G'Day!!

So I left you on my last afternoon in Queenstown. That night went out for beers with a very nice Canadian man called Dave and we had lots of fun in the Buffalo bar (which with 2 for 1 on beers was fairly unavoidable!). Didn't bother calling Paul (brother-in-law's uncle) before I left which ended up being a mistake because on the Saturday morning I got up bright and early (which was a struggle after 2 for 1 beers in the Buffalo bar), got on a bus headed for Lawrence where I was met by Paul who had planned for us to go back to Queenstown! So I got in his car and headed straight back to Queenstown! Was planning that day to do my bungy jump at A.J. Hacketts original bungy jump place but they were full I so I booked "The Ledge" instead where you bungy off the side of the mountain! Slightly differently as well, you don't have your feet attached to the bungy cord and fall forward, instead you wear a harness and have to take a running jump off the platform - which I must say took some nerve but was well worth the scariness!!
From there Paul and I went to visit Tinker one of his friends who is a fireman in Queenstown where I got a guided tour of the fire station and got to sit in a firetruck and try on some fireman's gear and everything!
The following day we headed down to Invercargill where we went for a drive along the beach. Fortunately Paul's truck has 4-wheel drive as the sand which for the most part was quite firm suddenly became very soft which could have had disastrous consequences! For those of you that know him I'm sure you can imagine quite what Paul's language was like at this point!!
The next day we went to Bill Richardson's Transport Museum which holds a huge collection of vintage tractors, trucks, petrol pumps and other such memorabilia. It was amazing - not something I would normally have done but it was really fascinating. From there we got on a very small (8-seater) plane and headed over to Stewart Island. Whilst noisy (propellers - obviously) it was a great flight and the colour of the sea was amazing - as is the colour of virtually every body of water in NZ! Once on Stewart Island we went for a walk to the Lighthouse which had been described to us as "well worth the visit". Not entirely sure how bad the rest of the sights are in Stewart Island but the Lighthouse turned out to be a bulb on a stick!! So fortunately the walk was nice, the fact that it started pouring down with rain on the walk back so that we got absolutely drenched may mean that I wouldn't necessarily recommend the Lighthouse as a place to go! That night we mingled with the locals so that getting up the next morning to fly back to South Island was particularly difficult for Paul (who had fallen into the trap of having whiskeys with the locals - at which point I allowed Jan - another tourist in the bar - to pull me over to the juke box to avoid the whiskey!) but slightly less difficult for me.
When we got back to South Island - after a very bumpy ride this time -we headed up to Te Anau which was very pretty and then headed back towards Lawrence stopping off at Gore for an absolutely fantastic 20 minute ride on a Tiger Moth Series 1 (rare plane!). It was amazing and my pilot was an Aerobatics champion and so we did barrel rolls and loop-the-loops and all sorts! It was just brilliant. And I might be famous from it as they took pictures of my flight which may end up in their calender for next year!!
From there we headed back to Paul's house in Lawrence ready for the start of the vintage truck rally round South Island which Paul was taking part in and I was cadging a lift for part of. Paul has a 1974 Scania 80 which has no heating, seat belts etc. but fortunately whilst I was with him did actually work (he broke down the day after I left him!!). Our first stop was back in Christchurch where we stayed with his friends Viv and Simon who are Brits who moved out to NZ about 3 years ago and along with them being very lovely what I found great was that they kept their house absolutely baking hot which given that it was cold travelling in the lorry was good!!
From Christchurch we headed round to Nelson and the first night we were there there was a festival going on where people were all dressed up and wearing masks which was lots of fun, and there were bands playing in the square. The following day we took part in a vintage truck run up to Puponga and Farewell spit. Some of the older trucks really struggled up the hills to get there but we all made it in the end! And I might be famous again as they took photos of us all to put in the local paper!
The next day, Paul went off to another vintage vehicle museum but I headed into Nelson and had a bit of a mooch round. Then in the evening we had a formalish dinner to celebrate the Nelson leg of the Truck Rally which was great fun.
Monday I headed back to Christchurch ready for my flight out to Australia and Paul headed down the west coast of South Island where he ended up having snow, and then the truck broke down! I decided at that point that the terrible weather we'd had pretty all the time I'd been in South Island couldn't possibly be my fault as I had lovely sunshine on my trip down the east coast of South Island and it was really hot the last morning I spent in Christchurch.
But then I came to Australia.
Which had 34 degrees on the morning of the day I was coming here.
But by the time I got here, the temperature had dropped 15 degrees so it was only 19 degrees at the point I arrived.
And it's no warmer today and it even - you guessed it - started raining this afternoon!
Unbelievable! But I have high hopes for it getting warmer and at least the drop in temperature and the rain means it helps them put the fires out around the city!!
So I plan to give details of wonderfully warm weather in my next post. Fingers crossed!!

