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Published: April 13th 2007
Sorry i havent been on for a while, been stuck in the middle of nowhere!! not even mobile phone signal!!
Since Wellington we have crossed over into the south island (with a rather large hangover). And our first stop in South Island was a free wine tasting in the vineyards of the Nelson region, the sunnyest part of New Zealand aparently. Then it was straight into Nelson - a lovely little town, though it didnt quite warrant the 5 days we ended up staying there, the busses were full to bursting and because we hadnt prebooked all our busses the next one with spaces was 5 days away.
No worries we managed to entertain ourselves, we found a pool hall that was free for 2 hours a day, it was a chillout stop realy and a well deserved one at that. Whilst in Nelson we went into the Abel Tasman National Park, which was pretty nice - we took a 40 minute water taxi into the heart of the park and then had a 5 hour walk back to get the bus to the hostel. it was very senic and lots of lovely beaches.
Greymouth was next, nothing special
there apart from a bonfire on the beach, 2 busloads of backpackers, a bonfire and lots of booze (a recipe for disaster) but it all went fine. and we had a great laugh.
The next stop was Lake Mahnipua, which wasnt realy a town rather than a pub and hostel in the middle of nowhere, run buy an 83 year old legend called Les it is one of the legendary stops of the Kiwi Experience tours as the hostel only ever hosts Kiwi Experience travelers. cheap beer and lots of laughs, especialy as every night there is fancy dress night. sods law that we arrived on easter sunday so there was no shops open to buy costumes. consequently after dinner; a huge feed consisting of venison casserole steak cheesy potatoes and lots of salad a dressing up bag was found. not just a bag but 2 of those bags that you gat sand in for building sites full of clothes. not that jack needed any, he stole a dress and makeup and made a scarily convincing girl.
On the way to Franz Joseph we stopped off at a mirror lake, a lake so still that its surface provides
a perfect reflection. unfortunately it was raining that morning so the lake waws far from still and photos of postcards had to suffice.On arrival in Franz Joseph we went up to visit the the super fast moving glacier, it is in such a steep valley that it looks only a few 100 metres away but in reality it is 2.7km away. as we found out the next morning when we did a full day hike around the glacier, with ice axes, crampons and everything! it was so beautiful and fun. walking through crevases nobody had seen before, (our guide was cutting all the foot holds afresh) they said we had gone higher on the glacier than any other group before. other excitement on the glacier included one of our group having to be airlifted off because his shoulder kept dislocating and it wasnt safe for him to stay with us. we spent a compulsory 2 nights in Franz, it was good to go out with the drivers, who were making the most of not having to drive the next morning. ours even came out of the evening with a new driver nickname - mangee. for the dance he did on
a pooltable in very Simon Park - esque underwear.
Wanaka was just a single night stop. but provided lots of entertainment, mainly at the Red Rock bar where on arrival we were chalenged to drink a whole "Barmaid" 9 pints of beer in one big tube, the deal was if the bus could beat the previous record of 4 mins 20 secs then we would get another. we smashed it. 1 min 30 secs it took us. the night continued with 2 of our bus mates doing a striptease for a hen party. good times.
more to come but im rapidly running out of time.
unfortunately whilst backing up my photos the other day the lady that did it managed to delete 100 of them. i was soo pissed off. so if you wanty to see a select few go to
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1627&l=d1525&id=501052997
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mummy-greenwood
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Hi Simon time for an update. Its been 2 weeks since the last one . Want to know whats been happening in Aus. Hope you are both keeping well. Love to Jack and you of course! Mum