Lots of places and two familiar faces...

I've done bloody loads since the last blog that I'm having a hard time remembering it all. Here goes!

After Franz Josef it was on to Wanaka, which is a lovely little town that is based at the bottom of Lake Wanaka. The hostel was a gorgeous place too and on my first morning there, I had breakfast next to the window, which overlooked the lake and surrounding snow caped mountains and thought that it doesn't get much better than this really. I had seen Jennie on the bus to Wanaka, who is one of the gang I met on the brewery tour, so it was lovely to see her again. After watching the sun go down over the mountains, we went out for a beer in the evening we arrived and as it was bloody freezing, we found a bar with a big log fire. Also tried some of the local Wanaka Ale, which was pretty tasty. When that closed, we went to a bar called The Ale House as I thought it sounded like a cool place. It did have nice ales but was basically a Wetherspoons bar, so not too impressed. The company was fab though.

The next day we hired bikes and cycled around some of the lake. The cycle route was actually pretty exciting as it took you along narrow paths very close to the lake edge. It was also enough of a challenge that we both felt pretty well exercised afterwards.

The following morning, we took a walk just outside Wanaka to a place called Puzzling World. It had a maze and various optical illusions to explore. One room claimed to challenge your sense of balance, so I wandered in fairly full of myself that I would be fine, only to find that I had to cling to the walls to move and it made me feel like I was absolutely hammered. As I genuinely felt I was going to puke, I had to leave feeling like a massive wuss. There was an old lady outside who saw me leave and said "I couldn't take it in there!". It was bloody horrible. There was also a room there that showed how size perception can be altered through illusions and we got an awesome little film of me and Jennie looking like giants and then tiny wee people.


In the afternoon we caught the next bus on to Queenstown. The bus stopped at the Kawarau Bridge and normally the bus stays a while and you can do a bungee jump here. Unfortunately as snow was forecast and the driver still had some mountain roads to cover, we could only stay 10 minutes. I was absolutely gutted that I couldn't do it, I've wanted to chuck myself off that bridge for years and it was something I was looking forward to doing in NZ. I even thought about coming back to Queenstown before I flew home, but it was too much hassle and expense for a bungee jump. I will definitely be coming back to NZ though so it's certainly not my last chance.

I didn't actually spend a huge amount of time in Queenstown really and only explored the town at night. It certainly seemed a lovely place and again was a picturesque lakefront location. On the one full day that I had in Queenstown, I had arranged a trip to Milford Sound, which was totally worth it. Milford Sound is within the Fiordland National Park and is probably one of the most stunning sights on the South Island. The drive was very long from Queenstown, but again was just lovely scenery all the way. We then took a 2 hour boat cruise around the Sound and as far as the Tasman Sea. We saw bottle nosed dolphins and loads of awsome waterfalls. One of them was the waterfall that Huge Jackman lept from in X:Men Origins. If you haven't seen the film, don't bother - it's really shit.

My next destination was Dunedin (which is celtic for Edinburgh apparently fact fans). It's a Scottish settlement that was set up many years ago and I think still has a healthy population of Scots to this day. It is also home to the world's steepest street and my photos just don't do it justice unfortunately.

Once I arrived in Dunedin, it was a quick check in at the hostel and I was then picked up for a tour of the wildlife which hangs out on the nearby Otago Peninsula. I had such a good afternoon there and our guide, Sean, was really knowledgable and interesting. We saw a few albatross flying over when we arrived and they are bloody huge. I'm not used to seeing giant birds at all.

We were then driven to section of private land that is owned by a local farmer. Part of his land incorporates a beach and luckily for him both sea lions and the reletively uncommon yellow-eyed penguins have taken residence there. We walked down to the beach where the sea lions were hanging out and they were completely unfazed by our presence. For some reason, sea lions just do not fear humans, so it was really great to see them so up close. The younger males are a bit playful though and love chasing things, including humans, so we did have a couple run at us and Sean managed to shoo them off. It was quite scary at times as they're not small. I got some great photos of them and even filmed one of the males being sick, which just about made my year.

