South island antics!

After arriving in the South island we headed to Abel Tasman. En route we went through the Marlborough vineyard region. We stopped for a little bit of wine tasting. Being the wine connoisseurs that we arent we decided that we preferred the australin pinot noir,We were told that the Otago wine region has excellent pinot noir, this excited us a great deal as this is where queenstown is...our final destination. We stopped very briefly in Nelson. Then arrived in Abel Tasman just before night fall.There was a glorious red sky that welcomed us to this beautiful area. That night we had opted to camp as it was a whole $10 cheaper. It worked out quite well as we ended up with a tent for just the two of us. result!

That evening we enjoyed some local green lipped muscles and marshmallows toasted on the camp fire. We had been very organized and arranged a group dinner... what a team. Jamie made a tasty spag bol.what an awesome chilled out evening.

The next day we were up early and on a beautiful hike with sea views, after a relaxing walk we were met by a catamaran that we sailed to explore the coast line. It was so beautiful, just a shame the water was icy cold!! A few brave lads from our boat ventured into the water to get a picture on the split apple rock! We saw some seals and mike had a go at sailing the boat. Good fun had by all!

We had another team cook that night and Merressa made some mean chicken fajitas. we also celebrated isreal's independence day with champagne bought by our isreali friend/ stray bus player Eli. We had another night in the tent, best nights sleep we'd had in ages!!

up the next day heading to Barry town.... Now Why Barry town you may ask yourself... it really is in the middle of nowhere the only thing in the village is a pub! well it turns out that the guy who started the kiwi bus and stray actually comes from barry town so he made this stop so the locals would be able to generate some funds from the tourist industry...genial!!

It was a long day of driving punctuated by a couple of stops to see pancake rocks, some blow holes, oh and a colony of seals.
Laura was ridiculously excited at the prospect of Barry/Baz Vegas and the chance for her to dress up as a beauty or a geek! When we stopped for a shopping stop we managed to find a charity shop/op shop with some wonderfully geeky clothes, including a just jeans jacket for $1 that's 50p to us English folk!! what a result!!

An awesome night was had by all, we played the drinking game roxanne and bunch of dubious beauties (ie men dressed up as women)and geeks danced until the wee hours. it was a night of romance for some(in our room), but fortunately it didn't wake us!
lots of post drinking dramas ensued, as i'm sure you can imagine.

The next morning Laura and few other girls got up early to make bone carved pendants. Laura was very proud of the pendant that she made for her brother.

That day we headed onto Franz Joseph all feeling a little hungover!!
Franz joseph is a small village situated near the fraz joseph glacier. The hostel that we stayed in was pretty comfortable, with a cool bar on site. Unfortunately the beds were pretty uncomfortable every time laura so much as breathed a great big earrsssoersss noise would follow.. not conducive to a good nights sleep.

The next morning we were up early ready to face our full days hike on the glacier. We had to go and get all kitted out with specialist equipment such as water proofs, crampons, gloves, hat and a very fetching red bum bag. Now maybe the best time to mention that there is a lot of rain around franzjoseph and today was not an exception.

The Glacier is not quite as beautiful as we thought it might be there was alot of dirt on the ice. The rain didn't let up for the whole time we were on there and the water proofs we'd been given weren't really living up to their name. It was also kinda like being in a massive freezer, so pretty chilly. Due to the rain and it's persistence getting the camera out to get snap happy wasn't really an option. We stopped for lunch but only for 10 mins as the guide was worried about us getting too cold. We did mange to go on an ice slide and fall/climb down an ice tunnel which was pretty exciting. Needless to say we were more than thrilled when it was over and we could get into some warm dry clothes.

That evening we went to the bar, mike played pool with eli, and laura took part in some piggyback races where she won a t shirt, a white water rafting trip, and a bar crawl! not bad for a nights work!!

The next day we headed to Makarora, unfortunately the rain wouldn't let up and the windows of the bus was steamed up we couldn't take in the beautiful scenery around us...we couldn't even see mount cook, or Fox glacier.. a bit of a bummer but we kept ourselves entertained on the bus with a bit ipodoke.(this where you put your ipod on and sing to the song...only you can hear the music...only the audience can hear what you really sound like...awesome/painful)

We arrived in Makarora, now this place really is in the middle of nowhere they don't get mobile or tv reception...they don't even get radio reception!! Team mclou went for a gentle stroll down to the river. then returned in the evening for a bit of karaoke...our last night with the stray gang! Mike broke his karaoke duck to serenade his woman with a bit of Dakota...he's getting brave in his old age!!

The next day we headed on to Wanaka were we decided to leave the stray bus and say goodbye to all our lovely new friends.