Tourist Sites

Brisbane was a bit of a chill out time, staying in the Irish lads lovely apartment. Went in their pool, spa and spent lots of time in the city looking around the shops. Managed to buy a dress, for Bec's wedding...posted it straight home! Other than that just bought some books and a lonely planet for the next South East Asia part of the journey. We sat out on their balcony in the evening having dinner which I prepared for the boys and a few beers. Oh, we also went to the cinema one night to see Music and Lyrics, the one with Hugh Grant...I loved it!!
On the Friday morning we were up at 5:30am in order to catch our 7am bus from Brisbane to Maroochydore. We stayed there for one night in order to go to the Australia Zoo (the Steve Irwin Zoo) which I know Lizzy would have loved so much. We arrived in Maroochydore, had our bags taken to the hostel while we got on another bus to the zoo. It was already a long morning. We spent the day at the zoo which was really cool, had a great day. The whole place is totally Steve crazy, the even have people dressed up with a big Steve head on. His family are photographed everywhere too. We looked along the memorial path where there's loads of tribute to him, it's really quite sad. I feel for his family. well less of the morbid stuff, I got to feed an elephant, stroke kangaroo's, pat koalas and touch tortoises. It was a great day out, although it was boiling hot and we sweated buckets sitting watching the tiger presentation. We left the zoo late afternoon and made our way back to the hostel in Maroochydore. The town was full of very noisy, but very beautiful colourful birds, thousands of them. We spent the evening watching Love Actually on the tv...a nice change.

We left Queenstown early in the morning and then set off for the long drive to Christchurch. We left at 8am and arrived about 5pm, I got a bit fed up with sitting on the bus! On the way we stopped at Lake Pukaki where if the weather was good we would have been able to see Mt Cook, but as it happens the weather wasn't great as usual. We made a lunch stop at Lake Tekapo and Ian and I wondered down to the lake to eat our picnic lunch, only to realise that we had left it in the fridge at the last hostel...gutted! So, we went off and bought a sandwich, well a panini, only for them to say they didn't have a panini warmer. So, they warmed it in the micro. We started to eat the panini only to realise that the chicken inside was raw....gross, not having any of that, so they went back. We then went down the road to a bakery, where I had the best sandwich ever ( bet that made you smile, a happy ending!) So, we got back on the bus, one more stop and then straight through to Christchurch. We got there, walked miles to the supermarket, had our dinner and then spent the evening doing a jigsaw puzzle! How sad, and we stayed up until it was finished...obviously well worth it to see that it was destroyed the next day!!
While we were in Christchurch it was the World Buskers Festival, so all around the city people were doing different acts and performances. We managed to see quite a few and also went to the theatre twice to see two different performances....can only say we were quite glad we only paid $5 each time!...but it was something to do and something different. Over the couple of days we went around the city on the tram, went to the botanical gardens where I went crazy taking photos of flowers, took the gondola to see the city from above, went to the art museum and had a look arounf the shops. We managed to do quite a lot really. I liked Christchurch, it's really clean and has a really safe and pleasant atmosphere.
We left Christchurch on Wednesday and made our way to the airport, Ian and I on different flights 20mins apart. I was gutted as Ian got food on his flight and I was left to starve! We had no NZ $ left!!

Well, we left Nelson and stopped at Nelson lakes on the way and had a short walk around there. Very beautiful views.
After the lakes we went onto Westport, I can safely say that Westport has less in it than Long Buckby! A lot less in fact and there was nothing to do. So we just spent the evening chilling. Ian went on a jet boat earlier in the day, but I'd previously done that in the bay of islands so I thought I'd save my pennies.
On the 7th we moved onto Lake Mahinapua, we passe through Greymouth on the way. We all had to write down a character or super star and they all got put in a hat and we had to dress up in the evening. I got Minnie Mouse and Ian got Bob the builder! So, we went around the 2 shops that were open in Greymouth for dressing up clothes. We went to the Warehouse (the advert says, where everyone gets a bargain!) Oh yes, I was there and I managed to find a few bargains! I created some ears out of a plastic folder, and that's all I could find! We carried on to Lake Mahinapua, now I thought Westport was quiet...this place really did take the biscuit! Nothing in sight for miles, now i know why we needed to dress up and have fun. We arrived and is was probably the worst accommodation so far, but the beach was one side and the lake the other side of the road, so it was pretty cool. We also got a massive dinner, steak, potatoes, salad and our bed for 10quid, so we did quite well.

