Queenstown and Bottom Bus

Hey everyone - sorry its been so long since an update!

We left Wanaka first thing in the morning and headed to Puzzling World which is a museam like place which is all about illusions. There is a maze that takes about 40 mins to work yourself around and an illusion room which seriosuly messes with your head. I have great pics from it, but i cant really explain what it is like! sorry...

En route to Queenstown we had a minor mishap when the luggage compartment in our bus flew open whilst driving down a hill, and loads of rucksacks flew out onto the road. Yeah..that took a while to sort out, but luckily my bag was fine!

We also stopped at the worlds first commercial bungy jump site - Kawarau Bridge. This is a 43 m jump, and no, i did not do it - are you crazy?! We watched a short show on the history of the bungy and then a few people from the bus did the jump and we stood on the platform and cheered them on. We arrived into Queenstown at around 4pm.

Queenstown is the extreme activities capital of the world...if you want to jump out a plane, jump off a bridge, go white water rafting, do a canyon swing etc etc, then this is the palce to do it. Therefore, the town is full of adrenaline seeking backpackers which means a great night life also exists!

On our first night, we had a huge night out because me and claire had finally met up with the guys that we had travelled north island with, so it was a big reunion...also, it was Justin;s birthday so everyone was in party spirits. We went to a couple of bars, including the World ar where they serve you drinks in tea pots - no joke!

The next day we just chilled out and had a look round Queenstown, and caught up with some friends. It was an early night as all this partying is starting to take its toll on us!

Day 3 in Queenstown we went to Fergbuger (probably the best burger bar i have ever been to - seriously!) - me claire and dave, and then we just pottered arounda again...we dont really have any money to do any more extreme activities. At night we chilled out with our dorm mates (who turned out to be the biggest laugh ever) before headoing out to Altitude and World bar for another big night out.

The next morning we were heading onto the Bottom Bus which is basically a loop around the south of New Zealand. It was quite a sad morning because we had to say goodbye to everyone that we had met so far because they were all leaving for Christchurch, so it was an emotional morning with about 30 goodbyes, including out bus driver LJ who is an absolute legend. (We're probs going to meet up with him again on our way north though so its cool). We got on the Bottom Bus which only seats around 20 people - a big contrast to the 45 seater that we have travelled south on. We slept most of the way to Dunedin, arriving there around 4pm. This is a very prominant Scottish town and it is mainly a university town. There is astatue of Robert Burns in the centre and it hosts the Speights brewery and Cadbury's World (NZ and Oz version). We had a walk around the town centre, before having an early night.

The next mornign we left for Invergargil, but didnt actually arrive there until 7pm. En route we stopped at the Catlins (the southernest point in NZ) and we went to see some sea lions. These are wild sea lions and just perch on teh beach. They weigh about 5 times my boday weight and can eat you. We had to be really really careful walking past them because they can sense people and at some poitns we definately broke into a run just to escape them. It didnt help when Barbara (our resident 77 year old on the Kiwi bus who has done more extrere activities than the rest of us put together - no joke) fell and that sparked off the sea lions interest in us. great. We couldnt get back on the bus quick enough!!

We then went to a fossilised rainforest which was soooo boring because we were nmade to wait for an hour and a half in the freezing cold for some stupid penguins that never turned up!

When we finally arrived in Invercargill we were tired and hungry so we went to the Speights brewery for dinner (yes, it doesnt just sell beer!) and then went to bed.

Day 3 on the Bottom Bus was Claires birthday so we had big celebrations. It was also St Paddys day so, everywhere was pretty lively anyway. We were heading to Te Anau today. en route we stopped off at a Paua jewellery making factory and made some neclaces which was pretty cool, and then whilst some of the group went to a farm to sheer a sheep (no thanks!), the rest of us went out for lunch for claires bday. We arrived mid afternoon in Te Anau and had a lovely dinner out and some drinks in the local pub before crashing into bed.

The next day was suppsoed to be one of the highlights of NZ, but i think it is overrated. Todayw e were going to Milford Sound. Firstly, we were really annoyed cause nobody told us that the clocks went back, so we were up an hour earlier than we had to be!! It took around 3 hours to get to Milford Sound from Te Anau and it was absolutely beautiful. (But, we thought that Abel Tasman national park and the Glaciers were nicer). We did a 2 hour cruise around the Sound (which is actually not a Sound, its a Fiordland..but to be fair, i dont really know the difference). We were surrounded by amazing mountaisn with waterfalls cascading down them - absolutely stunning and the pictures do not do it justice!

The journey back took 5 hours to Queenstown and we went out again at night to celebrate Claire's birthday again (just because Queenstown is a more lively place than Te Anau).

Today is our final day in Queenstown before heading to Christchurch tomorrow. Think that that is everything up to date now.

hope everyone is well at home

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