South Island farewell

Well after 2 months it was time to say goodbye to the South Island today. Had such a good time down there, seen some stunning scenery, met some amazing people, and did some hard work too!

A few photos to finish it off - finally a decent shot of Mt Cook, NZ's highest mountain (all other times I've been near it it's been covered in cloud), and a beautiful shot of The Remarkables one sunset in Queenstown. Good stuff!

Am in Wellington for a few days, then heading back to Auckland before exploring a few more sights on the North Island.

Ben Lomond Track

Well another day of terrible weather, but we went hiking anyway! Tramped up behind the Queenstown Gondola to Ben Lomond Saddle, was really good but really tiring! Nice views too!

Routeburn Track

After some perilous gravel roads, made it to the Routeburn track, one of NZ's most famous walks. Unfortunately we only had a few hours to spare, so bombed it up to the first hut and back (basically did 18km in 4 hours), grabbing quick photos along the way!

Weather wasn't great but was a nice walk nonetheless.

Lake Wakatipu

Well unfortunately the weather sucked, but yesterday we rented a car and drove up to Glenorchy from Queenstown...was still nice views but meh!

Was fun driving again after nearly 5 months without it though! Although car was so full of stuff it kinda struggled to get up hills :S

CANYON SWING!

Had to be done. Was absolutely terrifying, but I lived through it!! Wewt!

Rob Roy Track 2

Fantastic glaciers near the top of the track combined with 16 waterfalls. Stunning.

Also witnessed a mini-avalanche while we were up there :O Eeep!

Rob Roy Track 1

Absolutely stunning short hike about an hour and a half outside of Wanaka up to the Rob Roy Glacier. Beautiful!

The Road to Wanaka....again

Right, so, onto Wanaka again, except this time I opted to stay a few nights - totally worth it. Went to the Paradiso!
Fantastic little cinema, had some great homemade cookies and ice cream, wee!

Oh also found my all time favourite spread in the supermarket....oh yes...it's what God would put on his toast.

Pancake Rocks

Interesting little place on the West Coast, aptly named Pancake Rocks due to the layering of the limestone. Intriguing :o

At the moment I am spending a few days in Wanaka and then will be in Queenstown again to hopefully see a few more of the sights in that area. Sweet!

Travel time again!

Right, well, time for an update perhaps! After 2 weeks of mind numbingly tedious fruit thinning I have left Blenheim and hopped back on the Stray bus to redo the South Island - there's a few things I missed out on that need doing!

On that theme, may I present some rather lovely photos of Foulwind Point; so named because the discoverer thought it smelt pretty funky...didn't smell bad while we were there though, guess it cleaned up its act!

Swampys!

So have finally moved from Kaikoura onto Blenheim in order to do some work! Am currently at Swampys backpackers, which is pretty nice, and they provide work as part of the accommodation, which works out well!

Gonna spend 3 weeks here before heading back onto the North Island and retracing my route up to Auckland. And hopefully make some money during that time!

Happy 2009 by the way!

The final days of 2008

Well, the last update for this year! Left Christchurch this Boxing day morning after an emotional few days saying goodbye to my very good friends, who all buggered off to Australia! How rude :o They left me a First Aid Kit though as you can see, filled with chocolate, chips and dip, and various other useful things so I can cope without them! MISS YOU GUYS!

Arrived into Kaikoura and there's some fairly nice weather going on which I took advantage of :D Actually went and did some whale watching from a small plane out over the Pacific. Was fun, although we didn't see any whales!

The bus is fairly empty too, the rather large coach in the picture contains a grand total of 2 passengers! Wee!

I refer you to the picture of shock horror Lea and I are posing in - this is the exact moment we discovered Santa Claus clambering down the chimney. Happy Holidays everyone!

Southern Loop

Just completed a loop around the very bottom of New Zealand, and as you can see from the pictures the weather was fairly terrible, which sucked! But oh well! We made the best of it I guess :)

Am in Christchurch right now debating what to do with myself, probably time to head back up north in a few days.

And I miss Fergburgers :<