Life after queenstown

Hello. Our last night was one of our friends birthday's. A late one so it was tough getting up and heading for Dunedin, so we packed our bags and ran for the bus after just 3 hours sleep.

Day 1

Dunedin - arrived at lunchtime and headed straight to bed for the afternoon. We were staying in a weird hostel, a massive old stately home but only two others staying in it with us so it was a bit creepy. Plus the other two guys were a bit weird so we had to watch our backs man....i.e. practice our karate moves when we knew they were looking lol...

That night we had a wander round the town and just chillaxed.

Day 2

While Rich was sleeping on the journey to Dunedin I booked us on a wildlife tour. It started out a bit of a mistake as we were given binoculars and told to watch Albatross (massive birds for the non bird watchers out there) for the first hour, Rich said he'd never fall asleep again on the bus, but then it got better and soon we were on the beach walking just a few feet away from seals and sea lions, watching them play in the sea. We then had to go into a little wooden hideout where we could watch yellow eyed penguins swim out of the sea and go to their nests for the night as it was getting dark, so all in all it turned out a good choice if I do say so myself.

Day 3

Moving on from Dunedin we headed to Lake Tekapo. The bus driver stopped at the steepest street in the world and we wal;ked all the way up, we were knackered, what a way to start the day! In Tekapo we made friends with Tracey Barlow's sister in law!! It was a cute little hostel with a woman that was meant to run the front desk but she just couldn't stop chatting to everyone and followed us around while we were cooking. There was no TV so we learnt a few card games and just chatted to other travellers, we even got into a conversation about religion and how the world started man.........obviously we didn't start that one.

Day 4 and 5

We had a wander around the lake with a girl that we knew from Queenstown, its funny how you all really take the same route. It had snowed pretty heavily the night before and roads were closed so quite a few people were snowed in. The lake was gorgeous with snow topped mountains overlooking it and nice little cafes on its only main street. A lovely place to rest after Queenstown and just take in the scenery.

Day 5

We got the chance to go and star gaze. Lake Tekapo is one of the best places in the southern hemisphere to view the stars as its the clearest sky. We couldn't believe what we could see, we were stood underneath the Milkyway and could see it so clearly. We went into an observatory and looked through telescopes to see Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and even the Moon. We saw craters on the moon and even the ring around Saturn!! Such an amazing evening, even though it was -10C!!

Day 6

We headed to Kaikora so a pretty long day. the Magic bus only went as far as Christchurch that day but as we'd spent 4 days there previously we caught another bus in the afternoon to Kaikora. We stayed in a great little hostel that had free soup after 6pm and was right in the heart of the town. We booked ourselves on the dolphin swimming for the next morning and were quite excited.

Day 7

Woke up early ready to head out and find some dolphins only to find that it was cancelled as the water was too choppy, we were gutted but at least it had got us out of bed!! We booked a whale watching trip for that afternoon and I prepared myself for a day of pure sea sickness!! The whale watching was great, we headed out to sea on a speedy boat with reclining leather seats and all this equipment to try and see where the whales were. We ended up seeing 3 sperm whales, they looked like a cross between Tim Henman and Rich.....massive heads. It was really good seeing them dive into the water and flick their tales up, they were huge!

That night we went to a pub quiz with some girls from the hostel and came last but we whooped them at pool.

Day 8

Another bloody ferry journey, I swear this island will kill me with all their water travel!! We left the south island and went to Wellington (the capital city and on the north island). It felt like we were going on holiday and we were both looking forward to some warmer weather. We even caught a film while we were sailing, Indiana Jones' new one.

Wellington was great, we arrived when it was dark so the nightlife was well under way and we realised how much we'd missed city life.

Day 9

We spent the day taking in the city. We walked to the wharf and around the shops, we also went up on a cable car to the top of the mountain that stands in the middle of the city and walked down it through botanical gardens, its a gorgeous city with so much character.

Day 10

Time to move on again, this time to Napier, one of the main wine region's of New Zealand. Just one night here as wine is pretty much all there is to see. A lovely city though, quite picturesque with a real 1930's feel. We walked along the shale beach and up to a look out point before strolling through the town.

That's all for now, tomorrow we move onto Taupo where hopefully I'll be able to do a skydive, soz EXTREME!!!!!

All our love

Team RA

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