South of the south Island

The Kiwi Experience bus route seemed to have me shifting around the island at lightning speed so decided to hop off for a while and hire a car with some friends off the bus who also wanted to slow down a bit. We did a four day tour of the south island below Queenstown, driving over to Dunedine then following the southern scenic route round the bottom of New Zealand taking in some spectacular coastline and scenery.

Nevis Bungy..

Would like to say I jumped gracefully with perfect form but that would be lying... still it was over 130m high so think I can be excused. Was quality, apart from the first what felt like ages but was prob a few seconds where I've never being so scared in my life. Tried to shout something but nothing came out & it was around this time where my arms took a mind of ther own and started flapping all over. Finally recovered some composure and straightened my arms out but think the drop was basically over by this point. Was an unbelievable experience going through so many emotions in literally a number of seconds.

Queenstown

Queenstown is the adventure centre of New Zealand where you can do anything from bungy jumping, jet boating, mountian biking, skydiving etc to the more relaxed walking or just exploring the cafes and bars. Out of everywhere I've visited so far Queenstown has the liveliest nightlife so theres quite a lot of people around and things going on.
Queenstown is situated right on Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by mountains with the remarkables being the most prominent which are a skying area in winter. The town during the day is very relaxed and picturesque especially on the water front.

Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka is a 100 or so km to the north of Queenstown and we stopped off there for a night on the way to the latter.

Skydive over Mount Cook and Fox Glacier

Did my first ever skydive and it was amazing! Apart from obviously being a bit nervous the whole thing wasn't that bad. Think being attached to someone you know is very experienced and has done thousands of jumps helps, as well as the fact its all pretty sureal. Don't think it ever really sinks in whats going on until you've actually fallen out of the plane and you see it flying away as you spin around. By then its too late and you accept whats happening and start to enjoy it. Got to say what the freefall is one of the most excilarating things I've ever felt. Think for a second I was actually disappointed when the parachute opened!
The flight alone was almost worth the admission fee, taking off from a field near the west coast the plane loops over Fox Glacier and the southern alps, including getting alongside and level with the peak of Mount Cook and Tasman the tallest mountains in New Zealand. Think the spectacular views helped to distract me from the approaching fall.

Franz Josef

Went on a glacier hike on Franz Josef Glacier.

Lake Mahinapua

Stayed at a pub on Lake Mahinapua in the middle of nowhere.

Westport

The trip over to Westport stopped off at the Nelson Lakes which were gorgeous and surrounded by mountains on all sides. Then on the way to Westport I decided to do a jet boat ride which was great. The boat was really manuvrable and was doing 360 spins and getting really close to rocks before sharply turning away. Was a bit hairy but good fun.
Westport itself was pretty quiet and as it was Easter weekend most places were shut and it was really quiet.

Nelson & Abel Tasman National Park

After dropping people off at Picton to get the ferry to the north island and picking up people coming the other way, as well as a stop off at a winery for some tasting, we arrived at nelson. From there I went on a day trip to the Abel Tasman National Park and did some sea kayaking. The views round the coast were great, with lots of bays and golden sandy beaches with rainforest rising behind up the hills, plus we saw seals and some bottle noised dolphins swam straight past us. At one point a bigger seal surfaced near us with a large squid in its mouth trying to tear it by jerking its head and throwing it about.
The scenery was magnificient and the kayaking fun around the bays. The only down side is when you actually have to travel any distance to get to the next area. My arms were killing by the end of the day!!

Kaikoura swimming with dusky dolphins

Decided to get around New Zealand using the kiwi experience, more of a group organised tour than I've done so far so thought it might be interesting to see what it was like.
First stop after leaving Christchurch was Kaikoura a few hours drive north. This is a popular location for whale watching and swimming with dolphins and seals. Decided to go for the swimming with dusky doplphins in the end after hearing what other people have said about it. Glad I did as it was quality. Didn't know how many to expect but when we set off in the boat under 10minutes later we has sighted what seemed like hundreds of dolphins in a pod. Saw the little hector dolphins in Akoroa which were in a small group of half a dozen or so but this was something else. The guides worked out which way the pod was heading then overtook them in the boat before slowing down to let us jump in the sea. All of a sudden the pod reaches you and dozens of dolphins swim past and under you. At the induction we were told to sing or make noises through the snorkels and swim funny so everyone swam off making wierd noises. The first few times the dolphins slowed and swam around a bit looking at us but then swam off. Then one time after we had got the idea of what to do the dolphins started paying more interest. If you looked one in the eye as it stopped to look at you and then span around as fast as you could they would swim around you getting faster and faster. One time one went around me loads getting more excited then viered away from me before turning suddenly around and swimming full pelt striaght at me. I absolutley bricked it thinking I'd annoyed it and it was going to ram me but then last second, a metre away, it viered off. Turned out it was just playing but gave me a fright!! If you dived underwater too a few dolphins would suddenly appear and swim down with you. The whole experience was pretty amazing.

Akaroa & the Banks Peninsula

New Zealand - Christchurch