New Zealand

Sorry for the lack of updates to anyone still reading this, this will be quite brief!

We arrived in Auckland from Sydney and the view from the plane reminded us of Scotland, rainy. We had a day in Auckland before we started our Magic Bus journey, but we didn't really do much there. The next day we left for Rotorua, we stopped in Waitomo on the way and visited the glow-worm caves. We left Rotorua the next morning and visited the Wai-O-Tapu geothermal mud pools and then the Huka Falls before arriving in Taupo where we would spent the night. We moved again the next day to Wellington, on the way to Wellington we saw some of the scenery that was used in the Lord of Rings films. We spent two nights in Wellington, we spent the first afternoon walking round seeing the city. It was really cold in Wellington as it is on the coast, so we spent the next day in the museum (which was also free). The next morning we caught the ferry to the south island, the ferry takes about 3hrs and you actually have to check your baggage on like your going on a plane. The sea was quite rough going across, I sat outside for almost the whole journey despite the cold. The water was calmer once we entered the Cook Strait where we had amazing views, but I couldn't believe how close we were to the land on either side at some points. The ferry arrives in a place called Picton where we spent the night, it was really cold here and the hostel was almost as cold as outside, New Zealand has no central heating. We went a walk and got slightly lost, but we did find our way in the end. After Picton we moved on to Nelson we didn't really have much time in here, but we found a shop to stock up on some more warms clothes before we got further south. The next day we left Nelson for Greymouth and there was only 6 of us on the bus that day. On the way to Greymouth we stopped at Cape Foulwind where we saw a seal colony. We also saw Punakaiki Rocks, these are also known as pancake rocks because they look like stacks of pancakes. We spent the night in Greymouth and went on the Monteith brewery tour, where we got as much beer as we could drink and Jemma got to pull her own pint. This was followed by an all you can eat BBQ. The next day we were heading to Franz Josef, along the way we stopped at Hokitika where we got to see some Pounamu or greenstone being carved, then we stopped at Ross where we saw a demonstration of gold panning. It was a really nice day so we also got the oppourtunity to stop at Lake Weed where we got some really good pictures of the mountains mirrored in the lake. We arrived in Franz Josef about lunch time and Jemma and I went on a half day glacier hike. We were well equipped for this adventure, complete with boots and crampons. It was a really good day and we climbed about half way up the glacier, there were parts that we had to actually crawl through but it was all fun. We went back to the hostel and warmed up in the spa pool and then met up with a few people in Franz Josef's only pub. We were upstairs in the pub and not long after we got there we could feel the building swaying and see the furniture moving, it took us a few minutes to realise it was an earthquake! We were shocked to hear in the news that it was New Zealands biggest earthquake in 80 years. It was then off to Queenstown, we were supposed to have a stop at Lake Matheson on the way but it was raining so we wouldn't have got any good view of the Lake, so we didn't bother. We went out for the bus drivers birthday out first night in Queenstown, we went to a bar where you got your cocktails served to you in a tea pot :-)! The next day I was doing paragliding at 1pm and Jemma was doing the Nevis Bungy at 2.30pm. I did my paragliding from Coronet Peak, it was freezing standing in the snow on top of the mountain. It was so weird running off the side of a mountain, but it was amazing when I was in the air, there was amazing views- I really enjoyed it. On our last day in Queenstown we went on a trip to Milford Sound, this was a 12hr long trip (7am-7pm). We stopped in Te Anu on the way anda few more photo stops in the Fiordland National Park, there was quite a lot of snow lying on the windy round to milford. The bus driver was expecting more snow to fall but it never happened. When we arrived in Milford we caught a boat to travel on the fiord to the start of the Tasman Sea and then Back to Milford Sound. The weather wasn't that great, it was really misty, wet and windy and we couldn't see alot of the scenery. But the driver called it moody and atmospheric since it apparently looks better in the rain. After we got off the ferry we just made our way back to Queenstown and we went out to a pub to watch the rugby, All Blacks vs Australia and the All Blacks won!! The next morning we left for Dunedin, which is the Edinburgh of the southeren hemisphere complete with Princes Street and a robert burns statue. We went on a tour of the Cadbury World Chocolate Factory, it was sunday so the factory wasn't actually operating. But we still got some free samples and got to see 1 tonne of liquid chocolate fall through the silo. Before leaving Dunedin the next morning we first visited the worlds steepest street, Baldwin Street. It was a tough walk to the top lol. The next stop was the Moeraki Boulders, a collection of huge boulders which are scattered along the beach. We also stopped at the Benmore Dam, the largest earth dam in the souther hemisphere and then we stopped to get some amazing views and pictures of Mount Cook the highest mountain in New Zealand. We then arrived in Lake Tekapo where we are staying 3 nights.