In Christchurch we had a look at some remaining earthquake damage and the 185 chairs memorial. And the new cathedral which is mostly made out of cardboard, although it’s hard to tell.

Then we went for lunch with my sister and had a drink as it was a beautiful day outside.

After that we went to new brighton beach and pier for a look before hanging out with my mum and sister for the rest of the evening.

We woke up in the morning in Greymouth, then we went for breakfast and did some shopping. Georgia bought a dress which was half price. Then as we were leaving Georgia decided she liked the dress so much that she wanted to buy a second one. So after that little detour we were on our way!

The Arthur’s pass road is really cool, driving in between mountains up a big gorge.

Arthur’s pass village is tiny, the smallest place we’ve stayed so far. It’s mostly for seasoned hikers, but we were not there long. So we just did a little walk to the devil’s punchbowl, which is a 130m waterfall. My favourite one so far as it’s that big and you can still get right underneath it if you jump the fence at the lookout.

Straight after seeing the waterfall it started raining which basically stopped us going back out that evening

We woke up in Greymouth around 9:30 but that was fine as our first plans of the day was the pancake rocks, which requires high tide. So Georgia had a small breakfast, then after awhile we set off towards Punakaiki and stopped at the pancake rocks cafe for… Pancakes. The pancakes were good, although the cafe was not the best otherwise.

Then about thirty minutes before high tide we started three little pancake rocks walk which is just a little path with lots of little lookouts and viewpoints of the rocks and water below. The rocks below all have the appearance of stacks of pancakes (hence the name). And they are shaped by rough waves smashing against them, which also have cool effects, there is one big blow hole through the rocks. The blow hole got us soaked when we first went past a we weren’t expecting it at all.

After the pancake rocks we went to the Hokitika gorge, which is a big gorge with a river of glacier water which makes it a milky blue colour and freezing cold.

Then later in the evening we went to the glow worm dell in Hokitika. It was a small walk on the side of the road on the main highway. And at the end t the glow worms are very impressive, much better than Franz Josef. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so we have no photos of them.

So we woke up, got all ready for the flight on Franz Josef glacier, we headed out for breakfast and Dan got an email saying that the helihike is cancelled due to the clouds being too low😢😢😢 the saddest moment of the holidays really. We rescheduled our day and i have to admit we did a fair amount 🙂 We went to the franz josef glacier with the car until a point and it was a 1.5 hour walk return to go up to 750m away from it. Dan complained a lot because he said that last time he went he could be a few meters away from it and also the glacier was far nearer (global warming shit happening). Anw, i ticked that off my bucket list 🙂 (Georgia) it was bloody amazing. There were signs on the path showing how far the glacier used to be .. it was really sad the moment when we found the 2009 sign the glacier was miles away from it 😦 like in less than 10 years it retreated soooo much:( there was a crack on the mountain near it and our best guess is that it would be a fault line(see photos)

We left the glacier and then we decided to give a try to another glow worm walk which was in a tunel above the glacier town. It was a 1:40 mins walk, really pretty, above a river.. we got into a man made tunnel that it was created in the 1890s, pretty awesome. Dark, water until your ankle, Dan was wearing jandals (clever move) i was wearing hiking boots and my feet got a bit wet towards the end. it was about 500-600m tunnel, we saw a bunch of glow worms but it was still a bit disappointing 😦

Dan insisted to go the wildlife centre in the town so i can see a kiwi, we went, we saw that they wanted 40 dollars just to see a bird and we said no. bye. We hit the road for Greymouth to visit Gayle (Dan’s mum) and Ken 🙂 We arrived in Greymouth and a lovely red hair lady was doing her gardening while waiting for us. She gave us the warmest welcome and of course man she was happy to see her son after 1.5 year. Ken and Gayle took us to this Moroccan place in the town for dinner and we had a nice meal. Ken drove us around town to show us the little spots:) Greymouth is a small west coast town (bit bigger than the others that we passed on the way), its very quite and scenic, you get into bush walks a few minutes away from houses:)

We headed back, chatted for hours and hours with the guys and went to bed after a pretty achieving day 🙌

So we left from Wanaka thinking that on our way to Franz Josef we would stop at a couple of wee walks and waterfalls. But little did we know the 6 hour drive we were accompanied by a torrential storm. We were going with a max of 70km/h on a 100km/h. We stopped to see the blue pools that are supposed to be nice blue water pools but instead it was a flooded river. We walked in the storm for 15 minutes with “jandals”(flip-flops😂). We got completely drenched.

