Rainy days make for long updates =)

Once again, so much can happen in just a few days. It's been a week now since my last proper update from Wellington, and there have been a few rainy days the past few days to write up some stuff for this update. So since leaving Wellington I've spent all of my time on the south island of New Zealand. We took the 3-hour ferry across to Picton early in the morning on Tuesday, and even though it was very cold outside (around 3 degrees Celsius), it was definitely worth going on the upper deck outside every once in a while to admire the scenery!! It was a sunny day as well, so all the colours of the water and the mountains were brilliant en everything looked so pretty :) Arriving in Picton around noon, we were back on a new Magic Bus again to continue on to the "sunshine capital of New Zealand" and hippie-town of Nelson. Along the way our eccentric busdriver Scotty stopped at a winery for some wine-tasting. He claimed he was the only Magic Busdriver who stopped there, so we were supposed to feel very privileged. Seeing as I don't really like wine, I didn't feel all that privileged at all :) made some photo/scenic stops along the way as well before we finally got to Nelson late afternoon. We didn't really do anything special in Nelson itself, apart from having random good times at the hostel :) Nice group of girls!!

Next up on the trip was the town of Greymouth. Again a few stops along the way to grab some food or take photos of the scenery. Sometimes I find myself almost becoming numb to pretty-ness after having seen so many pretty scenery already!! Sleeping on the bus seems a whole lot more inviting from time to time, haha. Greymouth wasn't such an exciting town either actually. In fact, the only reason it is a Magic bus overnight stop is because of the Monteith's brewery they have there!! So guess what... we went on a brewery tour that night :) Not liking beer that much either, I just went along for the included free BBQ and to have some fun with the group. And fun we had indeed :) Good times for sure!!

The morning after it was very quiet on the bus, as many people suffered from a hangover from the previous night, haha. So we quietly made our way to Franz Josef. Along the way, we got the opportunity to 'search' for gold (it was really just panning through a given amount of rocks over a bucket), and I 'found' some too!! Can't say it pays for anything though... But anyway, we arrived in franz Josef just before noon, which was also just in time for me to go on the half-day glacier hike up on the Franz Josef glacier. Awesome hike :) We got spikes for our shoes and everything and inched our way through narrow crevasses... was good fun :) The hot shower back at the hostel after the hike was exceptionally nice, especially for my leg muscles as they aren't used to such strenuous activity, haha. Went out to a local bar in the evening with the girls from the bus, which was once again fun :)

Queenstown came after Franz Josef, and it was one of the stops I was really looking forward to. It was the first stop where I would be staying for more than one night, and after a full week of being on the bus every day I really needed that break. Queenstown is such a nice place too!! We arrived there quite late in the afternoon, so we pretty much just dropped our bags at our hostels and then met up again 15 minutes later to join the queue for the famous Fergburger. No visit to Queenstown is complete without having had the Fergburger for dinner at least once. And I must say, it was an awesome burger :) Even though there was a pubcrawl on that night, we decided to have an early night coz we were going on a daytrip to Milford Sound early next morning.

Milford Sound on Saturday was a bit of a disappointment really. It was a long way out of Queenstown (about a 5-hour drive away) and we were extremely unlucky with the weather too coz it was raining and misty all day. I could see the potential for prettiness as we were cruising around Milford Sound on the boat for two hours, but it just sort of got washed away by all the rain pouring down and the mist hanging around. So by the time we got back to Queenstown again in the evening, we were all a bit tired and disappointed and just went back to our hostels. It was a Saturday night though, so we had planned to go out on the town that night with all the girls. i was staying at a different hostel to the others though and I had completely forgotten to plan anywhere to meet up again later that night. Without having any way to contact them, I went out by myself to look for the girls, but unfortunately didn't find them. Second disappointment of the day, as it was also the last night we were going to be all together as a group. I ran into some other Magic Bus people though, so I still had some fun :)

The next two days in Queenstown were quite uneventful. Spent most of my Sunday in bed - first because I badly needed a sleep-in and then later in the afternoon I went to bed again feeling sick. Probably something I ate for lunch :( By Monday i was fine again, and it was such a lovely day: the sun was out and I just wandered around the town and sat by Lake Wakatipu for quite a while just relaxing... Loved it!!

After Queenstown it was on to the city of Dunedin. It was only a short drive, but as soon as I got to Dunedin I went straight onto another bus to do a wildlife tour in the area. We saw fur seals, yellow-eyed penguins and got very close to some sealions too. It was really coowl :) Very cold out on the beach in the wind, but it was such a great tour!!

Next day I continued on to Lake Tekapo, but not before climbing the world's steepest street, which is located in Dunedin. And climbing is definitely the appropriate verb for going up that street!! I can't imagine what the legs of the people who live on that street look like; they must be massively muscly :) Lake Tekapo itself was quite boring and because it was raining there, there wasn't much to do either. It's where I wrote most of this update :)

Woke up this morning in Lake Tekapo to find the world covered in a thin layer of snow. That was pretty exciting actually!! Snow in July :) Guess the rain of the previous day had turned into snow overnight... Unfortunately it has turned back into rain again up here in Christchurch, which is where I am now. Went out for a bit of a wander this arvo, but will do some proper exploring tomorrow, coz I'm staying here for two nights. First impression is good though!! Even despite the rain :) Then I have one more night on the south island before I make my way back up to the north island and back to Auckland. Still loving my time here though :)

Anyway, my internet time is running out, so I guess this is it for now!! I hope you're all enjoying yourselves as much as I am at the moment, coz that would mean you're having a pretty awesome time :) All take care!!
Much love.