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Published: April 20th 2015
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Whilst we were in Australia we decided to book the Kiwi Experience coach tours as we wanted to see both North and South islands in New Zealand along with a few added extras.
Having heard so many great stories about New Zealand me and Elise couldn't wait to get here and as follows...
Once our plane touched down we left the airport and headed for our hostel which was an old converted prison in Christchurch, as good as it sounds and as good as it was we was only to sleep here for a mere 4 hours as our coach out of Christchurch was leaving at 6am and heading north. Now if anybody has experienced the great ocean road in Australia the ocean roads in New Zealand I think are better as the seinery is unbelievable, whilst driving along these roads you get to see many Dolphins, seals waterfalls amazing valleys and so on. Our first stop after Christchurch was Kaikoura, we was to spend just 1 night here and whilst here we was offered the opportunity to swim with dolphins or to go whale watching we ended up doing neither as we saw Dolphins up close in
Australia and the whale watching was very expensive and we was told that 50% of the time you won't even see a whale so yes that was a no. After making our way up the east coast the driver then swung a left and took us over to the west coast and for me this is where I thought New Zealand came to life, with its many walks, bike trails and its extreme rain fall ! After leaving the first spot Kaiteriteri we became like a little family on the bus as we all travelled the whole South Island together. Elise even bumped into her old friend and neighbour on the bus which was pretty random!! On I think our 3rd night on the west coast we stayed at Bazil's hostel in West Port New Zealand. After waking up and getting on with my usual morning routine, having a shower, brushing my teeth etc etc, i find the owner of the Hostel walking up and down the corridor shouting the place is F**ked so I've come out to find Elise taking a picture of the garden area which was about 20inches under water with a deck chair floating around the
garden and both benches half submerged in water. Later that day the bus driver explained to us all that london has around 1metre of rain fall a year and West Port New Zealand Has up to 19 metres ?. The next day we were told that we'd all been entered into a fancy dress competition and the winner would get a free Nevis Canyon swing jump (The Worlds highest) so I decided to go as lady Gaga naked rapped in Caution tape, Elise decided to go as Elise just on a bad day but I could feel the canyon swing was mine, I was competing with an ISIS member and Madeline Macann but my spirits were high. (The theme was bad taste)
As the night approached it became very very cold with high winds so going naked didn't seem a very good idea but as you'll see from the pictures I still had a great idea but sadly never won ?.
We arrived in Franz Josef just a few days later checked into our lovely little 4 bed dorm and decided to head out for an hour walk. The hour walk turned into a 4 hour walk but we
got to get some pretty amazing views from the bottom of the glacier. The next day we boarded our helicopter up onto the Glacier to start our ice climb. To anyone going New Zealand this is a must do, we had such a great time walking through the ice tunnels, drinking the glacier water, walking through the deep cravisis, seeing avalanches and a massive waterfall up in the mountain.
The next day we started to make our way to Wanaka but half way through we stopped off at a nice scenic walk with what we was told was a cliff jump, so after a 20 minute walk we arrive at a bridge with an amazing river flowing below but we was all warned the water came from a glacier not to far away so it was very cold. at hearing this I'm standing there naked putting on my swimming shorts ready for my jump.. Now when you look at diving boards in a swimming pool your say oh that's not high but once your on it its a different story, but the bridge looked high so once I had jumped two thick cables, the fence and was now standing
on a piece of wood no more than an inch think looking at an electric blue colour river half of my body was saying jump and the other half was saying no no no but I jumped and I now know how the peas in my freezer feel back home, and the noises people said I was making once I had come up, I honestly don't think I took a breath until I got to shore, I cannot tell you how cold this was, everyone that knows me well I'll explain this properly once I see you but F*ck man it was cold ! I got out and wanted to do it again and now when I got out the second time both my hand were shaking and both were blood red and numb ? ..
Once we arrived in Wanaka we had I would say one of the best views I've ever had in my life and we was told only the rich live here and you can buy a house built into the hill for around $700,000 which is around £340,000 so back home just your average home. Early next morning me and Elise decided to take
a walk up to the summit of some big ass hill and while we was walking we made a few more friends.
Queenstown... Now one of my favourite places I've been to yet as here you have 3 Bungy jumps the worlds highest canyon swing, water sports, downhill mountain biking and a large dominos pizza for $4.99 and what was voted the most beautiful spot in the world.. The 8th wonder of the world supposedly *Milford Sound*
After queenstown we made our way up the east cost stopping at some pretty amazing places, lake Tekapo the stop after queenstown the view across the lake was absolutely breathtaking! We then got the 3 hour ferry trip across to Wellington and Wellington is where we'd thought we treat ourselves to a hotel for 4 nights so we could have a bed to ourselves A TV and just chill out for 4 days..
After Wellington we made our way up north spending about 1 week to get to the incredible bay of islands, stopping in some really incredible places along the way. In the north islands we saw downhill mountain bike world championships, bathed in natural hot pools, and had
a few beers whilst looking at some pretty amazing views.
New Zealand is overall a great place with some exciting trips and some amazing lakes.
We also visited loads of little towns and villages in between they were all equally stunning!
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