The Southern Island

As my last post ended... first stop in this next leg of the journey was Nelson. Nelson is not a very big place, but it is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park and is surrounded by various wineries, so we naturally spent a few days here. On the new bus we randomly met up with someone we met in Australia while we were on Kangaroo Island, it was a good surprise! So the first full day we were there we decided to do a 4 and a half hour hike through the park, which was beautiful, and a 2 and a half hour kayak back to Nelson. It was quite cold and Megan looked like she was going to ball up into the fetal position at any point and rock back and forth until she either warmed up or passed out. The next day Kerry, our friend from Roo Island, rented a car to go wine tasting and took Megan, Laura, Sam, and Chris with her (I woke up with a headache and figured drinking a lot of wine would most likely be counterproductive). One of the nights the Nelson basketball team won their league championship and we happened to go to the same club they did to celebrate. So that night I got to shake hands with the starting lineup, hug the MVP and say congratulations, and kiss the trophy for good luck!

We left Nelson and headed to Westport with Sam and Chris, Kerry stayed to drink more vino. The weather wasn't very nice in Westport so we were not able to do all to much., Sam and I wanted to go quad-biking, but that didn't happen. We may have lost friends we made on our first bus, but we picked two new ones up pretty quickly... the joys of traveling.

From Westport we headed to Lake Mahinapua to a little hostel attached to a pub in between the lake and the sea on the west coast. The pub is owned by an 84 year old man named Les, who has the distinction of being the oldest pub owner in all of New Zealand. At the pub, the Kiwi bus has a party, since the Kiwi bus is the only visitors to Les' establishment. The party is themed, and the them of ours was a "P"-Party, we all had to be dressed up as something that started with the letter "P". Laura dressed up as Pink (and bore a remarkable resemblence), Megan was a Post-It (she covered her jean skirt with psot-its, wore a yellow t-shirt, and let everybody write notes on her), and I was a putting green (I didn't win the competition, but I got honorable mention and a free jug of beer, so I couldn't be any happier).

From the lake we made our way to the Franz Josef glacier, which is the fastest moving glacier in the world. We had a free day there too so we did a full day glacier hike which covered about 9kms up, down, and around in all directions. It was amazing up on the ice! Its considered a wet/warm glacier because it is nestled in amongst the rain forest, so the contrast between the blue ice and the greenery in the back ground made for an amazing day.

We left Franz Josef and headed to Wanaka, which is a small, quiet town with a population of around 6000 people. It's a ski town in winter and a great fishing spot in the summer (I was told). Plus it is only about an hours drive from Queenstown so many people stay here to avoid the crowds. Though it is usually a quiet place not know for its nightlife, we got in on the Fourth of July, and even though we were traveling with about 10 Brits, we managed to find a club having a 4th party and joined into the festivities!

We are now in Queenstown, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in in my life. I know I might throw that around a lot, but in the case here, I mean it! Its a ski village with little shops and cafes with a backdrop of snow-covered mountains and beautiful blue lakes. This would be enough to get me to move here for a year or two, but what puts the icing on the cake is the nightlife. At four in the morning it might as well be a Saturday afternoon in a Texan Walmart. Megan and Laura are on the slopes today and I figured it would be a prefect day to catch up with this here blog.

We leave for Christchurch in the morning, will be there for two nights and head to Sydney on the 12th for the final leg of this adventure. I will see you all soon and make you sit through thousands of pictures!!!