We viewed the yellow-eyed penguins from an enclosed hut, as they are scared of humans. They put on a good show for us though and we saw several of them coming out of the sea and head towards the bushland. Their habitat is the undergrowth, which makes them quite unique. They have beautiful markings on them too, I was quite taken with them I have to say.

We took a walk across to a seal colony also and that's always fun to watch. I could sit and watch seals for hours, they're bloody hilarious, not too mention insanely cute.

On the bus back into Dunedin, I showed my video footage of the sea lion blowing chunks to a guy called Zac (another Magic Bus dude) and he mentioned that whilst he was in Vietnam, he took a tour to a place called Monkey Island and one of the group got a little too close to a monkey whilst taking photos. He was then chased down the beach by 3 monkeys and was wrestled to the floor by them. He regrets not filming it as the guy was left unhurt. I was laughing about that for a good hour afterwards and I could tell he thought I was a bit strange for still being so amused by it. If anyone else is still pissing themselves after picturing that for a while after, please tell me as I'm feeling a bit evil.

That wildlife tour was a definite highlight for me and even the rubbish weather didn't ruin it. The following day it was back on the Magic Bus to be taken to Lake Tekapo. This area is now completely covered in snow, so the views where some of the best I've seen so far on this trip. Lake Tekapo itself is so beautiful that (and I feel a bit silly admitting this) I got a little bit emotional whilst taking it all in. It's just very overwhelming and when you think that the South Island just can't get any better, it will prove you wrong. My hostel here was again right on the lakefront, so the dining and reading rooms had some great views. I explored the area a little and then later on that evening was picked up to be taken to Mount John and the observatory that is located on top.

On the last part of the drive to the top of the mountain, I had to shut my eyes as it was pitch black and the driver announced that he will killing the headlights on the van. They keep light pollution to a minimum up there, so other than some markers on the road, the driver had no headlights on at all whilst going up a snowy mountain road. Brilliant.

He didn't kill us all and when we arrived hooded figures with low light red torches took you to a building, where they provided us with mega chunky arctic weather jackets. They were very much appreciated as it was stupidly cold up there. We were then led up to a patio with several telescopes and the guides used these really cool laser pointers when talking about certain stars and planets. It was another first for me as I've never really seen the sky in an area with almost zero light pollution and the sky in the southern hemisphere is pretty damn amazing. I learnt an awful lot that evening and had an awesome time looking through their telescopes. They were just a really nice and enthusiastic bunch of people up there.

It was another Magic Bus early the next day back to Christchurch and also my final Magic Bus journey, so had to say cheerio to a few people. It was nice to be back in Christchurch, as there were a few things I missed out on last time. I checked into the hostel for a couple of nights and had a wander around the city. As I was walking along, I heard someone calling me and asking if my name was Jo. It was Bev and James, who are two people I know from way back and hadn't seen them for about 6 years. It turned out they are travelling too and we were all a bit freaked out that we had randomly bumped into one another thousands of miles away from Northampton.

We went off to get a beer, which turned into several and then dinner and then more beer. They had hired a camper van and were setting off to Kaikoura the next morning. I mentioned I had passed through there and due to the weather, had my whale watching trip cancelled. They invited me to come with them, so I accepted and I'm now in Kaikoura again, with a whale watching trip booked for tomorrow. Very bizarre indeed. I'll be with with them up until Picton on Sunday, where I get my ferry across to Wellington. It's been really lovely catching up with them both.

This is my penultimate blog now, as will write again from Wellington on Monday. I have mixed emotions about coming home next week as I have missed my family and friends and want to see them very much, but I'm not ready to leave here. I could happily continuing travelling indefinitely. Good things must come to an end though and it really will be lovely to see y'all and find out what you've been up to these last couple of months.

Ta ta for now...