First few days of OZ!

Australia made a good first impression from the beginging, firstly there were no earthquakes, which is always a positive start, but the main reason for the good first impression was that i got upgraded on my flight over. I got upgraded to premium economy, it was no first class but i got some extra leg room, a free bar, tv and games so it was a fun 4 hour flight.

When i arrived in Melbourne, it was around 7pm but it was still 26 degrees (i could tell i was going to have a better summer than i had in the UK! I stayed in a hostel about 20mins from the centre by the beach which was really goood and had a great bar.

I only spent one night in Melbourne because i was shipped off to a town called Bendigo by the volunteers, its about 150km away from Melbourne. I spent the weekend there which was quite fun (it may not be as big as Melbourne but it had a good nightlife and the weather was always in the high 20's.

Just as i was settling in Bendigo, i was shipped off again to another town where i currently am, which i think is called shipton but i'm not quite sure. I go back to Bendigo for weekends and will spend every other week working there. Yesterday was my first day of work, we went to a primary school who had a lot of land, but not the man power tp manage it and helped them construct a garden that they could easily manage with a bit of effort. It was very different to working in New Zealand, mainly because the first thing we were told was to beware of spiders and snakes, when walking in long grass. That got me worried a bit, i've only seen a lizard so far. Today we were trying to restore some old forrest land and planted around 400 trees. Its extremely tiring working in 28 degree heat but i'm still having fun!

This weekend (halloween) i'm going back to Melbourne to stay with a few friends for the weekend, they will be the first people from back home that i've seen in a few months so it will be good.

Week Off Day 4 & 5, Franz Joseph

On the first of these two day we spent on a bus from queenstown, stopping at various places on the way. We got the our hostel (the rainforest retreat) which as you can imagen was in the middle of rainforest area. We arrived in the evening and there was nothing really for us to do, so we entered a rock, paper, scissors competition in the hostel pub. Unfortunatly i didn't win and felt a bit robbed.

Our second day was a bit more interesting though, we had booked a full day hike up the Franz Joseph Glacier. It's an awesome glacier and one of the only 3 in the world that goes from an alpine region and ends up in a rainforest area. Unforunatley for us though we were unable to get any pictures because it was either throwing it down or hailing for the entire day. When putting it like that it does not sound very good, but the ice was alot bluer as all the dirt had been washed off. But it was epecially good because the rain and hail caused avalanched. We saw 5 in total, one of which was especially big and heard another avolanch whilst we were climbing through a 30 metre deep cravas (that was a bit of a hairy moment). The hike consisted of climbing through many deep cravases, some of which were extremely tight to squeeze through and also a few ice caves. I wanted to get a helicopter to the top of the glacier but unfortunatly was dinied again due to the weather being too bad. To make up for this we went to the glacial hot pools, they was located in rainforest with 3 open air pools, one 36 degrees, one 38 degrees and another 40 degrees. It was very relaxing and we spent a long time there before heading to the bar.

Week Off Day 3, Queenstown

Today is our last day in Queenstown before heading off to Frans-Joseph and then making our way back to Christchurch to catch a plane to Melbourne. This morning we went jetboating on the shotover jetboat. The boat travels up to 85km an hour through a very narrow gorge, it could go through water 4inches deep. It was a bit hairy at time and i did thing we were going to crash into the cliff face at one point but the driver was very skilled and pulled a few 360 degree turns.

In the afternoon we went to the Kawarau bridge bungie jump which was the first Bungie jump attraction in the world. You jumped off the middle of the bridge above the river and had the option of dunking your head in the water during the jump. I did this and managed to take a mouthfull of water. Once you have finished bouncing you're lowered onto a raft to get you back onto dry land.



I've just been in Queenstown gardens for a cheeky game of frizbee golf (just like regular golf, except you have to get your frizbee into a basket in par. We're going to the bar now for our last few drinks in Queenstow; i'll definatley be coming back in the near future. There is so much more i need to do here but not enought time.

Week off Day 2, Milford Sound

Yesterday, we took a bus tour to Milford Sound and a cruise once we arrived. It was an amazing place and well worth the visit, the coach also had a glass roof so we got a good view of everything. The cruise was especially good and we saw some fur seals and blue penguins in one of the coves.

I wanted to get a helicopter flight back to queenstown which would have given me a completely different view and would have landed on one of the glaciers. I couldn't do it though as the flight was fully booked, i was a bit gutted but it means that i can spend the $600 i saved on other things :)

When we arrived back in queenstown we hit the town.

Week Off Day 1, Queenstown

This week i get a break from work to explore and do what i want before going to OZ. We got dropped off by the volunteers in Queenstown and spent the day wandering around in the 26 degree heat which was a change from the cold and rain. We went up the gondola were we go a awesome view over Queenstown, and also had a few rides on the ludge.

We've got a few activities book and the bank balance is decreasing dramatically, its all good though. The bars in Queenstown are also very good, we've tried quite a few out.

Week 6, Southland

My last week of work. We spent last week at Sinclair wetlands and the weekend in the Catlins. Our last week was in Southland; on our way form Owaka to Southland, we made various stops on the way, many of which were waterfalls. One of the waterfalls was New Zealands very own Niagara falls. Not quite as good as the real thing.
We also visited nuget point in Okowa. Apparently you can see whales and penguins of the coast but sods law meant that we saw nothing but sea and seals.

This week we have been working in Waituna wetlands which in Maori, means WaterEel wetlands. We've spent most of the week planting trees, but have also been wading to catch some native fish in one of the rivers. We caught some trought, eel and fresh water cray fish. We've also been weeding and maintaining the footpaths around the wetlands. Our most inportant job this week was building a toilet in the wetlands for the 'Tourists'.

This week i have a week off and i'm spending the majority of my week in Queenstown. I've got alot of activities booked including one bungie jump. It's going to be a good week!

Week 5 (Otago/ Owaka)

This week we have been back in Sinclair wetlands. It was different from the last time we were down here, firstly because it had been hot an sunny all week as opose to heavy downpours and secondly, we did some very different work. We did all the usual stuff like planting and weeding, but this time, Johnny (the manager, who helped up out) took us to help with tailing some of his lambs, which was fun and also to slaughter some of his sheep. Only half of us went to do this because the other half of the group chickened out. I personall helped skin one of the sheep and we brought back the heart and liver for the rest of the volunteers, it didn't go down very well. Personally i didn't enjoy it either but i didn't let on.

We are travelling to Southland for next week and decided to stay for the weekend in the Catlins at Owaka. There is a beach right next to our accomodation but its a bit cold for swimming. We also went to Nugget Point today where you can supposidly see penguins and whales of the coast, we wern't so lucky, only managed to see some seals and got caught on the ridge in a hail storm. All in all, a good week. I think the warm weather is on its way.

Last day in Punakaiki

Last night was our official last night at the pub so we went a bit over the top on the drinks. We had a few games of pool and kept the pub open for a few more hours than normal.
As expected, we were unable to get out of bed for half of today, but when we did manage to get up we decided once again to go to the Truman track. When we were in the pub, Chippy (one of the locals) told us about a cave a few coves along the beach, with some maori aftifacts in them. It was a struggle to get there as we had to do some rock climbing, walk through some bush and sqeeze ourselfs in a few tight spots.To make it even more difficult we had to time it right so we wouldn't get stranded by the tide.

I was hoping to get an early night tonight because we have to get up at 6am tomorrow to go to Otago. That plan went out the window because there was a rugby league final on so naturally we had to go to the pub to watch it, anyway its a 12 hour drive tomorrow so there'll be chance to sleep in the minibus!