Country: New Zealand.
City: Christchurch then Auckland.
Arrival Date: Sept 2nd 2003.

Date: Sunday the 14th of Sept, 5.25pm

ok so I haven't been back to update my website in a while but things have been so hectic for me the last few weeks, with leaving Melbourne and landing in Christchurch!! Partying there for a few days and then travelling about New Zealand's South Island for a week doing all sorts of crazy things before flying up to Aukland where I am now!! So I'll give you all the details of the last two weeks that I can remember and that I'm allowed to write up here!! hehehe

OK so I flew out of Melbourne after about two days of organising, partying and saying bye to everyone etc..etc..only to arrive in Christchurch on Tuesday the 2nd of September. I had to try to meet up with my mate Rami (the salsa instructor I met in Melbourne that happened to be here at the same time as me!). He had given me a phone number to call when I arrived so I got checked into the Startimes backpackers in Cathedral Square before calling Mr. Jason Ellison (an american/kiwi ...yes he's half man/half bird! ) and arranging to meet himself and Rami that afternoon and hang out for a while. Excellent! It was so nice to have friends to hang out with again in a strange city. Even better when they have a car to drive around in and give you a quick rundown on the city itself!

Then the real fun began!! The boys brought me to all the local spots that were really happening in Christchurch!! The supermarket!!! wooowwww!!! then the arcade!! Where I did something else I've never done before!! DDV or DVD something like that...I can't remember what it's called!! Help me out here Jason!! DDR that's what it's called!! It's this Dance game thingy that you hop on the squares when the arrows tell you do and it plays music and stuff!! really funny!! So after all that excitement I do believe that was a few games of pool and very interesting conversation all night before the guys finally dropped me back at the hostel as I was exhausted after all that fun in Christchurch!! Oh and the three days without sleep thing might have had something to do with it!! hhehee But it was a fun night!

Wednesday

After my massive three days galavanting about Australia and New Zealand I finally went to sleep and woke up 14 and a half hours later!! WOH!! that was sum amout of sleep I needed!! I got up at 3.30pm and organised myself with my emails and pack and stuff before doing some shopping and having dinner back at the hostel. There was a pretty good deal of 3 hrs on the net for $5 in the cafe just around the Square, if you're there you should check it out!! Anyways I'd just finished dinner when the boys, Rami and Jason came and picked me up unannounced! So I rushed and got ready and off we went to the salsa dance studio where some of their friends were dancing and having salsa lessons. So we all danced salsa for a while and then headed off to the 'Loaded Hog' where they had a Swing Dancing night on!! How cool was that!! So I had to give it a go!

As Jason was the only other person I knew there who could dance Swing I accosted him and made himteach me a few steps!! It was lots of fun and I think I'll have to get more lessons and do some more Swing in the future!! If you imagine a cross between Ballroom dancing and Skateboarders then you get Swing!! There are specific moves involved with specific music and dancing, but you also get to jump about a lot and get thrown over people backs and heads and stuff!! You wear funky clothes and flat shoes and party your ass off!! How much fun is that!! So it's got to be done again I'm afraid!! hehehee maybe when I get to Oz again I'll find a club and get some lessons!! yeay!!

But that wasn't the end of the night, oh no, we then went off in convoy and tried to get into the Casino for more drinks when the Loaded Hog threw us out the door!! But alas the Casino was a but too sofisticated for us and wouldn't let us in with jeans on!! What the..!! Fine, if they don't want our money, we'll go somewhere that does!! Straight to the Irish pub!! See us Irish are always welcoming!! hehee So we went there with a few of Jason and Rami's friends and proceded to all get shoulder and neck massages from each other!! I think this made for quite interesting viewing in the pub but I didn't care so long as I was getting my shoulders massaged!! hehehee Then I was dropped home to my hostel for another great nights sleep!! yummy!!

Thursday

I got up on Thursday and toured Christchurch during the day! Well, I hadn't seen much of it so figured I needed to see some before I went travelling about the place! So I did two city walks by myself, checked out the Cathedral, went to the Botanic Gardens that were really beautiful and peaceful and got back to the Cathedral Square just in time for "National Penis Day!" yep you heard me!! NATIONAL PENIS DAY!! They got about 30 to 40 complately naked people, men and women (volunteers from the crowd believe it or not!) running about in the square and then they all knelt down and made the shape of a penis for tons of photographers and camera crews to take pictures of!! hmmmm so that was an interesting end to my sightseeing in Christchurch!! hehehee Some Very interesting sights to be seen!

