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Published: March 25th 2008
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After a very early ferry journey to the South Island the bus dropped me off in Nelson. I arranged to catch everyone up in Abel Tasmin as I had made quite a few friends on that bus and was keen to carry on travelling with them. I checked into a small hostel called Paradiso which was small and quaint and had a pool and spa which is unusual for a hostel. I had arranged to meet Phil - an old friend from Timperley that I hadn't seen in years! He is now married and has a little girl who is 8 months called Eva. Such a gorgeous baby! I had a little hold and realised that I am going to have to get better with babies at the orphanage!! Although she didn't cry so that was a bonus! Phil's house is lovely and airy and overlooks the bay - it's a great view. He had also just build a wooden deck out at the back which he was quite proud of. Phil and Helen cooked up a delicious barbeque and after eating we just relaxed and caught up until late. I went back to the hostel as they had no spare
rooms in the house with Helens sister being there. When I got back to the hostel it looked like there had been a bit of a party going on and everyone was really drunk and lary! Not knowing anyone I hurried past and went to bed, as I wanted to make the most of the next day in Nelson. At 3.30 in the morning I was woken up by the girl in the bed above me being sick over the side of the bed!!! great!! So I had a very bad nights sleep - she was very apologetic in the morning and luckily all my stuff escaped unscathed - she told me she was 36 and had not drank for 4 weeks!! Disgraceful haha. From now on I think I will take the top bunk just in case.
After a wander around lovely Nelson I hopped onto the next bus and made my way to Abel Tasmin National park. I only had one day here as I wanted to get back on the other bus so I decided that the best way to see the area would be from the sky! I took a spur of the moment hang
gliding ride. This was an unreal feeling - not particularly scary just very relaxing and surreal. The feeling is supposed to be the closest a person can get to flying and that is exactly how it feels. My guide asked me if I wanted to do some wingovers (pretty much going upside down) These were fun and left my stomach behind. I only went up to 4000ft and was fine with the height so decided that I definitely wanted to do a skydive later on in my trip.
The next day we took the bus to a tiny place called Barrytown on the West Coast - We checked into a hostel / pub and were the only guests. As there wasn't much to do here our driver decided that it would make a more interesting night if we all got dressed up. The theme was "P" you could go dressed up as anything or anyone beginning with the letter P. The bus stopped at the nearest town and we were let loose in the charity shops. I bought a load of green and brown material for a dollar and some scissors and made myself a peter pan outfit held
together with safety pins... I won the competition - a stray T-shirt - which comes in handy as a nighty! We had a couple of patients, a few prostitutes (men love getting dressed as women don't they!), the pope, a few pirates, a peasant and some other random last minute outfits... good fun!
After Barrytown we headed to Franz Joseph - a beautiful mountain village. It is by far the most spectacular scenery I have seen in New Zealand so far. Me and Andrea managed to bag ourselves a twin room for the same price as a dorm so that was a bit of luxury for us - we had our own bathroom and tv and fridge so we both felt quite smug! After the best night's sleep in a long time some of us opted to do a day long glacier walk. We were fitted out with really heavy boots and crampons, rainjackets, hats and gloves and separated into groups depending on how fast we wanted to go. After a bit of waiting around on the Tongariro Crossing I decided to go in the second group which turned out to be a good pace for me. The walk
was an amazing experience and probably the best day I have had in NZ so far. The scenery was spectacular and after every turn a different beautiful natural ice feature which had been formed days before and was constantly changing. Our guides had axes and had to cut us steps as we walked so the walk wasn't as strenuous as I thought it would be. After a long day on the ice we took advantage of the two for one drinks offer at the local pub. I have started to notice the weather getting cooler the further south I go and am starting to regret not packing my jeans!
Tomorrow is another 8.30am start and the destination is Makaroa. I intend to relax and rest my newly formed bisters!!
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Mel
non-member comment
Hi
Hi Jenny - great to see your pics. Look amazing. You are so brave to go handgliding ! take care love Mel and John xxx