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Hey guys. sorry for the lack of a blog this week, but internet access has been lacking. Will have to bash this one out to cover the last few days! Arrived in Christchurch monday afternoon, having been up since 4am to fly over. Got myself on the local bus to the hostel, and it was weird driving in since i felt like i was in England, though it was sunny so obviously not!! Spent a couple of hours wandering around the city, before i sat down for the evening, watched a film with some germans, and then planned my next week or so.
Up early on Tuesday to get the 8am Kiwi bus. Only 5 of us, but met up with a coachload later on in the day. On our way to meet them in Murchison, we stopped in Culveden for some breakfast at very nice little cafe, and we stopped for a couple of photos as we made our way through the Lewis Pass. Less than 24hours in the country and already I am being blown away by the scenery...gorgeous! Got onto the main coach with everyone else and felt like the new kid in school as they had
all been travelling on the same bus for nearly two weeks, however quickly made some friends. Before our overnight stop, we went Jetboating. Wasnt going to do it but glad I did, the river through the mountains was cool as it was, but the speed and turns of the boat on the way back, WOW! Dom got a bit wet, did not choose my seat wisely! Once at the hostel and dry, a few of us went to buy supples from the supermarket, before cooking dinners. We then sat down and watched a couple of films by a nice log fire, was a chilled evening!
Wednesday morning we hit the road about 8am. We drove a short way to a seal colony, where we did a 4km walk along the coast, to see the seals, and the bus met us at the other end. The coastline had some cool rocks, and the waves, have never seen waves that big in real life. Some of the surf was incredible. At the end of the walk was a little drinks hut so I got a nice strawberry milkshake. Our next stop was at Pancake rocks. Just a small half hour walk
around the rock formations, which look like stacks of pancakes(?!), but also had some blow holes, so every time a wave came in, a few seconds later there were bursts of spray through these gaps, never seen anything like it! Had another couple of photo stops but had the last stop of the day at Greymouth. Here we had an hour to get supplies for the next couple of days, and also to buy stuff for fancy dress. The theme was bin bags!
That night we stayed at a private place ran by Les, he's 83!!And looks a bit like santa! Whilst he and the driver cooked tea, Max and I walked to Lake Mahanipua, and it was soo quiet and still, it was amazing. Got a couple of cool photos of the reflections, almost perfect symmetry! Didnt manage to see any glow worms though, a bit too early apparently. Dinner was at 7, big steaks, lots of potato and veg, and vennison. I have not eaten so much since, well I dont know when, struggled to get up at the end, was awesome!
After dinner we then had time to get our outfits sorted before heading to
the bar for the evenings festivities. Ok, so at this point I want to say that I did win the prize of a free canyon swing (worth 60quid) in the vote the next day, I was best boy with no other nominations, and i won in rock paper scissors, against the top girl. What did i go as? Well has anyone seen Borat? If you have you have seen his sunbathing outfit...well i made that out of red bin bags, and wore a fake moustache and some aviators. Kept the voice and character going for 5hours!! Go me. Had a cool night, and managed to get to everyone from the bus, and learn names etc which was cool.
Today we left Les' at 9am and headed to a small musem down the road. Here we learnt about deer farming and how they used to cacth them etc, and also got to see Possums, a big pig and deer. Here i also tried a possum pie...nothing special, but glad i tried it. We then drove all the way through to Franz Josef, where upon checking in I went on a 2hour walk, as i wanted to see the glacier today.
Glad i went, as it was a really nice walk. Some good photos i hope. On my return, i joined people in the outdoor spa, and have just spent 2.5hours in it getting to know people. very wrinkly now! So thats me up to date, sorry its a bit rushed, but lack of interenet credit! bye for now!
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