The bus driver i have been with over the past few days has been a really laugh. He picked up a couple of random hitch hikers and made them sing to us as their fee to their destination. He nearly rolled the bus trying to make a 90 degree turn on a single lane track with a drop either side of it, he forgot his own luggage, has had luggage fall out of the lockers at the bottom of the bus 3 times! Very funny though and it is only his first trip as a driver, he's a really nice guy. On the way to Franz Josef we stopped at a random cafe and saw deer!
We left this morning and went to a few random places on the way to Franz Josef. The weather has been rubbish though, we should have got off the bus to do a few walks, but nobody fancied it because of the rain. Now in Franz Josef staying at the Rainforest retreat, it's like a big rainforest village, really cool. Heaps of people staying here though, so can't see me getting too much sleep! Tomorrow we are heading out for a 6hour hike up the Franz Josef Glacier, really looking forward to it. Shouldn't be too bad, some of the walk is rainforest until we reach the glacier edge. We wanted to do a sky dive here but the weather isn't good enough, too cloudy and rainy. It would have been such fabulous views as well. Nevermind, I'm sure Mum and Dad will be glad I'm not doing it!

Well, we finally left Wellington bright and early after waiting in the cold for nearly an hour for the kiwi bus. We went down to the ferry port. My my, I've never seen so many people! The ferry was absolutely packed and we chose the best seats...on the floor in the walk way watching people falling over and looking very green. It wasn't the best journey across the sea, we were freezing cold and the sea was very choppy, I wasn't feeling too great myself. Three hours later we arrived in Picton, the ferry port of the south island and battled through hundreds of people to get our bags off the luggage belt. It was crazy! We got our bags and headed for the kiwi bus. On the way to Nelson our stop for the night we stopped at 'The Village' where we got to do some wine tasting, my favourite was the Pino Grigio! I then had a little snooze on the way to Nelson. Ian and I got stuck here as we didn't book the bus soon enough so had to stay 4 nights, which wasn't really a problem and we've managed to fill them. Anyway, Ian got lucky and shared a room with me and 5 other girls!...the girls I spent Christmas with, he thought Christmas had come again! We spent 2 days chilling out, looking around Nelson. We went to the Cathedral, which wasn't at all impressive, had a picnic in the park and went to the jewellery shop where the 'RING' from the Lord of the rings was made. We've also enjoyed lots of Jazz music as it's Jazzfest this week in Nelson.
Today has been by far the best despite getting up at 6:30am. We got up early and headed north on the bus to Kaiteriteri the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. When we got there, we had the best breakfast ever...all I can say is I'm glad we shared it! We then got on our water taxi. It took us to the national park, to see seals, they were pretty funny, showing off! We had a good ride around the sea and it was even better as the weather was the best today that I've seen in New Zealand. We then got dropped off at Bark Bay and we walked for a couple of hours to Torrent Bay in the National Park. The walk was beautiful, the most amazing views. I felt the need to hide behind the trees, made the walk fun anyway!! After our walk we sat on the beach for a while and then got our taxi back. When we got back to Nelson we treated oursleves to Fish n Chips!...yes, your right, I'm getting fat!! i will stop eating...soon! Since, we've been in the bar listening to more live jazz, best band out of the three that we've seen. In the morning we move onto Westport.....

After not feeling too well I am now feeling much better after I have had a few tablets. On Monday Jess and I trailed the city, walked miles, got beeped and whistled at no end of times, spoke the worst Spanish, we we found what we wanted!....a beautiful swimming pool on the top of a mountain in the middle of Santiago. We thought we`d just follow the hill...but the hill was about 2 miles wide! Anyway, we got a small mini bus to the top of the hill and spent the afternoon by the pool reading our books. It was wonderful! Yesterday I went with Laura around the national museum and to the cathedral where there was a service. People confessing, and we saw one of the priests open the gold safe...it was kind of weird and I wanted to get out pretty quick. We met Kat and Jess had some lunch and went to the museum of modern art. It was cool, I especially enjoyed the photography exhibition. It was photos of Kabul, Afganistan, really interesting....it`s made me want to be a photographer even more! Last night we went for a lovely meal, we managed to get Anthony the T total guy to have a drink....he`s so funny! I had a cocktail...but just the one this time.
Woke up this morning, had breakfast and sorted my stuff out. Put my stuff in the luggage room and said goodbye as all the people I met piled into mini buses. I felt really sad as I`ve become good friends with Jess in particular, so it was a tearful moment. I walked down the street quicker than their minibus! Went to the postoffice and then decided to go to the cinema. Was kind of strange going to the cinema in Santiago on my own, but it was in English and I have time to kill before my flight tonight....so here I am spending more money, killing more time telling you guys what I`ve been up to. Only a few hours now until I make my way to the airport for my flight to Auckland. Quite crazy as I fly at 11pm, takes 13 hours, but I don`t get there until Friday morning! So, enjoy 7th December as much as you can as I don`t have one this year! Stay well, I`ll be back again from New Zealand. Chow for now!