Aint No Mountain High Enough...

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Hi everyone! It is great to hear from you all.
We would like to congratulate Janet and Keith once again for winning the monthly quiz! You are on a roll! The horse was blind and Bobby disinfected a lamb and a cat (not ourselves)!

Since writing last, we left Akaroa and went back to Christchurch where we managed to survive another internet all nighter. We left the next day at 7am to get the coach from Christchurch to Greymouth. The coach made its way through Arthurs Pass National Park and so we had great snow capped mountain scenery all the way there. However as we approached Greymouth, it turned grey. foggy and wet! So it was not a very good start to our mini holiday from homestays. We planned to go to viewpoints but it was too foggy so we had fun in the local art galleries and supermarkets. I cut Bobby's hair in the evening so it now looks great!
We decided to brave the horrible weather the next day and do a viewpoint walk as it was slightly less foggy (but more rainy) so we got very muddy and wet. We then got the coach to the Pancake Rocks and they were spectacular. Bobby espeically liked the Blowholes.
The weather perked up the next day and so we did a coastal walk and re visited the Pancake rocks twice as the weather kept getting sunnier. We then got on a coach to Hokitika which is said to be the prettiest town in New Zealand. We did a coastal walk to a nice viewpoint, a bush walk and then a walk around the supermarket of course!
The next day the sky was so clear that you could see all the snow capped mountains that surrounded the town which made it a very beautiful town indeed. We walked along the coast before leaving by coach to Franz Josef. In this hostel we got free hot soup for dinner and so we indulged in that!
We set off walking to the Glacier on the following day. The walk up to the start of the Glacier walk had such amazing scenery that it took us forever to reach the start because of all the photo stops. When we got to the start, we did a mini walk to a viewpoint of the glacier which was great. We then did the main walk up to the glacier which was phenomenal. We had lunch and then it started to rain as we walked back which was great timing! When it dried up, we did more walks which involved a massive suspension bridge. We then did a bushwalk back to town but halfway there, there was a massive fast flowing river which we had no clue how to get across and so we had to walk back and go a different route! We then did a nice evening walk by the river in town before having free soup. We had a nice game of Monoply after dinner and Bobby trashed me again like she always does.
Today the weather is just awful! It is grey and it has rained non stop. We decided to change hostels to this one which has free internet (but not free soup) which is great. We will probably brave the weather at some point today.

Amazingly we have not shopped in New Zealand yet, so our bargains have only been food related. We got a massive cream sponge cake the other day for about 70p and that was delcious.

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Comments

[gran]

Latest - stoppress
Hi girls! Youll soon run out of superlatives for all these amazing places. Its good to visit with you in comfort w/o hassle of rain cold mud but FJ glacier I'd like to have seen. Billie took off to rough it (Sahara)We dont expect blog from there unless the next oasis has internetcafe Love G

[The Benjies]

These feet are made for walking
Wow! Can't believe we won again - Are you sure you will be able to carry all these prizes back? You must be on your next pair of trainers now with all the walking you are doing. Neil is doing the Great South Run this weekend - you will be able to join him next year! Lovely photos. Love JB and KB xx

[Maxy]

Oi oi....
Just came across this on ur msn name, funnily enuff. Haha, your trip looks amazing! Wish I'd had the guts to actually do it instead of sitting on my arse in an office. Anyways, enjoy the rest of the trip, just thought I'd say allo. Max,xxx