June 2009 Archives

May 11th-May 13th: Franz Josef

We all woke up with sore heads after the Pu Party, and we had to be on the bus by 9am to get to our next destination, Franz Josef.

Luckily, we didn't stop off at too many places on the way, although we did visit this awful deer farm where we had to watch a video that basically glorified killing animals.

It was quite disturbing and I hated every second of being in there. God only knows why Morrie thought it'd be a good idea to take us there!

From there we headed to Franz Josef where we stopped for two nights. I had booked to go horse riding in the afternoon, hoping it would somehow clear my hangover!

It turned out to be really good fun, and the scenery was incredible. Sarah doesn't really like horses so I went with a couple of guys from the Kiwi bus, Charlie and Rob.

I did a lot of horse riding when I was younger but I hadn't done it in years so I was hoping it would come back to me like driving a car..... luckily it did!

We were up early the next morning as we were doing a full day hike on the Franz Josef Glacier.

Once we had all got kitted up in all our thermals we headed for the Glacier. Me and Sarah opted the second fastest group, and had a guide called Alex.

It was an eight hour hike, and although parts of it were hard work we all had so much fun. The view was incredible.

The higher we got the more blue the ice became, because of the lack of oxygen. Our guides had been up on the Glacier earlier in the morning finding caves for us to go through and digging new ones.

It was so much fun. Some of the crevices we went through were not much wider than I am, they were so narrow!

If there is one thing I would recommend when visiting New Zealand it would definitely be visiting Franz Josef, and doing the glacier walk.

The town itself is tiny but it is absolutely stunning. I think it is something you have to see to really appreciate it.

Our next stop after Franz Josef was Wanaka, and it was a really long journey. We did stop off at some stunning lakes though so that broke the day up a little bit.

Our first stop of the day was Lake Matheson. Sarah and I had both seen some really amazing pictures of this lake so we were looking forward to seeing it for ourselves. We weren't disappointed. It is absolutely amazing.

I'm not sure how well my pictures do it justice, but these are some of the better ones I took......

We then went to a waterfall which showed an illusion if you stared at it for 60 seconds. After a few tries I finally got it. The waterfall looked like it was shooting back up. It was pretty cool and so funny watching all 50 of with our eyes glued to the waterfall!

We then stopped at Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea which are the 3rd and 4th biggest lakes in the South Island of New Zealand, which were again, absolutely beautiful...

We left Christchurch early on May 19th to fly to Auckland before getting a connecting flight to Fiji. Little did we know it was a 20 minute walk from the domestic terminal of Auckland to the international, and with our backpacks, this was torture!

First stop, Nelson - May 8th:

We hopped on the Kiwi Experience bus in Wellington and got on the ferry to go over to the south island. The bus was full with 50 people, and everyone looked pretty young, so we were looking forward to getting to know everyone.
The ferry was amazing, and even had a cinema on board, so we made full use of that and watched Marley and Me. Another fantastic film, only I was crying my eyes out.... Poor Marley!

We arrived in Nelson later that afternoon after stopping off for lunch at Lake Rotoiti, which is situated in Nelson's National Park, and is absolutely stunning. I don't think there are words that can actually describe how gorgeous it is so i'll let the pictures explain it.......

Another month has soon passed and as we only have another three months of our trip left we leave New Zealand for LA this evening.
We have spent the past month travelling the south of New Zealand and also spent a week in Fiji, and we have loved every moment of it. I am so lucky, I don't think I have had a bad day since I left the UK five months ago!