Farewell Gemma

Ok so I'm sat staring at the computer screen, willing my brain to remember what I've been up to since my last entry...so bear with me.

So our few days in Wellington was really cool, so we left the blue skies to make our way to Queenstown. On the journey down south we stopped in a place called Franz Josef. We stayed two nights there so that we could take advantage of the hiking activities on the glacier. So bright and early our big group of Strays headed down to the reception to get kitted out with waterproof (remember that key word) outer clothing and hiking boots, sufficient for the day ahead of us. We winced somewhat at the grey clouds and spots of rain, but decided to remain positive and assure ourselves that dry weather was on the cards. A few last minute snoozing and a bus journey later, strapped up in plastic sheeting legwear and flattering overcoats, we grudingly piled off the coach and onto the wet, rainy setting of Franz Josef glacier. Off we set on our full day hike. In the rain. Which didn't stop...all day. On the bright side, we successfully climbed through ice caves with ice boots and pick aces, up several ice steps and down varying levels of the glacier to see panoramic and foggy views of the impressive, natural landscape. But back to the moans - we were absolutely soaked through!! Being the safety conscious traveller that I am, I wore my money belt that day, and even my passport got soggy! Not good.

To cheer things up, we all went down to some hot springs at the end of the day to rest our weary limbs and chat about the days events. The hot springs were so, so good - three pools ranging from 36 to 40 degrees....pure luxury! Felt a bit light headed getting out of them mind!

From Franz Josef we stopped off at a few nice places before eventually getting to Queenstown. We stayed five nights and met up with our friend Jon (that we'd met on Koh Phi Phi). Queenstown has been really good - a kiwi pub crawl, winning wet t-shirt competitions (guess who!), jet boating, Gemma and Sarah's killer bungy jump (134m!), Fergburger dinners and a day of skiing.

Skiing. Man, I am not meant to slide down slopes gracefully. I spent the morning feeling cranky, tired and bloody useless at skiing! I spent more time on my bum than I did standing up! The ski instructor, bless him, had a lot of patience for me, and some how knew my name straight away. Probably because I was the Bambi of the group! (Maybe that's an insult to bambi?) Gemma, Sarah and Jon took a lot more naturally to skiing than I did! Having said that, by the afternoon I had managed to ski down the nursery slope and travel up on the ski lift a good four or five times without falling over - nice one! I have to tell you importantly, that I avoided collisions with any other skiers so I was quite pleased with that (obviously I made myself fall over instead of learning how to stop!) but Gemma managed to plough into people on at least three occasions, taking out several people at a time! Then she proceeded to head on to the intermediate slope, before realising that she wasn't quite up to speed with this level, thus requiring tandem skiing with the new ski instructor in order to get back down the slope. I take my hat off to her for her bravery!!

Today we are all aching like hell, my arms and shoulders in particular from the amount of times I flew arse over tit and my poles went flying! Even other snow boarding instructors were starting to recognise me when I needed assistance back onto my feet! Oh the humiliation, thank god I just lay in the snow laughing at myself. Anyhoo. So Queenstown was cool. Absolutely full of stunning snow boarding Australians (I had the fortunate pleasure of sharing a lift with three of them in my hostel!) We've left Sarah in Queenstown for a few extra days, while Gemma, Jon and I travelled onto Christchurch today. Our bus broke down half way so we were quite late arriving. Ah well it could have been worse. We were thankful to have smuggled Jon onto the Stray Tour Bus without having paid for a ticket (we owe our bus driver a drink or two now!) which was really helpful. Jon's having a bit of a battle adjusting to backpacker life at the moment. The poor guy has never cooked a meal in his life, always eats out in trendy places and stays in nice hotels (perks of working for Virgin) and currently doing well stopping smoking without too much disorder. I'm on a mission to get him cooking and penny pinching, else we'll both be back in England in two weeks. Funds are low. Job hunting is high on the agenda next week when we get to Cairns (as well as sunbathing, he tells me).

Gemma gets on her flight back to the UK tomorrow! :( How very sad for us, we will miss her and her Gemmaisms. Rudeys, minnies, enemers, fudge buckets, J Lo, Eutopia, Estanbul and tiddlywinks. What a girl.

Time for me to go. Maori kiss x x