New Zealand (south island)

SOUTH ISLAND (Heading south)

Picton a small place boring and small. So we passed through and headed to place called Nelson again a nice place but small and not much to do buch a really nice place. we stayed in a hostel called 'guest house' a weird place dirty and full of hippys smoking weed, but it was only one night and it was cheap!! so while we were there we visited the middle of NZ the exact point between north and south geologicly it was fun and cheap! After the walk we were both so tired we ate tea which was noodles and soup (yum) and went to bed early so the next morning we left and headed to a place called Greymouth.

Greymouth is small and is a and is mainly a mining town that is owned by the chinese, because what they do is buy the town and its mining rights and ship all the coal to china and store it in huge depos because they know one day it will be worth a lot and they will have most of it!! Clever....
While we were there we got really drunk as there was not much else to do!!! and left the next day...and that was greymouth.

After greymouth was a place called franz joseph, its a tiny but interesting exciting place with the feel of a french ski resort. We stayed in a place called chateau franz a kinda ski resrt place a real lively place with one bar but a busy place. So franz joseph has a thing called a sub tropical glacier ( a big piece of ice traveling down a hill)one of only three in the southen hemisphere the other one in chilli its 17km long 5km wide and 1000m deep and travels about 6 mtrs a day so it takes about 6 years for a pice of it to travel from the top to the bottom, (yawn) any way we decided to climb it! So we rented all the climbing gear boots cramp ons ice axe coat and pants! we hitched a ride to the closest point to it and walk up to the face which was a 45min walk alone got on with the climb. We climbed hiked walked crawled away around it from 9am till 4pm with a group of other people who were climbing that day and let me tell you it was amazing!! It was like being an ant on an ice cube!! (see pics) huge holes of ice that fall 200m+ down and cliffs we hade to climb 50m+ and gaps we had to jump only 1m wide but 100m down. Cool.
After that the rest of the days were spent relaxing and doing walks and free things in the day followed by getting very drunk at night. Perfect

So as we head south it gets colder and colder its about 10 degrees at the mo burr!!

At the the mo we are in Fox Glacier a small cold wet town with not much to do.....Today 16/10/08 we went to a massive lake to see the reflaction of mt cook the tallest mountain in NZ ( mt cook is around 3500mts tall, snowdon is 1000mts tall) do the maths. Leah is cooking pasta and iam updating this! yumm more pasta!

So today 17/10/08 we left fox and headed 100km south to a place called Wanaka, wanaka is a beautifull perfect/ picturesque place next to an alpine mirror lake with reflective views of mt cook and mt tasman two of the highest snow caped peaks around, perfect. So we arrived at 2pm and at 2.30 we had booked our sky dive and now at 5pm we are sitting in the hanger waiting to go on our plane and jump 13,000ft (the internet is free while we wait!!) and we can both honestly say leah is pooing her self and iam buzzing we nervs!! its $486 but that with a full dvd and pictures so in pounds its about 180 with the exchange rate.... so if this is the last thing i say or do then i want gaz to have my caravan and pit bike and my dad to have my mountain bike and my car can go to Ian k!! leahs leaving her car to mella and buddy is being flown to spain and cassy given away for dog meat!!! ha ha only joking i hope.....

Well we survived the sky dive!!!!! It was amazing!! we'll let the pictures do the talking..... It was the scariest but most amazing thing we have ever done. Leah was that scared she threw up after she had done it! To celebrate surviving we enjoyed a lovely thai meal washed down with a few beers.

Queenstown was our next destination, and our favourtie so far in New Zealand. We were told by llots of people to just stay one night and leave as it is expensive on drinks and it will sap your money. Thankfully we ignored this advise and stayed 5 nights. It is one of the biggest towns in NZ but is probably more like the size of Llandudno. It was like a picturesque ski village with big mountains either side of a beautiful lake. It had a unique feel to it, very laid back but otherwise hard to describe. If we were going to work and live anywhere in this country then it would be here. Our first day we decided to save on the $44 gondola ride and walked up a nice big mountain to where awaited the famous luge. A luge is like a toboggan almost but raced on a tarmac track and a lot faster. Very very good fun and we were bith running round like a pair of 12 year olds. It made the long hard steep walk well worth it. It was on this day that we discovered a place called Fergburger. They served the biggest and nicest burgers with every topping imaginable. We only just ate one between us. From this day we became addicted and out of the 4 days here we had 3!!

We decided as it was our last night with everyone together from the Magic Bus we would embark on a sample of the famous nightlife. There are about as many bars and clubs in Queenstown as there are in Llandudno as well but very good. We ended the night in a bar called World bar where they served you cocktails in teapots!

Whilst in Queenstown Alex hired a downhill mountain bike and played on big big jumps for the day. Needless to say he was like a kid in a toy shop!! Leah was the mule for the day carrying such supplies as drink, food and ermmm first aid kit which thankfully wasnt needed. Queenstown at night was very nice to walk around. The lake lit up from the waters edge restaurants and bars was beautiful. It was still cold in Queenstown but the sun gave that lovely glow to your skin even so.

After Queenstown we headed to Dundedin. We were told it had strong scottish heritage. Well from driving in it looked like Stoke and it didnt get much better from there. It rained the whole time and there was nothing to do. We were in a scruffy hostel with very poor facilities. We were glad to leave.

On our way to lake Tekapo we visited the steepest street in the world. It didn't look as steep as we thought it would. Leah actually thought Carmelas hill was steeper!! Although after walking to the top it did leave us gasping for breath. Lake Tekapo was a beautiful very small village. There was 2 hostels a very big lake, a small shop and a few bars. They had a very small church on the waters edge with enough room for about 20 people inside. Apart from that it was just a place to relax and chill out for a few days and enjoy the views. Leah was ill here so we spent a few days just chilling out.

Out last destination, Christchurch. We spent a couple of days viewing the cathedral, the square and a lovely weekend market with every foodstall imaginable. We were here for 5 days . After 2 we had seen everything we wanted to tried to get earlier flights but couldnt so chilled for a few days.

Our overall impression of NZ was that it is a beautiful country with magnificant views, mountains and lakes. Not umsimilar to parts of Wales but on a much bigger scale. As the population is very small you can drive for hours and pass a few villages like ghost towns and still arrive in a town with 1 bar (every town has a bar no matter how small), a shop and a hostel and a few houses. Often they had a eery feel as they were so empty. The country also has an 80's feel to it with the decor, fashion and haircuts......lets just say the mullet is still alive. There are lots of adrenaline activities to do here and with a deeper pocket we could have partaken in many many more than we did. We were ready to leave after six weeks and are looking forward to our adventures in Oz!