New Zealand

Yay I'm listening to Ambulance Ltd for the first time since home cause Davey forgot his mp3 charger. Tis makin' me happy. Tra la la!

Aaaanywaay. South Island! Well we're back in Christchurch now after a quick loop, down the west coast, into Queenstown via Wanaka, and then back to the coast at Milford Sound via Te Anau (Tay Arnoo) and back to Christchurch via Queenstown again. I hope I remember everything...

Well we got up early the saturday before last to catch our kiwi experience bus. To my surprise it wasn't a gigantic lime green coach but a khaki minibus driven by a lovely lady named Flea, who took us over the dramatic Lewis Pass at a rate of about 300kph to Murchison where we did in fact catch the gigantic lime green coach. This was driven by Scotty, who was indescribably beautiful, a real pleasure to watch in the rear view mirror for a week! We weren't looking forward to catching the bus as we were expecting it to be full of loud Brit's. It was, but after the initial shock we found there were a handful of lovely people who made the trip perfectly bearable in the end.

We stopped on the journey to do some jet boating. I can't be bothered to describe it myself, you can do it if you're interested. But it was very fun! until a guy smashed his head in, then i almost fainted at the blood!

Our first stop was Westport, a western town without that much in it to be honest but it had a lovely sleepy atmosphere and our hostel was fantastic (first YHA to be anything special) and very helpful. That night we were so busy talking to people we missed the coach lift down to the beach where we were making a big bonfire, so the hostel owner offered to give us a lift down there. Very kind.

So after a too short stop there we were on our way south to Franz Josef with a night at the 'Poo Pub' - description to come later. At Greymouth we had a supermarket stop, and as we were getting off the coach David casually said "you did get the documents wallet out of the safe didn't you?" CRAP!! We'd left them behind the desk at the YHA. After a while of panicking and me shouting at David who calmly apologised even though it was only about 78% his fault, Scotty said he would get the driver behind us to pick it up, and get it to us by the second night in Franz. This was a slight relief, but i was still pretty worried, it had our passports, tickets, travellers cheques, and rail cards, along with all my sterling (140) and all my dollars (800). Oops! In the end, all was fine, we got it back intact. Phew.

Oh yes we stopped at this totally random visitor's attraction, the Bushman's Centre. Basically all there was to see there was a totally depressing deer-culling video, two live possums and two very fat pigs. Oh and a very grumpy owner, Bushman Pete. I can't really describe properly how creepy and odd this place/guy was, you'll just have to go their yourself! Skinned possums everywhere.....

So anyway, the Poo Pub! I wish i'd sneaked a photo of our 88 year old host, he was quite a sight! When we arrived he stumbled on to the bus and ranted at us for a good half hour, before letting us off to scurry out of his sight. The place was totally in the middle of nowhere but there was a nice beach on one side of us and a beautiful lake on the other. The bar at the pub was totally random, baseball caps and grey bras hanging form the ceiling, and polaroids literally wallpapering the place, depicting every kiwi bus that has been thought there in the past 15 years (3500! No wonder he was a bitter bastard.) That night there was a fancy dress party in the pub, with the theme being to come of something with the same initial letter as your surname. David made a fantastic elephant mask but I was feeling grumpy with the British people so we went for a night walk on the beach instead, and played with a very friendly cat.

The next morning when we were planning on leaving Lez, (our fogey host) hopped on the bus in a mad fit, telling us to get off, the cops were here! Eek. Apparently some drunkards had stumbled down to the lake, thrown bottles everywhere and woken up some (un)happy campers. Sooo...after Lez had called us his worst bus in 5 years, this would be a good time to make a quick exit, no? The bus broke down! Argh!

So anyway, we got out of there alive, that's all you need to know. A few missing digit but who needs them all anyway?

We went on a nice walk that day.

I'm taking ages, must speed up.

Oh oh one for Charly, something I remembered from your diary!

He was rather embarrassed also!

So next stop Franz Josef, where there are two massive glaciers nearby, both of which you can walk up into or heli-hike onto. We decided to do a helihike though it was rather expensive. I'd read Charlotte's account of it and seen her pics so knew we just had to do it. So the the next morning when we woke up we skipped exitedly to the office of our guides, to find it had been cancelled due to low clouds! GUTTED! But anyway, we saved a bit of money, and had time left to do the half day hike from the bottom. It was still pretty amazing, though the snow was not nearly as clean or blue and we only saw a few blue ice caves. Bit disappointed, but the experience, and the view, was fantastic.

Oh and our guide turned out to be from Ambleside St Martins, the year below Gav! Random.

So, leaving Franz our bus broke down again! only this time on a very steep hill in the middle of nowhere, in the pouring rain. We sat in the coach for three hours minus driver, who'd hitched into the village again to attempt to find a mechanic, (at 7am) and were just about to suffocate when he eventually arrived back with one of the buses owned by the glacier guide company, who took us back into town for lunch and air. I had the best scone EVER! Yum yum.

David is rocking in hunger now so i must hurry.

Next was Wanaka, which was a great little town by a lake, would have loved to spend more time there had we had more time to spend.

After leaving Wanaka the next morning was Puzzling World, a rather strange attraction with a mammoth maze and other such time wasters. Great fun. Spot the odd one out.

"i'm hungry i'm hungry i'm hungry i'm hungry!" in my ear so i will leave you there, describe the other half of the trip next time.

tarra!

Churr Churr.

We're in Queenstown today after having a whirlwind tour of the mid-west coast of the south island with our guide Scotty, a Maori so hot he made your intestines ache. It has been lots of fun (most of it) but we're going off on our own for a few days down to Te Anau, and then onto Milford/Doubtful Sounds for a sea kayaking extravanganza! Our bus leaves in a few minutes so just a quick entry to say that i will do a proper update when i have plenty of time, have downloaded all the photos ready!

To everyone who has emailed, I'm sorry i haven't replied, i promise I've read and appreciated them all and will reply soon! Frankie, I've just realised I haven't email Lynne at all yet, she'll be worried i'm sure. If she hasn't already texted you could you possibly drop her a line apologising on our behalf, and promising she's my first priority!? Thanks chucken.

Sweet as Bro!

Hello hello hello.

I'm sorry! I don't know why, but I just couldn't summon up the effort to do it. Really can't be arsed to do it now either, but i will or will never get round to it again.

So, where have i been? Umm...

Oh yes, was Sydney first. Very nice i suppose but not the place for me. We stayed in King's Cross, the red light district but also very friendly. What did we do? I can't remember now. Oh yes we walked from Bondi round to Coogee alog all the beaches. Lovely.

Oh we went to hear Nicky Cruz speak at a crusade, which was very interesting. Oh yes.

iew from the train station.

Then we went to Canberra, which was much nicer. Was a bit ill. Fell in love with a metal sheep. Got bed-bug bitten. Ate a bit. Yes.

Then on to Melbourne, which was even nicer again. We did lots of things, i'm sure.

The photo upload thing now isn't even uploading, which doesn't help my enthusiasm to make an entry.

Great! Spigging great.

So i think i'll stop.

Oh by the way, Muse are now playing at Benicassim, so i have two tickets to get rid off for their gig at Wembley on the Saturday. Stace, I know you're going, so if there are any more of Lee's or our mates who fancy going with you, they're welcome to them. They're sitting though, not standing.

Well now the bloody thing's working again.

Nah, i really can't be arsed. Sorry. Maybe will be a bit more with it next time. Oh, i'm in New Zealand by the way.
Seeya.