Once again it has been a long time since my last entry as I have been busy busy busy.
This travelling lark is hard work what with getting up early and going to bed late! I have completed the West Coast of the South Island and am now on my way round the southern coast in a big circle from and back to Queenstown.

After leaving Nelson we journied to Westport for an overnight stop. The journey there was great and we stopped at a beautiful lake and other nice mountain spots. There wasn't much to do in Westport so we went to the pub which was like a miners welfare! I don't think they got many travellers in there as the locals were asking many questions but it was a fun night depsite getting soaked by torrential rain. The morning was slightly ruined by the fact a group of girls we nicknamed the "credit card gang" and boys nicknamed "the press up gang" did not do there washing up and left the kitchen in a state. This meant that I and three lads from Leeds who we met in the pub but who were on our bus and some other people did all the washing up and cleaned the kitchen. We got on the bus to find them all just sitting there! This was the start of what shall be known as the "great divide" on the bus as half of them were frankly spoilt little brats. As one of the Leeds guys commented, we think they were amazed a human could do washing up. But anyway...

We left Westport for Lake Mahinapua and a pub/hostel owned and run by a crazy 80odd year old called Les. Before we arrived there we went to Cape foulwind but as once again it was pouring and most of us had seen seals we didn't bother with the walk and continued to the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks which have been eroded by the sea to look like stcks of pancakes. These were quite interesting and it had stopped raining so everyone was happy. We went to Greymouth and had great fun getting costumes for that nights fancy dress party at Mahinapua. The theme - a famous person but you had to use bin bags!! This was actually quite hard but on seeing the array of colours you can get bin bags in I decided on Maid Marion (green bags which were also lime scented meaning a smelt slightly like a toilet but more on the party later).

We got to the lake and Les is a legend. We went to look at the lake and the beach then had a nice meal of steak and venison stew before getting dressed up. In a fit or creativeness I made a bow and arrow out of things from the beach which seemed to impress people. The party was pretty good apart from the annoying "others" and it was topped off by a 2.30am stroll to the lake using only camera flashes as light as we failed to think to take a torch. But we did see lots of glow worms.

The next morning we stopped at a Bushmans Centre where we watched a video about how they controlled deer. This included people jumping out of helicopters onto a deers back, catching it then tying it to the bottom of the helicopter to transport it to start the deer farming business. Some girls were screaming about the shooting of deer which was quite amusing when we all ate venison stew the night before. THey had possums there and a great big pig and some amusing signs. Then we went to Franz Josef which was undoubtedly the part I was most excited about. Five of us went kayaking on Lake Maparika and this was great fun. The guide was excellent and we went up a little river. He took photos of us which were included in the price and the only bad thing was getting eaten alive by sandflies. These bites are worse than any mossie ones I have ever suffered and my hands and fingers were swollen for ages! The next day was the glacier hike!!!!!! We got there early to get given boots, socks, gloves and coats. I had to tell them about my knee and then they told me to only do the half day hike to which my response was something that probably should not be repeated here. As if I had waited a very long time to see an actual glacier to then see nothing of it! No way jose. So I just said I would go in a slow group which ended up being great because our guide was good fun, hadn't been up there for 6 weeks so we got lost! We were down crevasses then climbing steep ice stairs back up then we found a small hole which will eventually become a cave. For me it was fantastic to see all the things I spent over a year of my life studying! Then we were offered a challenge by the guide - if two of us jumped in an ice pool he would too. Never one to turn down a challenge I and three others agreed to. It ws freezing - unsurprisingly! But why turn down the chance to say you took a dip on a glacier???

This was undoubredly a highlight of my entire time away so far and I would love to do it again in order to see how it changes but we shall see how the finances are going. We all went out in the evening and had a great night.

Next day and we stopped early at Lake Matheson, a mirron lake to get great views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman reflecting on the lake. We also got to see the Fox glacier. We left the coastline behind and started working our way into the mountains. Although the scenery everywhere is stunning this journey was particulalry good. We stopped at Wanaka for a night which is a town on a lake and we treated ourselves to a mexican meal - $25 (ten pound) for free courses and it was BYO - bonus!We left next morning and went to Puzzling World which has a 3D maze which was pretty amusing, and lots of illusions and holograms and things (plus cheap bacon sandwhiches). Me and my friends asked the driver to go quick-sharp to Queenstown so we could watch the Premiership games repeated so we got there about 2pm. Spent the afternoon watching the football. Now I won't lie here - Queenstown is basically a party town. The bar we went to serves cocktails in teapots so you will get the general idea of what you do here! We did find a cafe that did fantastic breakfasts though. The one thing I did do was the Nevis bungy jump; 134m over a canyon from a pod suspended above it that you reach by cable car. It is the 3rd or 4th highest in the world and it was brilliant! I definitely have the bungy bug.

After three days in Queenstown I left my West Coast buddies behind to do "Bottom Bus". First stop is Dunedin which I leave tomorrow. The evening we got here we did the Speights Brewery tour which was really interesting as you actually go round the brewery and not just because you get half an hour at the end to drink as much as you can! The next day I went to the art gallery, the Cadburys World tour (lots of free chocolate), the museum and the gardens. The hostel was pretty quiet so I was a bit concerned I would get a bit bored as I had three more nights here. However, after what sounded like a stampede around 30 kiwis from Christchurch turned up. Most of them were in bands or were their friends so I ended up going to their gig with a Canadian guy from the hostel and then spent the next day and night with quite a lot of them so that was great fun! Today I visited St Clair beach was nice if full of quite a lot of strange people.

As my hands are about to drop off from writing all this (and you are probably about to drop off after reading all this) I just will let you know that I am planning to return to Australia for a year as I now have my working holiday visa. The funniest thing is my friend that i met way back in Japan is going to do the same thing!

Bye for now x