I got embarrassingly drunk, lost a flip flop, and jumped out of a plane

The internet access in for the past few days has been a bit patchy. There hasn't been many computers and it's been expensive. We have arrived at Franz Joseph today and this hostel is the first place to have lots of computers with internet since Wellington.

So, to catch up on the last few days.

On the full day I had in Wellington I went to the museum for a few hours. It was really interesting. They had a massive preserved giant squid and a huge whale skeleton. There was also stuff on earthquakes and volcanoes and large exhibits about Maori history. After I'd looked around everywhere I went for a wander around the city and to look at the shops. I brought a bag :) I ended up having lunch in a really quirky little cafe. It was really small and the walls had been painted very randomly. And there was a pinball machine. Spinach and feta muffins are my new favourite thing. It absolutely threw it down with rain so I had to shelter there for a while. Once to the rain eased off I headed back to the hostel. The weather cleared up quite nicely so I managed to make it up the mountain for a look over the city. It was a nice walk, but very very steep. The roads leading up to the path wouldn't have looked out of place in San Fransico. During the walk I got to go through a lord of the rings film site. It's the bit from the first film where the hobbits are hiding from the black riders and Frodo says 'get off the road'. It wasn't that exciting but the woods were a bit eerie. They have twisty pine trees everywhere and the pine cones looked like odd growths on the branches.

That evening we made a massive meal for everyone in the group who hadn't left. Cooking spaghetti bolognaise for 17 people is quite an undertaking! It was really nice to have a meal with everyone. About 11 of us went to the cinema after dinner to see Alice in Wonderland.

We left Wellington bright and early the next day to get the ferry to the South Island. Pretty much everyone just slept on the ferry. We joined a new bus when we landed with a new driver. Although we had lost quite a few of our little group in Wellington there was still quite a lot of us. On the way to Nelson we stopped off at river where some people swam and there was a little walk up to a suspended bridge. Once we arrived in Nelson I went for a walk with a couple of people to what is called the centre of New Zealand. It's at the top of a really big hill, of course. Apparently it's not actually the centre of New Zealand but I guess it's close enough, and the views over the bay were lovely.

That evening was quite chilled out. A lot of us ate at at the pub attached to the hostel and then we had a few drinks and got to know some of the new guys from the bus. There are two guys who went to Leeds Uni and graduated last year as well! I don't think we have any mutual friends though.

The next day we were up nice and early again and on the road to Westport. On the way there we stopped at a massive lake and most of us jumped in off the jetty. It was very, very cold and I only did it once. In Westport I went for a walk round the town, this consisted of one main street, and then to the beach and along the beach for a while. Westport is a very sleepy town. We went out for a few drinks at one of the local bars but there wasn't much happening so we had a fairly early night.

Yesterday we travelled to Lake Mahinapua and to whats called the poo pub. On the way we stopped for a quick walk to see a seal colony. The weather was horrible in the monrning, it was drizzling and foggy. The walk would have been fantastic in the sun but the rocks and beaches were still pretty amazing in the rain. We also stopped at whats called the pancake rocks. This is because the way they have eroded looks like there are lots of flat rocks piled up on each other. We also had a quick stop in a town called Greymouth to buy fancy dress outfits for the evening.

Ok, the poo pub. This was a very bizarre place. Everyday a Kiwi bus goes there for a fancy dress party. It is owned and run by an 85 year old man called Les and everyone gets very, very drunk. Our fancy dress theme involved picking a letter out of a hat and going as something beinging with that letter. I got D, so I went as a Dalmation. I brough a white top and some long white socks and drew spots on with a marker pen. I also drew black spots all over me with an eyeliner pencil. We had a massive bbq for dinner, with big steaks, potaotes, pasta salad, coleslaw, venison stew and veg. It was awesome. It was good that there was so much food because I drank a lot of wine. A lot. I was very, very drunk. It was ok though because everyone was. It was hilarious. Apparently I struggled quite a lot getting into my bunk. I also lost one of my flip flops, which is very annoying as I now have to buy another pair when I get to Queenstown.

This morning pretty much everyone felt very rough. I felt a bit more human after we stopped at this totally random place called the Bushman's cafe and had a couple of little bacon, mushroom and cheese pies. It had a little museum thing which had the history of deer hunting in New Zealand and also had live possums. Very weird.

Anyway. Toady we arrived in Franz Jospeh. Home of the Franz Jospeh glacier. I'm going hiking on the glacier tomorrow. But today I did a sky dive! It was fantastically terrifying! The weather was fantastic, there wasn't much cloud and you could see for miles. I did it over the fox glacier which is about 20 minutes drive from here. I wasn't scared until it was my turn to get out of the plane. It was a tiny little plane which only two of us could go up in at a time so there was 5 of us crammed into the tiny cockpit (me, Libby, the two guys we were firmly strapped to and the pilot). It was so scary to be hanging out of the plane at 12,000 feet and the first few seconds of the free fall were pretty terrifying. But it was amazing, like the best roller coaster in the world. I spent the whole time either screaming, laughing or giggling. I loved it!!

This evening is going to be pretty chilled out for me. The hostel we are in is very nice and I had a massive bowl of spinach and mushroom pasta for dinner. Perfect hangover cure.