From sea to mountains in the sunny south

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I was sad to leave Wellington. It was nice spending time in a home instead of a hostel, but times-a-wastin' and we moved on. Early rise on wednesday to catch the interislander ferry to Picton. It was quite a gloomy morning but the weather cleared as we left the harbour. We went through Queen Charlotte Sound as we came into Picton...thats what the big photo at the top is. I worked out how to use panorama mode!!! Yay!

Picton was really small compared to Wellington, it really was there only for the ferry. It was very pretty though. Not much to do unless we wanted to fork out for another cruise around the sound which we didn't so after only 2 days we were off again. The hostel we stayed in was ok...Without the free chocolate pudding and ice cream everynight it would have been a bit rubbish but you know us and chocolate. We booked a ticket on the tranzCoastal train to Christchurch, then the tranzAlpine train the day after to Greymouth. The tranzCoastal was nice and we saw some seals along the way but it was the tranzAlpine i was looking forward to. It goes through the mountains (obviously) through Arthurs pass. It was really beautiful and i spent almost the whole ride on the observation platform. It was a bit of a bloodbath to begin with, everyone fighting to get a good spot near the front so they could get some good pics. After a while most people either got what they wanted, fed up or thrown off the side. I was still there! woo! Unfortunatly i lost Annie. It was really, really windy...I'm dreading haviong to brush my hair, it will be painful - the train was only today- ive not just not brushed my hair for ages.

The hostel we stayed at in Christchurch was well cool!!! It was converted from an old prison and still had some of the original features - like bars. Hmmm...maybe I'm mistaking this for an actual prison... I DIDN'T DO IT!!! I'M INNOCENT I TELL YOU! INNOCENT!!

yeh...

Greymouth is a bit...boring, for want of a better word. The hostel we've got is good, every room is animal themed (its called Noah's Ark) And ours is the penguin room. But seeing as most the stuff to do at greymouth involves going somewhere else, we're leaviong tomorrow and going to Franz Josef.

P.S. Sorry about the postcard i forgot to finish it. You'll understand when you get it off Collette and co.

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Photos

Queen Charlotte sound
The views coming into Picton on the Interislander ferry

Us on the ferry
We look like we've been photoshopped on! we haven't...

I want to live there!
In a box in the middle of nowhere with that view...maybe somewhere else though so i didn't have to see the ferry twice a day

Jailhouse Accommodation
The hostel in Christchurch. We didn't do it! You can't prove anything!

Our accomodation
not really, this was just a cell left how it was originally

Annie is too!
she was my partner in crime

The mountains on the TranzAlpine
Its very pretty...

Im a bit windswept
you can sorta see the mountains in the background

Pretty...
...at least it would have been if 'woman' hadnt stuck her head in the road.

river
towards the end of the tranzalpine train