New Zealand South Island

Day Thirteen, Journey to South Island & Nelson: Up 6.00am to catch the ferry across to South Island. At the ferry terminal a slight panic as we didn't realise you book your luggage on, the way you would do on a plane. Spend the 4 hour journey in the bar, but no drinking just watching 2 English football games live on TV (but not Chelsea). We left Wellingotn in the sunshine but arrive in South Island where it is cloudy & drizzly. By the time we get to Nelson, it is raining. In the evening set off to find this restaurant Gill has identified from Lonely Planet, and get a little lost & a little wet. Eventually find it only to find a meal costs more than our 'allowed' budget, but Gill can't face the wet walk back to town, so enjoy a nice fish dinner (I have Orange Roughi & Gill has Terakihi) washed down with rose (we find out the next day on our wine tour that rose is considered to be the 'gay drink'), overlooking the harbour entrance. Result blew 2 days budget on one meal!

Day Fourteen, Nelson: Leisurely start to the day, with a visit to the local museum. Have fun in the Learn about Your Body exhibition & beat Gill very easily in the IQ challanges. Also get some good pictures from pictures of local volcano & earthquake activities. At midday get picked up for our Nelson area wine tour of 4 vineyards - first visit Waimera vineyard, then Brightwater, thirdly Stafford Lane & lastly Rimu Grove. Lots of tasting but many are out of our budget price range. On the return in the late afternoon we walk around Nelson, visit the art deco cathedral & also take the uphill walk to New Zealnd's central point, through the Botanic Gardens. Excellent views but the rain clouds started to encircle us so rush back down again. As overspent last night it's a cheap night in, cooking at the YHA.

Day Fifteen, Greymouth: Off on Magic bus again to Greymouth via Westport. On the way we stop at Cape Foulwind (so named by Cpt Cook) to see a seal colony. Very difficult to take good pictures of the seals from the cliffs above and so cheat & take pictures of the seal pictures on the noticeboard. Final stop is Punakati where the rocks are layered like pancakes, which Gill tries to eat & breaks all her teeth (not surprsising she lost on the IQ tests in Nelson really). Arrive Greymouth late afternoon and find that our hostel is some way out of town. However, proves to be worth it as has real character (have our own private balcony overlooking the garden) as opposed to the YHA hostels which tend to be just functional. The Monteiths Brewey is closed so no tour as planned that evening.

Day Sixteen, Franz Joseph: We arrived in Greymouth with only a few on the bus but by the next morning the bus is full, with many extra passengers who have come across the mountains on the Transalpine railway from Christchurch. Gill & I are the last pick up, so no room to sit together. I sit next to a nice young lady from Hong Kong called Alice. As we arrive in HK on my bithday next April have arranged to meet up with Alice for chocolate birthday cake on Victoria Peak. Continue on to Ross, an old gold mining town. Have a demo on gold mining, but most more interested in taking pictures of each other in the stocks. Also visit the local gaol. Only other stop enroute is Hokitika, another old gold mining town. Gill is the only one to guess the day's quiz question on who made the original of the track Frederick's Town, and wins a beer from the driver. We arrive Franz Joseph around midday with the weather getting worse by the minute. Gill takes the 1/2 day walk on the glacier, whilst I get the local bus up to the car park at the bottom of the glacier and do the 3 local walks (no walking on the glacier for me due to the hip). Both of get very wet & as Gill doesn't get back until late we eat in at the YHA, & because we didn't go out to the pub she didn't collect her winning beer.

Day Seventeen, Wanaka: Journey via the Fox glacier & Lake Matheson (a black lake , nicknamed the Mirror Lake, where there is supposed to be great reflections of the mountains in the Lake - JUST NOT TODAY!). Skirt around Lake Hawea before arriving in Wanaka. Staying in the YHA which is the smallest hostel yet with a number of housing blocks for accommodation & then toilets & showers in another block. Wanaka is a superb picturesque place & with the sun shining it looks fantastic - small town facing on to the large lake with large mountains behind, including Mt Aspiring, one of the largest in NZ. Go for a walk & persuade Gill the budget can stretch to 2 pints of Brewski, the local beer (find the brewery is up for sale, but again Gill resists the temptation to buy, worrying that I might consume the profits too easily).

Day Eighteen, Wanaka: First thing have to move hostel as had only booked one night in the YHA, so try out BASE (which is reputably the hostel favoured by the young & the Kiwi Experience bus, ie: the permanent party goers). As is new is like a Travel Lodge hotel & have a really nice room with our own ensuite (the first in many days) & TV. Find a small clothes shop & I end up buying 6 pairs of underwear with the road map of NZ on, so no reason to get lost anymore! Hire bikes and cycle around 1/2 the Lake to Albert Town. Do the return journey the same way as the road back from Albert Town seems to rise into the mountains enroute back to Wanaka. In the evening go to the Paradiso Cinema (a tiny boutique cinema with armchairs & a Morris Minor car to sit in). Watch the new Keanu Reeves film The Day The World Stood Still, which was an absolute load of rubbish. After, go to eat in the BBQ House & have a large dish of ribs & chicken. We are the only customers and are attended to by 5 members of staff (all fellow travellers from different parts of the world & none from NZ). Back to BASE only to be woken by the party goers leaving at 3am & then by the Kiwi Experience bus driver shouting for his missing passengers at 8am.