After all that excitement I managed to have my dinner at the hostel and head over to The Loaded Hog for the salsa night they were having there!! What a quality few days to be in the city for dancing eh!! We salsa danced our asses off for the night and ended up being kicked out again when the place was closing! Not wanting to go home just then we went to some diner place and had more food! well, that dancing is hungry work!! heheee Rami had this deep fried Ice cream ball with hot chocolate sauce!! Man i'd give anything for one of those now!! mmmmmm....ok sorry back to the story, yeah then we went shopping for drink and headed back to Jason's house for the night and chatted, listened to music and partied until all hours! don't remember the time I eventually got to sleep but it was late, or very early I reckon!!

Friday

We got up Friday and all just chilled at Jason's for the day with the sun shining and cool music playing it was a really relaxing day! Until I decided feck it!! That I was gonna rent a car and travel around NZ and not get the bus right there and then!! So I could go where I wanted to go when I wanted!! It was definitely the best thing I ever did!! It was soooo cool driving again!!! anywhere and anytime I could go exactly where I wanted!! Woo hooo!!! So Jason kindly dropped me off at the rental place and I picked up my car! Rami, Jason, Pip and myself all went for a last dinner before I hit the road that night!! I said bye to them all as I wouldn't see Rami again! He was flying back to Oz on Sunday and I was travelling for more then a week before coming back. But you never know we may meet again sometime!

Saturday

So I headed off down the coast to Dunedin that night!! I drovefor hours but as I was a bit late leaving after saying bye to everyone so it was early morning by the time I got there! The hostel reception was closed so I snoozed in the car til it opened! When I got checked in I did some food shopping in the local supermarket and organised myself for the day! The Otago Penninsula was where I wanted to go for the day!! So off I went! I drove all over the Penninsula, I stopped in to see NZ's one and ONLY Castle called 'Larnagh Castle' with it's amazing views, then went to the very tip of the Penninsula where the Albatross nest and passed 'Penguin Place' on the way. I saw the birds nesting on the cliff's there, then came back over the mountains through the cloud and rain they were that high! I passed a lot of sheep and stopped at the beaches on the far side of the Penninsula before heading back to Dunedin where I ended up having drinks in the local Irish pub with some nice english people I met in the hostel! yeay!! hehehee

Sunday

After having breakfast with Graham and Rachael the next morning I drove to the Southern tip of the South Island and took the scenic route through the "The Catlins" and stopped at Nugget Point with it's amazing Amazing scenery!! and yes I meant to write it twice!! it IS that beautiful there!! Then I wrote the following just after I got back to the car!

Well I've just been up to 'Nugget Point', one of the most beautiful scenic points where New Zealand meets the South Pacific Ocean. I drove as far as I could up the mountain along the thin gravel path until I reached a small parking place for my car. I left the car there and started to walk along this little dirt track on the edge of the cliff in order to get to the furthest spot of land the jutted out into the sea where the lighthouse stood.

When I got there I could see that it overlooks several of these huge 'Nugget' like stacks of rock that are scattered through the sea. They are home to many species of nesting birds all circling around overhead. As I walked to this point however I was enveloped in a waterfall of sounds, sights and tastes that thrilled my senses and left me bursting with energy, joy and just plain happiness to be alive to witness such an amazing place! It's so unbelieveably beautiful that it's extremely difficult to put into words! But I'll try!

While I was strolling along this pathway, I am completely alone, the sky is a clear, bright blue colour and the sun is shining down to warm me at every step. If I turn to face the sea, a light breeze blows and as I breathe in I can taste the fresh, clean sea air with it's slightly salty hue. Then as the breeze lulls the sun warms my face, body and soul again and I can smell the grasses, trees and herbacious plants that surround me. It's like tasting nature itself!

