Bungees, jet boats, zip treks, heli-hikes and kayaking...the rest ofthe South Island!

Upon arriving in Queenstown we headed into 'The Station' station to book James' bungee for the following morning. After spending the rest of the morning walking around Queenstown, we decided to begin our adventure filled few days with the Shotover Jet. This is the worlds most exciting jetboat ride, that goes down the shotover over canyon. Despite being freezing cold this was an awesome experience. After a good nights sleep we headed out the next morning for James' bungee. At 134m, the Nevis Highwire Bungy is the largest in Australasia. While Em watched, James managed to summon up the courage to swan dive out of the cable car.

After making it safely back to land, we decided to go for a wander around queenstown gardens before heading up the Skyline Gondola. At the top of the Gondola, after admiring the great views over Queenstown, we took a few rides on the Luge; this is a effectively like a gravity fuelled engineless cart.

 Next up was our zip trek tour; this involved riding four zip lines with the last one providing some spectacular views of quenstown and the surrounding area. After our adventure filled day we decide to treat ourselves to the famous fergburger and the opening day showing of the Hangover III.

 

Our last two days in Queenstown were spent exploring the greater queenstown area, including Glenorchy, Arrowtown, and a walk up Queentowns Hill. Having initially planned to visit Fat Badger for dinner that evening, we had to form a contingency plan when it got burnt down. Instead we had some awesome pizzas at Winnies before treating ourselves to some wine tasting.

The following morning we set off from a snowy Queenstown early on and headed for Franz Josef Glacier. We stopped at a number of places along the way including Wanaka and Haast.

After our Heli Hike got cancelled twice in one day we decided to do the glacial valley walks of both Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. We also managed to visit Gillespies Beach before watching sunset at Lake Matheson. This is a mirror lake that provides great views of mounts Cook and Tasman.

The following day we started with an early morning kayaking trip on Lake Mapourika, which gave some stunning reflective views in the the calm waters. Luckily the wind had calmed down since the pervious day so we were able to head up to the glacier on our heli hiking tour! After a 10 minute chopper ride over Franz Jose Glacier, we landed on the snow covered glacier in beautiful sunshine! A two hour trek through knee deep snow provided us with unparalleled views of the glacier!! It is safe to say this was an unforgettable experience!

From Franz we headed up to Hokitika for the night. The next main destination on our list was Abel Tasman National Park. On the way here we stopped at Greymouth, Pancake Rocks, Westport and Buller Gorge where we walked along New Zealand's longest swing bridge.

Our first day in Abel Tasman involved a lot of driving and a few short walks. First up was Hawkes lookout followed by Takaka Hill Walkway. Next up were the Pupu springs which are supposedly the clearest springs in the world. After visiting the sand dunes and beach on the Tasman coast, we headed to the inland sea and wandered along the farewell spit.

The next morning began with a boat trip up the coast of Abel Tasman from Kaiteriteri to Totaranui before being dropped at Medlands Bay. From here we undertook a 13.6km/3.5hour hike down the coast to Anchorage where we caught the sea shuttle back to our van in Kaiteriteri.

Our final day on the South Island was spent driving from Abel Tasman to Picton. We stopped very briefly in Nelson to visit the Founders Heritage Park, the centre of New Zealand, and the ground where New Zealand's first rugby match was played.

We decided to head off the highway at Havelock and drove the rest of the journey to Picton via Malborough Sounds. This was a very scenic route and fitting end to our time in the South Island.

A 3 hour (and very expensive!) ferry ride will see us arriving in Wellington, New Zealand's capital.

Much love

X x x


Ps: We promised to keep you entertained so here are some of the funnier things each of us has said and done recently (we're keeping them anonymous but see if you can guess who did/said what!)

"Are prosthetic penises always hard?"
"Sea lions are descended from lions!"
"There will be snow on the glacier" (when it was snowing in valley)
Chopping ones finger off whilst cooking
Getting covered whilst emptying the toilet cassette
Practising singing and dancing in the car
"It was more like rabbit poo!"
"I'm spreading my legs as much as possible"
"It's going to rain; all the cows are sat down"
"Look at that croctle in the sky" (a mix of a crocodile and a turtle recurring in someone's dreams)
"We need to eat cheap...... I need my chicken and port pâté"