Day Nineteen, Queenstown: On to Queenstown today in the afternnon & have been hearing stories everywhere about Queenstown & its legend as a party town, so Gill was looking forward to letting her hair down. Weather has changed again and is cloudy & later becomes wet, so spend the morning updating the blog (have a 'mare with regards trying to upload photos). Pass the Kawarau Bridge where we think brother Don did his bungy jump & watch other idiots hurling themselves off the bridge (would be an excellent way to dislocate my hip). Gill has no such excuse but says it would mess up her hair which is now ready for Queenstown partying. Our hostel is very strange as we have a lodge with own kitchen & living room, which you share with just 2 other rooms.

Day Twenty, Queenstown & Milford Sound: Early start for the 300km coach trip to Milford Sound. Weather is really wet & remains that way all day until we return to Queenstwon in the evening. Travel to Te Anau & through the Fiordland National Park. Before passing through the Homer Tunnel stop for a photo shoot of the Mountain Parrots that were climbing over all the cars as they queued to go through the tunnel. Do the boat ride (1hr 45mins) at Milford Sound & manage to get some very wet & drizzly photos. On the way back on the bus get to watch a DVD, Mr Bean on Holiday. In the evening back in Queenstown, wander around a bit, can't find where The Party is or any party for that matter, so Gill puts her hair back up. Stop for a famous Fergburger (enormous). Back in the hostel we have a new house mate, and american lady called Amber, who is thrilled to have company and eager to party. We are up at 6.30, so are really boring, and after sharing our wine we go to bed.

Day Twenty One, Dunedin: Weather starts off OK but gets worse during the day, so by the time we get to Dunedin its raining, which made Dundedin feel greyer & duller than maybe it really is. Apparently modelled on Scottish cities, particulaly Glasgow & Edinburgh it seemed to have very little in common with them. Thank God for Cadbury's World (the Cadbury factory in Dunedin). Spend a delighful afternnon on the tour & get given loads of free chocolate. Also puchase some big bars for Christmas presents (Tiramasu for Joanne, Fudge Brownie for Peter & Creme Brulee for Ian). You should ahve seen Gill's face when standing under the chocolate waterfall (sorry no picture as couldn't take a camera in to the factory). Only other place worthy of a photo was the old railway station. Decide to stay in a cook in the YHA as the restaurants don't look very exciting. Have to say neither of really liked Dunedin but then the weather was bad & we didn't do the wildlife tour on the Otago Peninsula, which is excellent apparently.

Day Twenty Two, Lake Tekapo: Enroute we stopped off at Baldwin Street in Dunedin to climb the world's steepest street & it was some climb. Also stop to view the Moeraki Boulders on Moeraki Beach. The route is very scenic and we pass over 3 dams, including the Benmore dam, which is te largest earth dam in the Southern Hemisphere. Sadly we do not get the fantastic views of Mt Cook that you can get on this road, as the weather had closed in & the mountains are lost in grey rain clouds. In contrast to Dunedin, Lake Tekapo is a wonderfully beautiful scenic spot. Whilst it had rained most of the day, it cleared up when we reached Lake Tekapo & the changing light on the mountains, with the colourful lupins around the lake made for some great photos. Only a few restaurants in town (town not actually built yet)so again stay in and cook at the hostel, but meet some other travellers who are on their return journey to the UK having done Asia.

Day Twenty Three, Twenty Four & Twenty Five, Christchurch: Final destination in NZ. Leisurely morning bus ride into Christchurch, stopping only at the cookie factory on the edge of town. Gill buys 2 huge bags of cookies for the boys for Christmas, hoping the Aussie customs don't take them off us. Our hostel in Christchurch is the old jailhouse (slightly out of the town centre - about 20 min walk but worth it for the shere novelty), so sleep in one of the old cells. Walk into town via the the Global Village factory shop, where Gill gets a bargain 'Sweet As' sweatshirt & I buy a couple of knocked-down T shirts. Walk around town, eat Thai for dinner & retire for the evening with a nice bottle of Pinot Noir (with only 1 & 1/2 days left we know the budget can now afford it). Next day the rain is back so have a leisurely last day & visit the museum, do the tram ride & then visit Global Village factory shop again. Late afternoon we return to the hostel & I watch a DVD, Wimbledon, in the hostel cinema. The film is so funny as a Brit wins the mens singles, so shere fantasy & Kirsten Dunst looks cute in a short tennis skirt. In the evening we decide because of the weather not to head back into town for a nice last meal in NZ, and instead go to the local pub in Addington (a suburb of Christchurch where the jailhouse is located) which resembles some rough pub in the rougher parts of LA. But we have a nice dinner - me going for the double lamb shank special & you buy the beer by the big jug (so gets my vote). Next morning we just kill time at the hostel before heading for the airport & on to OZ.

We both absolutely loved NZ & very much hope to return one day & do more of the great walks & somehow find where The party is at in Queenstown. However, climbing Mt Cook was a great achievement, although like the movie Wimbledon, a complete fantasy!