We had 4 more stops along the way planned; 3 waterfalls and a beach that has the potential to see penguins. However because of the weather we decided to only stop at one of the waterfalls, but it turned out to be the best of the three so that was lucky. It was called thunder creek falls, so it had to be good with a name like that!

We were also hoping to see the Fox glacier but the road towards it was closed.

We finally made it to Franz Josef and we checked into the nicest hostel so far. The staff was lovely, the place was clean, free popcorn, free breakfast. what else would we need! we asked the reception where can we eat and where can we see glow worms and she pointed us to a couple of places. We went to the town restaurant and bloody hell (Georgia) i ordered some sea food pasta and i found hair twice 😦 they replaced it but it was still a no go. Pff! We decided to go an easy access glow warm walk just outside the town. We saw a couple but not much.

We went back to the hostel and thats all folks for the day 🙂

Next we went to Wanaka, a small lake town for a couple of nights. Unfortunately Georgia got heatstroke the day before so just slept most of the day, while I sat in the sun drinking beers with an Aussie guy at the hostel. The hostel was so far the worst we’d stayed at as well despite being the highest rated on the internet! We need to do laundry but the staff were using the laundry machines constantly to wash all their bedding and stuff. Their was loads of dead sandflies and other insects. And on top of that our bunk bed seemed to be supported by a block of wood!

When she finally woke up, we went into town, I got an award winning pie while Georgia got a kebab and we sat down on the lakeside to eat it. Then finally we went to this very boutique and homely cinema called paradiso cinema and watched aquaman. At the cinema they did homemade ice cream, they had an intermission half way through as well where they’d made fresh giant cookies as well which were delicious. Highly recommend it.

The next day we wanted to go kayaking and paddle boarding, but it was too windy and cold. So instead we went to puzzle world which had a load of optical illusions and that sort of thing as well as a giant maze.
The coolest illusion was these faces that appeared to follow you, but were in fact hollow static 3D faces.

So next up we went to the maze. There was the standard challenge and the difficult challenge, so naturally we went for the latter. And smashed it out in about an hour.

After that we just stayed at the hostel out of the sun to recover.

So today we headed to Queenstown very early in the morning (8am) because we wanted to do a 6 – 8 hour hike up Ben Lomond (It’s the mountain behind Queenstown).

We left the car at the hostel, sorted out our bags, bought some snacks and water for the walk then headed on our way. We headed for the gondolas to go to the skyline cafe and luge as that’s where’s the track actually starts. That would save us 1 hour of hike and damage us 80 dollars. Guess what?🤦🏻‍♀️ There was a massive queue for the gondolas so we decided to walk that part too. Dan said it would be the most difficult part of our hike along with the top of the mountain. He wasnt lying. I was fucking fuming and hoping that the rest of the 4 hours walk wouldnt be this steep. On our way to the first stop that had the cafe we saw peeps doing zip lining, which seemed fun.

We reached the first level and there was a nice bar/cafe/restaurant with amazing views over the town.

We headed to the start of Ben Lomond track (1750m above sea level) It was 12 lunchtime and it was bloody hot, the beginning of the track seemed pretty easy and it would justify the rate that the “experts” gave to it.. the steepness was easy and it was a proper footpath.. After two hours we started realising that we should have just take the lifts up to the first stop because the track was going to be a challenge for Georgia, but oh well. I’m not going to lie there were old people going way faster than us😂. We reached half way and Georgia started realising how high we were and it it was a hell to calm her down.

We stopped for a small snack and then continued.. Unfortunately my fear of heights beat me around 1600 meters(Georgia) and i begged Dan to start going down. Of course he was sad because we were like 10-15mins hike away from the top.

At our last stop some girls told us that this track was the hardest they’ve done and it made me feel a bit better.

