South Island and Christmas

First, I'd like to appologice for not having updated a bit earlier, but my computer had a small breakdown as soon as I got home. Luckily my dad is a very good I.T. Supporter, and knew exactly what to do, so I am now up and running again :)

My Christmas was a bit different this year. We had about 25 degrees, a lot of sun, and a nice BBQ in the evening. We had to do our presents the 24 in the afternoon. Because we were going to the South Island at 11 in the morning, and we wouldn't have time to do it in the evening, because we were invited to a BBQ at some of our friends. So instead my Christmas was more like I am used to, than I thought it would be.
ps. I got a new skateboard (k2), 3  new t-shirts, some nice lollies from Denmark, about $300 and 2 scratching calendars, which I unforturnately didn't win anything from.

25. we started our journey to the south (The Hobbit reference). We went on a ferry to Picton, and then continued onwards to Kaikoura. The people we had booked the trip from, had made an error, so the motel we stayed at thought we would only be 4, but we managed to fit 2 extra people in our room. For dinner we went to a nice restourant for our Christmas feast, and got ham. After dinner we went to the beach, where Joe and I went for a swim. The waves there are incredibly big, and not very user friendly, as the beat you up, and the drag you outwards. We survived though.

26. We went to Christchurch, where we tried to swim with dolfins, unforturnately we couldn't find any that seemd interrested in us, but we did find a few fishing, and got a cookie and hot chokolate (most expensive cookie and hot chokolate I've ever had though ($95))

27. we went to Wanaka, which is about 1 hour from Queenstown. The first day we just stayed there, and had a little look at the nice town. Once again, we went for a swim, and swam in the completely black water at night (I was panicking a bit, because I couldn't see anything in the water, yet felt the seaweed and knew it was more than 3 meters deep)
We stayed here for 3 nights. The 2. day we went to Queenstown. We went on the Louge, which is kinda like gocart, but down hill and only powered by gravity. It was really fun, and we got 2 extra tickets from a couple just as we were on our way in.
3. day we went to River Sledging. Where you are on a thing that looks a bit like a surf board cut in half, and then flow down a river with 5 rapids, and some really cool waves. I fell into a hole where to waves met eachother, and pushed the water down, and I was under water for 7 seconds, acording to our Swedish guide. We were on the river for 11 km, with some good speed, and a few realixing parts, to take a breath.
4. day, our final day, where we continued to the Fox glacier. But first I had to do my 3. and possibly last bungy jump. 134 m highwire, at 09:30 in the morning. Bungy Jump Link. I have never tried anything as awesome as that. 8.5 seconds fall, and when it pulls you up again, it feels like a whole new jump, before you have to release your own feet. I am now ready to go on the worlds highest, 350m in USA.

We were a bit disapointed at Fox Glacier. Our rooms where really bad, and we were really not satisfied, and the fact that the weather was horrible too, didn't make it any better. In fact, the next day is was so bad, that we decided not to go to the glacier. Which turned out to be extremely lucky. The next day my dad read the news, saying that there had been giant floods all over in that area, and if we had stopped to look at the glacier, we would have been trapped in it.

We then went to a small town which I can't recall the name of. Here the rooms were also quite bad, but not as bad as in Fox. We were supposed to go on some Black Water Rafting, which is River rafting, but underground, the next day in the morning before going to Abel Tasman. But the weather was again so bad, that we decided not to go on that either. Which again ended up being a lucky choise. 'cause just a few hours after we were gone from the area, the floods arrived there too. In fact, 40m of a bridge we drove over, was missing, because of the enormous amounts of water. We stopped to decide if we wanted to have a look at a very large bridge, but no one really felt like it. If we had done that, we would have been stuck in the floods.

Abel Tasman was nice though. We had a really nice flat at our motel, really nice weather, and a lot of optimism. We went to see the Split Rock, about 100 meters off shore. We swam out there, and after a lot of painfull kicks on really big rocks underwater. We got to the rock, and my sister took some good pictures of us. The rest of the day was just realaxation. I watched a few movies on my laptop, along with some salt and vinegar crisps, and tried to take care of my sore feet.

The last day we were on our way home. We slept for a long time, because we didn't have to get out of the motel untill 12 o'clock. We then proceded to Picton to go back on the ferry, and onwards home. We arrived back home at 12 in the evening, and we were all REALLY tired.

So that sums up our nice little trip to the South Island and my Christmas. 

I have now had a really relaxing day, filled with cartoons

I'm out :)