New Zealand: Sweet As Bro

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Today marks my last day in the wonderful world of New Zealand (it was actually 3 weeks ago but shhhhhh no one will notice that I wrote this and forgot to publish it) and I couldn't be more sad to leave, I have had such an amazing time here and just wish I could stay for a lot longer (probably not forever though) but tomorrow I head off to India which should be interesting and might take some getting used to.

During my last week in New Zealand I have been to some of the most beautiful places ever, my final day in Queenstown was spent in Milford Sound which involved to longest bus ride to get there but it was totally worth it. The drive itself might even have been better than Milford itself because it is basically just one long mountain pass which heads past glaciers, waterfalls and tree avalanches (I really don't understand what these are). Milford itself is pretty epic, I took a two hour boat trip around it and it was ssssoooo windy but I got to see Mitre Peak which is apparently the most photographed mountain in New Zealand and it is reasonably obvious why. There were also a bunch of seals hanging out there which was kind of cool.

On leaving Queenstown the Stray bus headed up to Mount Cook where there is nothing to do except go for a walk and stare at Mt Cook, but there isn't really anything else you would rather be doing there. I went for a walk to a glacier lake with a crazy (but rather nice) guy called Peter who then swam in said lake and didn't seem to be slightly bothered by the ice-bergs floating in it: like I said he's literally crazy. Mt Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand and it's not like other huge mountains, you can tell exactly how high it is because you can literally walk to the base of it as there is a massive valley and you can see exactly where the mountain begins rather than just being able to see the top of it.

The next stop of interest was Kaikoura where I went swimming with dolphins which was without a doubt the best thing I have done in life ever. The dolphins I swam with were completely wild and were so amazingly playful it was unreal, they literally came 6 inches away from my face. We had to get there for 5.30am because that was when the dolphins come together in a pod after feeding alone during the night, when thinking of a pod I thought there would be about 20 but nnnooooooooo there were about 150-200 by the end of our swim. When swimming we were told to "act like a dolphin" to attract their attention which basically meant making ridiculous noises and moving like an idiot; I'm still not sure if it was actually necessary or just for the entertainment of the people on the boat :S As we headed back to shore we watched the dolhins jumping and flipping as the sun rose and I don't think there is a better way to start the day.

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