In the distance I can hear the soothing sound ofthe sea washing over and around the rocks at the base of the cliff below me. Just in front of me a little bird starts to sing happily on it perch in the sun. Then I can hear the seagulls overhead only to be muted by the roar of some sealions on the rocks near the lighthouse. Then standing at the lighthouse looking out over these huge stacks of broken land, with the wash of the sea calming my soul, the taste of the sea air and the warmth of the sun on my face I turn to look behind me.

I can see both sides of the coast as if I'm at the tip of a triangle of land and it's the most beautiful rugged coastline ever. With it's white waves racing to the shore I can see the sheer cliff faces dropping straight down to the rocks that greet them and I'm lost for words! All I can do is smile back at nature who is beaming at me from every angle!! This is something that you just can't get from a postcard or TV! This is something that has to be experienced to be believed. I'm so glad I got the chance to be a backpacker see this amazing sight for myself! Wow!

After I left Nugget Point I stopped at the wildlife hut further along the coast and managed to see one of the worlds rarest penguins in the wild! The Yellow Eyed Penguin! Instead of paying $27 at Penguin Point I stayed here for a while and saw them for free!! Hey when you're backpacking you need to do these things somtimes! But there are only about 3000 in existence and this was one of the only places in the world where they nest! How lucky am I to see them eh!! I managed to see two, one at it's nest and the other swim out from the sea, walk up the beach, dry itself in the sun and then hop up the hill to it's nest too! After chatting to a nice family who heard my story and offered to take me home to see their farm and stay in their house (they were also waiting to see the penguins), I had to politely turn down their offer as I didn't have the time. I then drove further along the scenic route through Invercargill and up to Te Anau.

I stopped at Waipapa Point (still in the Catlins) to watch the sun set over the bay where there was a shipwreck in 1881 when the SS Tararua ran aground on the hidden reef and lost 131 lives! spooky!! anyway I got to Te Anau that night and checked into the quiet and peaceful YHA there. Te Anau is a small little town but there are lots of walks and beautiful scenery to keep you occupied. I got a good nights sleep and got up on Monday to get the boat trip out on the Te Anau lake! Fantastic scenery again! We sailed over to the opposite side of the lake where I took a tour into the glow worm caves!! Wow!! How cool was that!! you go inside the caves which are pretty spectacular as they've been carved out by the rivers running through the mountains that have melted from the snow capped peaks above. You get into these little boats that go deep into the caves where eventually you are in the pitch black!!

There is no natural light of any kind in there and thats when you start to see all the Glow Worms come to life! They glow due to the chemicals reacting inside them. The brighter the glow the more hungry they are as there is a greater need to attract the insects that life in the caves!! It was an amazing sight to see all these bright glowing WORMS on the walls and roof of the cave!! How cool was that!! Afterwards we took the cruise back over the lake to the town again and I had some lunch and then I FELT THE EARTH MOVE!! No, I haven't met the man of my dreams I've just experienced my first earthquake (just a small tremor) but still my first! I was standing in the hostel lounge when the whole building shook!! COOL!! hehehe then i organised myself and headed north again and stopped in Queenstown!!

I Partied in Queenstown that night with some people from the hostel and went to bed pretty tired. I was then woken up the next morning by a girl telling me it was 11.30am and checkout was 10am!! I jumped out of bed telling her that I had to do my bungy jump instead and that I was late!! I rushed to get ready, threw on some clothes and paid for the night in the hostel before trying to book my bungy. For a minute it wasn't looking good but they managed to get me in on the 12 o'clock jump. This left me with 9 minutes to get ready and get to the shop in town before the bus left!! S***T!!!! I grabbed whatever I could and ran out the door and just about managed to get to the shop in time for the bus!

It took about 20mins to get to the Kawarau Bridge that stood 143feet or 43m above the river below. They got me weighed in and sent me on my way to the ledge in the centre of the bridge! So there wasn't that many people about and I was brought stright through onto the small platform and told to sit down with my feet together! Now my pulse started to race!! The guy there proceded to tie up my ankles with the harness and chatted away like everything was just fine! I on the other hand was not 'just fine'! I was going through waves of being ok and then completely freaking out!! hehehee then he said right you're ready to go, just stand up here and we'll get you jumping!

