New Zealand - The South Island

It was sad to leave the North Island as we started to lose some founding members of the Magic Bus gang. We grabbed the ferry at Wellington (North Island) and after a 3 hour scenic ride on the ferry (more like a cruise ship) the few remaining gang members found themselves in Picton. It was then on to Nelson for our first night.

As you will see...the rolling green hills give way to the Southern Alps on the west coast of the South Island. Stunning!

Our first night on the South Island had Gus, Beth, Phoebe and myself somewhat sad and missing our new found friends so in memory of them...we decided to head for a bar to drown our sorrows. Nelson was a ghost town, but we managed to find an Irish bar with some music coming out of it so in we went. As I stood at the bar I noticed two hot girls apparently waving at me...trust me...this doesn't happen in Canada or anywhere else in the world. It turns out that the girls were Karen and Jane from the Magic Bus who had gone on before us. It also turns out to be Karen's birthday. This all led to our ritual Jager Bombs and my first experience with a lock in. For those of you (like myself) who don't know what a lock in is...basically the owner of the bar closes the bar, but allows you to party until the wee hours. We took over the music, the drinks became cheaper and morning was fast approaching. What a great night.

However, with all great nights...there is usually a VERY early morning involved. I learned a long time ago that if you want to play with the big boys at night...you have to face the music in the morning. I was on the road by 7:15am to spend two hours on a bus, one hour on a boat, FOUR PLUS hours hiking the Abel Tasman trail, followed by a two hour bus ride back home. And no...Gus didn't make the bus. Wimp!

The glacier pictures are from Franz Josef where I went on a half day glacier hike. I felt so comfortable on the ice with the crampons that I've decided to search for the YETI in the Himalayans when I'm finished this part of my travel....he can run, but he can't hide!!

I'll have you know that in my 5 months of travelling, the picture with me and the pick axe is the first picture of me taken with my own camera. I think the camera knows I hate it and somehow moved to a different setting (animate or some crap like that) and made me look even more stupid than usual. Damn camera!

The mirror creeks where the picture above was taken freaked me out. For some reason it was hard to see the reflection of the mountains with the naked eye, but when you looked through the camera...you could see it clearly. And honest...it was in the morning...I hadn't yet been drinking. Strange.

I had heard awesome things about Milford Sound (just west of Queenstown) and was excited to see it. The mountains and fiords were amazing, but I should have planned to stay a day or two as it was a long day on the bus to get there and the cruise seemed to drag on forever. So if you're in the neighbourhood...DO visit Milford Sound...but take your time and spend a few days to engulf yourself in the beauty.

Queenstown...I don't even know where to begin. It is definitely extreme adventure capital of NZ as well as party central. The four days I spent there are a blur and I don't know what else to say. The hike up the Queenstown Hill almost killed me, so I better get lots of comments on the picture to the left. I had convinced myself to take another bungy off the 3rd tallest platform in the world (Nevis), but I ran out of time and energy.

Lake Tekapo was the start of rebuilding the Magic Bus gang in it's former glory. The gang was expanded by several Canadians (Go Canucks Go); a couple Irish girls; some Germans; some Swiss; some Dutch; more English because they're everywhere and even some Americans.

The gang was back to record numbers and the Jager Bombs flowed. Gus and I continued to be the founding members. The scenery continued to be beyond belief and the couple pictures to the left and below are from Mt. Cook...the highest point in NZ. We were pretty fortunate as the day afforded us great views of the top of the mountain which had been cloud covered for many days before.

Christchurch was another awesome city where the fun was non-stop as the group became more comfortable with one another...but maybe that's not always a good thing. Two reasons why this isn't a good thing...first...we lost a lot of the gang as they left NZ from Christchurch airport and second...nobody should play strip jenga while drinking copious amounts of alcohol. For goodness sake...it's a kids game and we made it dirty. I certainly wasn't complaining as Miranda and Silvia started losing more and more clothes...but Gus was naked for almost two hours. I still have nightmares!!!

I decided to include this picture as a reference point to how far my travels have taken me from Canada. I certainly miss you guys back home, but the adventure must continue and I'm back to the North Island on my way back to Auckland before heading to SE Asia.