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Published: March 30th 2009
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I'm very sad to come to the end of my New Zealand adventure. It's been great here from start to finish.
When i last wrote i was in Queenstown. From there i moved northwards and spent a night on a farm near Kurow, stoppping to see the famous moeraki boulders on the beach on the way. On the farm I went tramping (walking in the rough country for those that don't know - not picking up undesirables) for hours around the hills there. The woman that ran the farm, Kaye, told me i'd be fine so long as i didn't go into the field with the bulls as they'd probabbly charge me so to keep away from them. She didn't tell me which field this was and as they were all on totally steep hills you couldn't see what was in the field until you were over the top of the hill. Anyway, so i climbed over turnstyle after turnstyle until i got tot he steepest hill and was just about to reach the peak when i heard the bull (to be fair i never actually saw it - it could have been a newborn calf) so i had to
run like a madwoman back towards the farm. I bet they were laughing at me from the farm, watching out of their little window as i fled from a tiny wee calf.
After the farmstay i moved on to Lake Tekapo to spend the night. This lake and others nearby were really blue and i stayed at a lakeside hostel overlooking the lake with great views. Also had some really tasty New Zealand lamb there while overlooking the lake.
Next i moved on to Christchurch and did the usual touristy stuff, rode on the tram and saw the gardens, parks, markets & shops. It's a bit of an old english style town, quite quiet but qaint with trams and river rides being the main attraction.
My magic bus tour was suppposed to end in Christchurch but the nice driver said he'd let me get on the bus the next day to Kaikoura for free, which was a place i really wanted to go to so i was happy to be a stowaway and it save a bit of cash. As a stowaway i really wanted to ride in the luggage compartment but the driver assured me i
could travel as normal with everyone else. A little disappointing, i thought, i didn't even get to wear a pirate hat.
Then in Kaikoura i went tramping for a few hours on the first day along the coast, through more fields of cows. It's a really beautiful place with the mountains just behind it and the ocean just in front. A really pretty place to spend some time. While I was there I also went to another farm and spent some time horse riding on a horse called Dreamer. I'd never been horse riding before but it was such a nice place to do it, with the mountains as a backdrop and crossing streams and riding through the bush. I had planned on going tramping again afterwards but i could hardly walk and so i went and sat in the outdoor hottub at our hostel for a bit to recover. For once i've picked the good hostel with free stuff so i'm filling my backpack with the free fruit and soup. I'll probably find it there in about a months time.
Then on my last day in Kaikoura (today) i went swimming with dolphins. It was amazing. There
were about 50 wild dusky dolphins all around us in the ocean. They were really inquisitive and friendly. At one time i had two dolphins swimming either side of me, one just underneath me and one leaping over me. They were so much fun. About 5 times i caught the eye of one swimming near me and would spin around in circles and they'd circle me and copy me in the water. We had so much interaction with them, it was great. I was amazed at how much interest they had in us. After we'd been swimming with them on and off for about an hour we went around in the boat to take some pictures and they really started showing off doing flips and coming right up to the side of the boat.
Tomorrow i'm heading back to Christchurch for one last night before an early flight to Melbourne the next day. It's quite hot in Melbourne and i'm meeting Nikki, a friend from home there so i'm really looking forward to it but it's been such a great time in New Zealand, i really am sad to go. But it'll be nice to put my jumpers back
to the bottom of my backpack with the forgotten fruit and soup and get back to the beach.
I'll update when i'm in Australia before moving on to South America.
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anonymous
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really enjoyed reading your blog!!!!