ok, ok, so I stood up, and oh my god, this was scary, they said they'd take a picture from the front then the side and then I'd jump. hmmmm ok, so I was told to move my feet to the edge of the platform...OH MY GOD!! I had to look down to do that!! ok, ok, really scared now!! I had my left hand gripping the bridge for dear life and nothing for my right hand to hold onto!! Crap!! So he says now let go of the bridge!! hehehe NOOO are you nuts!! let GO!!! so he says again, okaayy, let go of the bridge!! hehehee S**t! So i let go! Oh my GOD!! then they say ok we'll count down from 5 then you jump!! Well there was a quick countdown and then threw myself off a 143ft high bridge with only a stretchy piece of elastic tied to my ankles!! F************KKKKKK!!!!!! that was SSOOOOO scary!!! I screamed the whole way down!! sorry but it was the scariest thing I've ever done!!! I did survive though, thank god and was so pumped with adrenelin it was unbelievable!!!

Woooo hoooooo!!! Fantastic!!! hehheeheee I waited around for a while and watched others with great delight as they crapped themselves too!! hehehee I got the bus back and was so pumped all afternoon I couldn't do anything else for the day!! I ended up watching a video with some mates before having dinner and then going to teh local pub for happy hour with two american guys who were studying in Oz and out there on holidays! I stayed that night in the hostel before driving to the Franz Josef Glacier the next day! I drove through Wanaka where I had some lunch and then made it to Franz Josef that evening in order to check in and relax for the night.

I Stayed overnight and got up early Thursday morning and then spent the day hiking on the Franz Josef glacier!! WOOOOWWWWW!!! how cool was that!! I even got to guide my group for a while when the guide let me take over!! heheheeee not such a good idea giving a mad Irish girl and pick axe on a glacier!!! heheheee So I hacked at it a bit and made some steps for us to walk on!! yeay!!! what fun! We spent the day climbing, sliding, slipping and jumping all over the place and headed back down to the bus after about 7-8 hours of pretty tiring work! I didn't realise how tiring until I got back to the hostel and conked out after a nice hot shower!! I woke up 2 hrs later and made some dinner before running into Graham and Rachael that I'd met in Dunedin earlier in my travels! So we hung out for the night, watching a video, playing cards and having a quick drink the the local! hehhee

Friday - Saturday

I got up kinda late and set off on my way back to Christchurch through the amazing Arthurs Pass. There were fantastic sights of enormous mountains with snow capped peaks and deep blue lakes!! I had a great drive back before dropping off the car!! Awwww But Jason was there to pick me up ...yeay!! and bring me back to the hostel where I checked in and had dinner before we met up again for a mini pub crawl around the city on my last night there!! yeayy!!! what fun! I had a really great time in the South Island and on my last night there with some nice drinks and good company! What more can you ask for eh! I got up Saturday morning and just relaxed until about 1pm when I did my last spot of sightseeing about Christchuch!! I went up to the peack overlooking the city on the Gondola!! What amazing view there are up there!! Just Beautiful! Then I went back to the city where Jason so kindly picked me up and dropped me to the airport where I had a nice flight up to Aukland!

Not like Rami's flight thank god!! ok If you read up further you'd remember that Rami is my friend from Melbourne that went back there last Sunday!! Well when I met up with Jason he filled me in on what happened when he tried to go back!! Apparently half an hour into his flight from Christchurch to Melbourne the engine on the plane burst into flames!! Bloody Hell!!! they had to shut down the engine and return to the airport!! S**T!! luckily everything was kept under control and everyone kept their calm!! They were put up in a hotel overnight and then sent on a 5am flight the next morning!! Holy Crap!! how scary would that be eh!! I tried not to think about it on my flight though and all went without a hitch thank god!! hehehee Mad Eh!

Sunday

Then that brings me almost up to date, I checked in last night in the City YHA and watched TV for a bit before going to bed! I did absolutely no sightseeing today! I just took a walk to the supermarket which ended up taking me about an hour! But I got all my food for the next few days and walked back to the hostel before watching TV again for an hour and then coming down to update the website!! Several hours later here I am!! I will do some sightseeing tomorrow and then head over to Sydney where I'm sooooo looking forward to seeing Emer again!!! yeay!! well that's it for now I'm off to make myself some dinner and chill for the evening!! sleep well!! where ever you are! :-)

Here will be the photos!!

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