NZ needs to discover the joys of central heating!

When I left you last I was headed to Taupo. I arrived in Taupo safely and got picked up and taken to the hostel by a cute guy named John and the hostel I stayed in was great, really friendly. I had originally planned to go to Napier when I left Taupo but I picked up some kind of chesty cough in Pahia and as I'd not been able to clear it I decided to miss Napier out and stay an extra night in Taupo to take it easy. That worked for the first day but then I kept seeing people coming back from doing sky-dives and saying how brilliant it had been and so I booked a sky-dive for my second day! So sensible me, threw myself out of a plane at 12,000 ft strapped to a guy called Greg (who was the current NZ sky-dive champion) and then did a freefall to earth for about 7,500 ft before (fortunately!) the parachute opened and we drifted gently back to the ground. It was amazing and fortunately the weather was really clear so got great views. Not so great was the fact that the only cloud that was present was covering the volcano that had erupted two days previously so didn't get to see that from the sky but the rest of it was amazing.
From Taupo I headed down to Wellington and stayed with my friend Amanda and her partner Duncan. Was really good to see them and I got to sleep in my own room in a double bed and use proper towels and everything (Nic you were so right about getting fed up with your travel towel!!). That night they had friends round so lots of good food and wine later meant the next day we woke up with sore heads and so we did a gentle tour of Wellington and the surrounding areas in the car then went to Te Papa museum which lived up to all the good reviews I've heard about it.
As I've not really had any extreme weather for a while, that all changed when the next day I had to get the ferry from North Island to South. Winds were gusting at around 100 kph and there was a severe weather warning in place for the Cook Straits which was due to hit round lunchtime that day (luckily after I had crossed) and so I dosed myself up on sea sickness tablets, avoided breakfast in an effort to get through what ended up - bizarrely - as being one of the smoothest journeys I've ever had on a boat! But I'm not complaining!
Once in South Island I headed down to Christchurch to my friend Colette's house and stayed with her, Billy and their daughter Olivia for the night (again had the double bed, own room and towel thing. So spoilt!). The next day I got the West Coast Shuttle over to Greymouth with the lovely driver Cedric and as we crossed Arthur's Pass the views were unbelievably pretty. Although the weather again had been meant to be terrible it ended up being really sunny, until we got through the pass and then the rain started. And other than for one day it hasn't stopped since! And it's cold on South Island. I got to the stage of 5 layers including 2 fleeces and thermals!
Only stayed in Greymouth for the night because my buses didn't work out for me to leave on the same day and then headed straight for Franz Josef where I did a half day walk on the Glacier. It was the only good day we've had here in a week and boy did it make the walk amazing. Got kitted up in the most uncomfortable boots and spikes but it was so worth it when you got quite high up. The ice was so blue (from the oxygen trapped in it apparently) and it was worth every penny doing it (even if my legs are aching so much from it can barely walk at the moment - am doing a great John Wayne impression!).
Had planned from Franz Josef to travel to Wanaka for a night but due to more severe rain there had been a massive landslide into a river causing the formation of a new lake which is about ready to burst its banks and flood the area that I had to travel to to get to Queenstown so instead I travelled to Queenstown a day early to avoid getting stuck and I am here now. Sitting at a computer which had views over mountains that currently have their tops covered in cloud because yet again it is raining! I did see though that Sydney has 34 degrees at the moment though so only about 9 more days of cold to endure!
Tomorrow I travel to Lawrence where my brother-in-law's Uncle lives (get that?!) and will stay with him for a few days so will tell you all about my adventures with Paul soon!