Round the South Island with Keira

I flew from Wellington to Christchurch to meet Keira, amazingly we managed to find each other at the airport and headed into town. We decided to hire a car to see how much of the South Island we could cover in 10 days. As Keira was on holiday, I decided to try to find a really nice hostel in Chch, unfortunately after ringing 12 of them we ended up in a horrible one. We were only there one night though, so we made an effort to find a nicer one the next night. It didn't work, the hostel sounded nice from the description but when we pulled up it looked awful - like a tin can in the middle of a grotty field. We couldn't stay there, and we were going to get drunk and sleep in the car as it looked like a better option. Luckily we re-rang another hostel which we had tried earlier but was booked up, and they had kept a room available for late-comers so we took that. It was a great hostel, in the middle of no-where but really nice. Things improved significantly from here on.

Driving round the south island is great, the scenery is stunning wherever you go, and constantly changes from towering snow-capped mountains to golden rolling hills to beautiful bright blue lakes. And then there's the roads - it takes ages to get anywhere because of the many hair-pin bends and single-lane bridges that you can only cross if there are no cars coming the other way. The single lane bridges with train tracks running down the centre are quite scary, but not as scary as the tunnel with no lights or road markings so its really difficult not to crash into either the sides or approaching cars. It certainly wouldn't be legal in the UK. My favourite roads are the hair-pin bends that turn into a single lane just at the point where you can't see round the corner - you're supposed to go slowly and pray that nothing is coming the other way.

But anyway we made it round safely and this is what we did: We attempted to see Mt Cook but it was raining and cloudy so we weren't too successful, but had a nice walk anyway. We moved on to Arrowtown - a historic town, well historic in NZ terms, the buildings looked quite modern to me. Then Queenstown, which is stunning, set on the edge of a beautiful lake. It is also the adventure capital of NZ, so we had to do something here. We tried paragliding, which is basically jumping off the side of a hill with a parachute strapped to your back. I thought we would go straight down and land, but we didn't, just floated around like a balloon and even gained height when we hit the thermals. It was very peaceful, until the bit where you have to spin round to lose height and get very dizzy. Its the third time I've done something with a parachute, and I love it!

That night in Queenstown, Keira bumped into two friends from back home, very random especially as she had no idea they were travelling. It was a great night, we ended up talking until about 2 in the morning and it was strange for me sitting in the middle of NZ listening to 3 very strong Yorkshire accents!

The next day we headed to Milford Sound, which is not actually a sound but a fjord, and is as stunning as everyone told me it would be. We were lucky as it rained all the way there, but the weather cleared as soon as we were on the water. 2 hours on a boat and around 500 photos later, we headed back to Te Anau, picking up some Swedish hitchhikers on the way.

We then headed south to the Catlins, where we spent the night in a very remote but lovely wooden hut. We went on a walk to see the penguins, didn't see any but did bump into some big sea-lions lying on the beach and frolicking with each other. It was pretty magical watching them from only a couple of feet away.

On to Dunedin, which is named after the celtic word for Edinburgh. It is Scottish through and through, it has the same street names as Edinburgh, the same awful weather as Scotland (it was freezing cold and wet the whole time), and even had a parade of bagpipes. Our hostel was on one of the steepest streets in the world, the car refused to go up it any faster than 2km/hour, and parking was a challenge to say the least. I kept thinking the car would tip over! The one good thing about Dunedin was the choclate factory. I really enjoyed the tour round, especially all the free chocolate! Paradise for a chocoholic like me.

We drove from Dunedin to Wanaka, and went from freezing cold and rain to hot sunshine in a couple of hours, the change was dramatic. Wanaka is a beautiful town, I can see why Laura & Bob stayed here. Set on the edge of yet another beautiful lake, its a small town but full of charm. Keira did a skydive in Wanaka, I didn't but it was still exciting for me watching the other jumpers. Skydiving is brilliant, everyone should try it at least once. Leaving Wanaka, we drove for half an hour before we realised we were desperately short of petrol, so we decided to turn back as petrol stations in NZ are few and far between. It was a good job we did turn back, as after our long diversion it wasn't until we got back to Wanaka that we had been going totally the wrong way!

One of the highlights of my travels so far was walking on the Franz Josef glacier. To look at from the ground, its not that spectacular, but it is totally different when you walk on the top. The ice makes incredible shapes, including caves and holes that we had to slide through, and you hear the occasional "boom" that reminds you it is a living thing, changing constantly. It moves about a metre a day, which is a lot, and when I was on it I half expected it to all rush down the valley at any time. It is so beautiful, and quite scary at the same time.

I loved geography at school, and coming to NZ is like the ultimate geography field trip, I wish I had come here than to Scarborough at school!

After the glaciers we ended up at Greymouth for the night, at an incredible hostel. We definitely saved the best till last, as this was our last night together. It had an african theme with lovely paintings and ornaments all over the walls, and incredibly comfy beds!

Keira got the train from Greymouth to Chch as I carried on up north in the car. I really didn't want her to go as we had so much fun and it was great spending so long with the same person, and we only had a few 'blonde' moments. Good job that I am going to Sydney to see her again soon.