Tardy, tardy, tut tut....confessions of a lazy blogger!

I'm no angel! Well, the photo begs to differ - but the red eyes belie my true nature! ;)
Apologies most sincere to everyone wondering where I've disappeared to over the past 2 months!!!
Never fear people, I have not vanished off the face of the earth, or been kidnapped by a giant Kiwi (as Shaz thought - she meant man, not bird!). There are no excuses - well, there are. I"ve been busy hopping on and off buses - Kiwi and Oz Experience. But when I haven't been busy on buses I"ve been trying to catch up on my paper journal.... but now I'm (almost) up to date so I thought I'd better show my face in cyberspace once again.
So where did I leave you guys. Ah yes, Windy Wellington. Well, the South Island of New Zealand was even more fun than the North one! A BIG shout out to my mates Stefan, Franziska, my new lifelong dance partner Harry (see pic), Laura, James, Mark, Olivia, my other friend Marc (Swiss) and 'random hairy bloke' Richard who we last saw heading off to hitchhike along the far south of the South Island to Dunedin, Invercargill etc - hope you made it safe and sound buddy!
We had our ups and downs on the South Island, but some really nice drivers; namely Cuddles - bless him - watched everything BUT the road (ie iPod, mobile phone, paperwork etc), and Bloke who took charge of the Bottom Bus and a bit of a fancy to me I think (slightly worrying considering his advancing years).
The Poo Pub at Lake Mahinapua had to be one of the most bizarre experiences ever: we slept in effectively a tin can and when there's a huge thunder storm raging outside that is not a reassuring thought). The fancy dress party was a hoot though. All of the guys dressed as men and me, Laura, & Franziska dressed as 'The 3 wise men' - ie in baseball caps and lumberjack shirts. I had a fetching pair of rainbow coloured braces which I didn't want to give back. Harry painted flattering eyeliner beards and tashes on us and we were away. Thanks Mark for sending us that characature of us all dressed up - it was ace. You could tell Cuddles had done this before as his fake breasts were a little too genuine for my liking...
Anyway, some of my fave places were on the South Island: Wanaka was a really beautiful, laid-back snowboarding town with a gorgeous lake (without dolphins - like our cheeky driver tried to dupe us into thinking, and wouldn't you know, the whole bus fell for it!) a nd mountains behind it. They had a bead shop too - what more could a girl ask for?! I spent a while creating a nice choker for myself there. They had Puzzling World too - a craaaazy place with some really clever optical illusions in them, including a room that made people look small on one side, and giant on the other (a technique used in the Lord of the Rings films for the Hobbits). They also had a maze which took me 30 mins to find my way out! Fun and frolicks.
Queenstown was also cool too with the backdrop of the Remarkables mountain range. These mountains were the ones cut and pasted into most of the backgrounds of the Lord of the Rings nature shots! They are stunning though and truly live up to their name. Queenstown is the adventure and party capital of New Zealand. You can bungy, skydive, paraglide, hanglide, ride the Shotover Jet - you name it, you can do it. A few people - namely craaaazy people called Harry and Laura - decided to tackle the Nevis bungy (the second highest in the world). I've seen photos. Brave or stupid? You decide.... all I know is they had a blast doing it and are still here to tell the tale. I'm not that brave... a skydive is enough for me!
Queenstown is also the place where even if you say you're going out for a couple of hours, it turns into half the night. Well, 3am several days in a row... even when I had to catch a 7am bus the same morning - Harry you're a bad influence but a mean dancer man! ;) I loved every second. And Franzie got very drunk, VERY drunk and thrown out of Altitude bar - so World Bar was the venue instead. And how un PC was that - a 'fag machine' with a photo of Freddie Mercury on it! And a giant moose's head on the wall along with old telephones, and teapot shots for everyone.... surreal is not the word!
So after everyone went their separate ways I got on the Bottom Bus and went to Dunedin (Gaelic for Edinburgh - but sadly not a patch on its namesake), Curio Bay (cold, cold, Curio Bay),
Te Anau (see rainbow shot with plane) and Milford Sound. The mountain ranges between Te Anau and Milford Sound were spectacular (see the Mirror Lakes image) and this is where they film the BMW car adverts apparently.
Sadly Milford Sound was cloudy when we were there and we were told that it's at its best either pissing it down with rain (to make the waterfalls really impressive) or really sunny. It was neither and the underwater observatory was a bit of a washout too but nevertheless it's an impressive fiord.
I saw some lovely sealions, albatrosses, yellow-eyed penguins and seals playing in rock pools on the Otago Peninsular on a fab Elm Wildlife Tour - Shannon was our guide and he (yes, HE) was really lovely, despite the fact he had a girl's name. My marvellous Swiss friend Marc accompanied me on that one and we had a great time. I hope you're settling back into Switzerland ok. The Oz Experience is proving interesting, but more on that next blog...
It was back to Queenstown (and NOT in Discovery Lodge hostel cos it was AWFUL) and the YHA Central which was like a hotel - 4 bed dorms, a TV in the room and en-quite bathroom. Plus mega-spotless kitchen with a COOKER (shocker!) and a balcony looking over the Remarkables. I had dinner one evening listening to the jazz festival below. Very civilised. I also met a lovely Israeli lady called Mikael - hello! I hope you had a good time with your friend in Auckland (sorry if I spelt your name wrong - I don't have the piece of paper infront of me). We shared kumara (sweet potato) fries on the lake front.
Then it was on to Lake Tekapo en-route to Christchurch - the Garden City. Tekapo's lake was a beautiful turquoise colour and the YHA there had an awesome view of the lake which I enjoyed while I wrote my journal. Then it snowed - yes it SNOWED! I was walking to the pretty little Chapel of the Good Shepherd when it turned a bit nippy so I went indoors and then it descended. It was rather cold.
Christchurch was gorgeous. It had trams, botanic gardens, the Canterbury Museum, Nici, a cathedral and my friend Harry! We had a FAB time in Boogie Nights - a club that had unashamedly nicked the logo from the Mark Wahlberg film of the same name. It was funky though. It had mennequins of the Village People in the entrance, an orange VW van as the DJ deck, a lit-up dancefloor, ace 70s music and mannequins of John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever and Olivia Newton-John from Grease outside the male and female toilets!!! How groovy is that?! Harry & I had a blast - despite the slight nausea induced by the dancefloor. There was one guy who thought he was John Travolta though in the dance stakes and he clearly wasn't... bless. I filmed him for posterity. :)
I also met a lovely Taiwanese girl called Pei ('pay me the money', as she said) - hey there Pei! I hope work is working out for you. We had lunch in a lovely Japanese restaurant (which made me miss Japan) and then looked round the Canterbury Museum which was an interesting mishmash of things, but fascinating nevertheless.
In Kaikoura I saw sperm whales - got shots of their tails too - see pic. That was awesome and I would have like to stay there longer but sadly the weather was not great - it cleared the day I left. I met some ace people there - Jo and Tom - hey guys. Hope you're still enjoying the Kiwi Experience. And of course Marc was there too - thanks for walking me back to my hostel in the torrential rain!
So I left New Zealand - sad but glad to be moving on after several colds & 2 courses of antibiotics, but GREAT memories and friends! Tune into the next instalment for news about my whereabouts now - I'll give you a clue, it's the home of the kangaroo!!! ;)
Ciao for now! x