South New Zealand - Cairns, Australia

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I'm trying to remember where I got up to the last time I wrote...ah the glaciers. Well the half day hike turned out to be plenty of time and we were both shattered by the end of it, strangely the worst part is getting to the glaciers, as the trek to the top is pretty rocky and so steep! I did feel at one point as though I was going to keel over, which was an interesting experience. We were treated to a free experience of the outdoor hot pools they had on offer afterwards though, 36, 38 and 40 degrees of pure heaven.

On our way to Wanaka, we stopped at Lake Mattheson which even though it was incredibly early, was the most beautiful sight of mountains, nature, water, mist in the middle of nowhere whilst being able to have a cup of coffee in the middle of it all. Wanaka itself was a fab little town, with a stunning, yet freezing river that Ben and Sam braved to go swimming it (I had the more difficult task of taking the photos of course!)

We then made our way to the incredible adventure capital, Queenstown, where Ben braved the Nevis bungy (3rd highest in the world), we ate the infamous Fergburger, (which as burgers go, was amazing!) we did the gondola ride, frisbee golf (it's not just a wii game!), watched the rugby final in a very odd cowboy bar (had a giant bear watching us) which was a very tense and far too close final for my liking! and met up with a lot of the crew from our first bus which was wicked to catch up with all of them, before slowly all of us going our separate ways.

A few days before we left NZ, we took our last ride on the Kiwi bus to Christchurch, where we experienced a very different side to the country. Ghost Town was how a lot of people now describe the city and I have to agree with them. Since the earthquake in Feb, the city centre has been closed off to the public and as we walked around, it appeared that everyone was avoiding the city if possible. Buildings were either collapsing or had been knocked down completely, pavements were cracked and raised and many businesses were shut down. I found it pretty upsetting to see and felt as though we had left New Zealand already as the vibe is very different to everywhere else in the country. The hostel we stayed at on the other hand, was a quirky little house, with a bus in the back garden. Ben and I had the garage room also in the garden which was nice for us to be a bit lazy before heading to Auz.

Which leads me onto where we are now; Cairns, Australia. To be honest, we've had a bit of a shakey start to our visit. Firstly our flight was delayed so we missed our 2nd flight. Then an icecream I had on the plane stuck to my lip and ripped some of the skin off. Then we arrived at our hostel, which was a total poohole (reminded me of a prison) and yesterday I looked like a total tit and fell down some stairs in the middle of the street, badly twisting my ankle. However, we are looking on the bright side: My lip has now cleared, we have moved hostels today to a great little place down the road which has a $5 BBQ and snake show tonight, I managed to fall down the stairs in stages which allowed Ben to grab me so I didn't smash my head as well and we have booked to do the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow 😊 There are also free swimming pools everywhere which is great, as the temperature is pretty hot hot hot here!

I've heard the weather back home isn't too great at the moment, I hope you are all wrapping up warm! Check back for another update soon, lots of love xxxxx

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