Anyway, after a day acclimatising to being on my own and genuinely living out of a backpack rather than living in cushty appartments in Oz, I got on the Kiwi Experience bus from Christchurch on Friday 12th Jan.

The bus goes up the east coast of teh South Island and then around the West Coast to Queenstown, where I am now for the next few days. To run through the whole itinery would be too boring to read (and much to boring to write..) so I will give a few highlights.

Kaikora- Dolphin Swimming.
Went out in a boat and find a pod of about 200 dolphins (not something I previously knew existed) then jump in a nd go swimming with the pod and play with them. Very cool- but after about 10 minuts you have to get back in the boat and drive past the pod as they are wild so constantly on the move.

Abel Tasman National Park- Kayak Safari.
Two lads and I took these three Irish girls (from here on referred to as "the Irish") out on a sea kayaking trip round this gorgeous national park on the northern tip of the South Island. I sensibly took all of my worldly possesions and put them in the "waterproof section" of my kayak at the back- our guide, Oreo (his parents liked cookies), having given us a 99.9% guarantee that we wouldn't capsize. As you can imagine, within 5 minute we were the 1 in a 1000 that prevented the 100% guarantee. My passport has just about dried now...
The other highlight of the trip was the tie-4-kayaks-together- and hold a big sail up technique so you fly home with no effort- which having paddled an amusing, but paddle shy Irish passenger out into the wind and waves- was a most welcome surprise.

Franz Josef Glacier Hiking
When we left Nelson, "NZ's sunniest place" as our driver shouted at us over the thunderous noise of the rain on the roof of the bus, we were forecast some excellent weather for our trip down the West Coast.
Arned with this information we booked a heli-hike over the Franz Josef Glacier. Unfortunately, the forecast weather actually lasted half a day, so our heli-hike was cancelled. This meant we were forced to stay an extara day in Franz to hike up the Glacier the day after most of our bus had moved on down the coast.
Anyway, the Glacier was well worth staying for. It is a "dry Glacier", which for the non-Glacier experts amongst you, means it is not surrounded by snow, and thus looks bizarre surrounded by greenery and rocks etc. Anyway, I spent a day on this Glacier open mouthed just staring at the extraordinary scenery. Never seen anything like it- big waves of white blue ice getting progressively higher as you go up throught the Glacier which is 13k long and 800 m deep in places.

"P" Party fancy dress
One of the stops on the bus is at a little place in the middle of nowhere between the sea and a lake, where it is just Kiwi bus people that go there. Everyone has a big dinner, gets dressed up and then has a big party in the evening. Our party was a "P" party- so I bought a white sheet and some marker pens and went as a poem about all the people on the bus. As expected for a poet with my ryhming ability I took the first prize- a 200m canyon swing worth $160- which I am about to go and do now ( doesnt bode too well for my one remaining pair of clean pants...) Anyway, I'm thinking that I may have technically earnt more than Example from rhyming in the last week...? Chelsea's answer to Fulham's Example!

written by  tevans1 on January 21, 2007 from Christchurch, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Tom's Travels 2007
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You would be right Mr Evans. Like most other weeks, I've earnt bugger all from rhyming words. Send me a copy and i shall pass on to my publisher...

written by  Example (Fulham's answer to Chelsea's MC Teds) on January 22, 2007

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