We made our way down and man my toe nails were just killing me because we were probs downhilling 1-1.5 hour. I’m not going to lie i was just staring at the track and not looking around because i would see how high i was. Of course cocky Dan was acting like it was a walk in the park 😂

We made it back to the restaurant treated ourselves with a delicious ice cream and took the gondola (free when u go down) down to the town.

I probs got heatstroke. My nose was red my forehead my cheeks 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ For the night we headed in town got some lovely tacos and burger , walk to the harbor and then got to sleep.

Ps. I never felt so tired in my life 😂

We drove to milford sound from roxburgh, leaving at 8 am. The drive was bloody amazing. I would do it all over again. (Not soon 😂). After stopping briefly in te anau to refuel the car and ourselves, we hit the road again, heading towards the mountains in fiordland!

Along the way we first stopped at eglinton valley lookout, which is a big field that looks straight down the valley.

Next up we stopped at mirror lakes, which was very lame. The lake is supposed to reflect the mountains behind it, but was over grown with weeds and very murky.

Next we drove through amazing scenery all the way towards the homer tunnel. The homer tunnel is a 1.2 km tunnel straight through a mountain, the walls are just sheer granite with cables running along them. Until the road was sealed it was the longest gravel road tunnel in the world.

The next stop was a place called the chasm. The chasm is a very cool waterfall with a bridge that goes right over top of it. Georgia was too scared to get a selfie over it and basically ran to the other side. I don’t think the photos we took do it justice.

(Insert photos)

Finally we arrived at our destination at 2:20pm (6 and a half hours after setting off). We rushed to check in and get our boarding passes, then waited for the cruise!

The cruise was really cool, we saw loads of waterfalls, even going completely under one of them. There were a load of lazy young fur seals lounging around on a couple of big rocks. The captain was really informative and took the piss a lot. The sounds are all formed from glaciers splitting the rocks and at one point there is a crack right through the rock which is actually a fault line (the things that cause earthquakes)

After milford sound we drove back to te anau, checked into our hostel then went for food. We probably found the worst place in te anau (if we had of done our research we would have seen it had a whopping 2.5 stars on trip adviser).

What a day!

– Drove to Roxburgh camped there at a friends field.

– Got stupidly drunk both days.

Meet our friends Dozer(the giant one -hes 8 months old lol) and Lexie 🙂 On new years day we went to the River and then got drunk again.

Today we woke up again at 5..but we slept until 9. It feels that our jetlag is over.(or is it?😂). We returned back to invercargill and of course Dan got his pie no 1 out of no 34674 for the day. The man is crazy about NZ cheese, gravy and steak pies. They are alright i guess, i wouldnt rave about them but i guess who am i to judge since i like my nandos plain 😂.

Anw, today we headed to Catlins, which is a region that includes rainforests, and beaches.

First we stopped at waipapa point lighthouse, where we saw some big sea lions on the beach.

A lady tried to tell us off for being too close, but we maintained that they came up to us and she was stupid. We walked along the beach afterwards and saw some seals in the water as well. We were hoping to see penguins as well but no luck😔.

Next stop is Slope point which is the most Southern point in the South Island.

After we headed to Curio bay hoping to see some dolphins but Dan was as happy with his second pie of the day🤦🏻‍♀️. It was worth the drive just for the pie lol😂. Anw unfortunately no dolphins. I have to admit, Curio bay was beautiful and as you will see below, massive.

Then we went to Purakaunui falls, where we got right into the water underneath the waterfall. It was a beautiful 10 mins walk to the falls.

After we went to another brilliant waterfall called McLean falls. It was a bit more challenging to get to but it was definitely worth it.

Then we went to curio bay to visit Dan’s school friend, Ryan and his daughter Lexie ❤️.

After returning to Invercargill, we shouted steak for everyone at big willys, where you buy the steak and cook it yourself on the grill. Yum 🤤.

And the day is pretty much done! 🙂

Tomorrow we are heading to Roxburgh to meet Dan’s friends and camp there so i guess its the right time to say a thank you to Des and Annmarie for hosting us and taking care of us for the first 3 days of our wee journey ❤️.