New Zealand - Wellington and Able Tasmin – The end of the North Island and it was straight onto the South Island and what a place to start.

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New Zealand – Wellington and Able Tasmin – The end of the North Island and it was straight onto the South Island and what a place to start.

After finishing a very demanding trek at Mt Doom the next morning we were all on our way to Wellington where we would stop for just one night before catching the ferry to the South Island to a place called Picton, however we would not be stopping in Picton other than picking up a new bus for the beginning of the South Island tour. The first stop on this tour is Albe Tasman which is known for its spectacular coast line, beach’s, treks and its scenery so I was eagerly anticipating good things to come.

As mentioned above sadly I only had a few hours to look round Wellington so I didn’t really get much of a feel for it and it was also raining pretty heavily which limited my options to explore. As you will see I didn’t take a single photo here because I didn’t want to get my camera wet and it also seemed like so many other cities I’ve been to and I already have more than enough photos as I’m sure you can imagine. Whilst in Wellington I stayed at a lovely hostel slightly outside the CBD whilst the rest of the bus stayed at a notorious party hostel at the other end of town. Rumours about the hostel included some pretty disgusting events taking place because of the mess that some of the people got in at the parties held there. Now you may remember in an earlier blog I mentioned I would elaborate about a poor girl who got more than she bargained for at such a hostel, well this was the hostel. I met up with Patrick, Katherine and Margaret at the Ferry terminal the following morning and they were the first there from the Stray bus crew but they looked broken and very upset! Me on the other hand, I had a great night’s sleep after watching a dvd with the rest of my hostel but this wasn’t quite the same for my three friends unfortunately. Sadly in their four bed dorm there was one very drunk idiot. They all went to bed around midnight to the melody of some drum and bass but the fourth roommate came in at four in the morning and literally fell through the door and tried to get into bed with Margaret, this could be seen as bad enough but after her rejecting his very kind offer all three of them helped him to his bed (the top bunk.) After the lights were turned out there was a lot of movement from above and this lovely guy leaned over the bed and proceeded to vomit all over Margaret…… As you can imagine this caused a few problems in the room and worst of all this guy was on our bus in the morning and he didn’t even apologise, what a nob. Now I’m sure you can see why I was reluctant to stay there and felt very happy I didn’t. So with a somewhat unhappy group and a completely wrecked bus driver we all jumped on board the ferry and made or way to Picton on the South Island.

Miss P did her best not to crash the bus whilst ridiculously hung over and probably still heavily over the limit from the night before as we set off to Able Tasman, it was the quietest I had ever known the bus and the hangovers were kicking in massively. The journey to Able Tasman was pretty uneventful and as always the views were beautiful.

When we arrived at Able Tasman we all got involved with a group BBQ which was good fun and the following morning a few of us went off trekking on the coastal path. Able Tasman really is very beautiful and the coastal path was a relaxing 26km trek and thankfully very flat compared to the previous effort at Mt Doom. I will let the photos paint a picture about the views and all I can say is Awesome! I made it back to our cabins for the night just before Sunset and tucked into whatever food I had left from my supplies and sat down to enjoy the sunset and rest my legs.

That was sadly it for Able Tasman, I really wish I had more time here to explore more and spend a day on the beach and relax after all the trekking but it was time to move on again. We would be heading towards a place called Greymouth which would just be an overnight stop before making our way to Queenstown.

On the way to Greymouth we stopped at a place called Punakaiki to view “Pancake” rocks and see lots of seals. Some of the rock formations are pretty cool and made for some great shots. After a one hour walk around the tourist trail we were herded onto the bus again and made our way direct to Greymouth……. More on this to come in the next blog.

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