helen are expecting a baby!!!!!!!!! And Rob has been accepted for ordination training, and is in Cambridge now for an interview for a college. Our group are doing Easter morning breakfast - we could do with your help on eggs! love s xx