South Island Tour 20th - 23rd Feb

20th Feb - Punakaiki

This morning we will have allowed time to go hiking at Franz Josef. Those who wish can join the guides for a guided hike up onto the ice. This afternoon we continue up the coast stopping at Hokitika where you can visit a greenstone factory, before reaching Punakaiki.

The Franz Joseph Hike was amazing. In the early hours of the morning, as we walking up to the Glacier centre, the sun was just touching the top of the snow covered Franz Joseph glacier making it a very promising sight for climbing on. Getting kitted up was fun as we we were issued with special spiked boot attachments and other necessary ice trekking equipment. The walk to the base of the glacier was deceptively long due to an optical illusion formed by the mountains. Somehow what looked like 500 meters was transformed into a 3 km hike. Once we reached the ice we put on our spiked shoes and began to follow the guide who laboriously cut steps into the ice with an ice pick. Whilst on paper this walk was often overlooked and understated it was an absolute joy to do. my previous experience on MT. Fuji had put me off climbing mountains but digging my feet into the slippery ice seemed to bring back my confidence and pleasure in walking.

To finish the day off we ended up in the quiet isolated village of Punakaiki. We were staying in two beautifully rustic beach houses by the sea next to an equally beautiful pub. After an enjoyable pub dinner on the beach and a somewhat dangerous dip in the ocean (there were ferociously strong currents) most of us took the 30 minute walk to the pancake rocks to watch what was reportedly the best place to watch the sunset. It was truly stunning as my group turned up just in time to see the show. The crash of the waves against the naturally sculptured rocks and sharing a glass of wine with my new friends in the setting sun at the end of the world was just magical.

21st Feb - Nelson

Today we visit the booming blowholes and extraordinary pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, a peculiar rock formation resembling stacks of pancakes. From Punakaiki we travel up the Buller Gorge to Nelson a city of gardens, sunshine, potters, crafts people, vineyards and orchards. The hops for the New Zealand Steinlager beer is also grown in the region.

Most of the day was taken up driving to Nelson and when we finally arrived we were greeted by probably the worst accommodation on the trip. It resembled some kind of prison with whitewash walls and blocks of rooms. It didn't really matter at this stage though as thoughts were beginning to focus on the eventual end of the tour.

After dinner we went to a nearby field for a smashing (literally) game of 'footy'. It was boys against girls and as expected the teams were slightly unbalanced (apologies for any sexism inferred). So I took it upon myself to join the girls team. It was probably my worst decision of the 2 weeks, all of a sudden I was up against all the boys and those rough tough fellows weren't quite as forgiving to me as they were to the female contingent. My good German pal Folke had the ball and I went in for a hard tackle (trying to give as good as I got), I completely missed the ball and a ear deafening crack followed as we both fell to the floor. It was only when someone helped me up and I tried to walk that I felt a prang of pain in my right foot and almost fell again. The game was over for me. I had smashed 3 toes and whilst they didn't appear broken they were incredibly painful. This was very annoying. I spent the rest of the evening in a chair with ice whilst everyone partied the night away. Luckily my good friends Gill, Jens, Richard, Oke Eva and "Katinka" were there to offer support as we had a small poker party in my room. This attracted a little more attention and a few others came over to "dote"on me. So it wasn't all that bad.

22nd Feb - Nelson

Nelson enjoys a reputation for beautiful golden sandy beaches with high sunshine hours and today you are free to relax on the beach or do something a bit more active, perhaps go skydiving, horse riding, kayaking, water skiing or even hiking in the Abel Tasman National Park. This is the last night of the tour together and we will finish with a night on the town.

After 2 weeks of sharing wonderful moments, building bonds and caring for each other we spent our last day... Shooting each other! Paintballing was on the menu and my sprained toes made the experience even more intense. I spent most of the time hiding in bushes or crawling on my stomach, which as it happens wasn't a bad strategy as in the first game I didn't get shot once. A couple of close quarter games soon straightened things out though and in the last game I was well and truly punished. I had found a superb spot in a particularly spiky (and therefore impenetrable) gorse bush. As I took out person after person I inevitably ran out of ammo so following the procedure of raising your arms and walking to the safe zone to restock I moved out of my hiding place. Little did I know that people weren't taking any notice of this procedure anymore as I was pummelled with paintballs from the frustrated red team. Needless to say swear words were yelled as limped to cover as fast as I could. I did forgive them in the end.

And so the final night came. The bus ride to the restaurant was unusually quiet. The food at the pirate themed pub was excellent and the free beer was pretty good too. As the evening progressed awards were handed out to individuals on the tour. I was given a ridiculously red bucket hat due to the fact that I had worn many different hats that at one point or another were stolen by fellow trainees. The thinking behind this gift was that the hat was so ugly that no one would steal it, however by the end of the evening almost every trainee had worn it. We were also called up to do some performance pieces, the highlights being the Germans funny German song and the Canadians "Sexy Tractor" song.

For the final time 40 odd trainees descended into a night club and danced the night away. It was an especially good mix of music and included a song that had been a favourite on the trip and it whipped everyone into a frenzy when the first chords broke through. 'Money For Nothing' by the Dire Straits evoked a kind of madness in us that was released by holding our leg up horizontally in one hand and playing it like a guitar whilst hopping around on the other foot. I am sure it took the other visitors of the club by surprise to se 30 of us performing this crazy spectacle!

All of this dancing and the night wasn't even over. Canadian Gill had a plane to catch at 6 in the morning and for some ridiculous reason some of us "had" to stay awake with her until it came. It seemed to make sense at the time. So at 4 o clock in the morning Mari, Lea, Jeppe and myself busied ourselves by going for a swim in the now much calmer and surprisingly warm ocean. Finally the time came for Gill to leave and was something of a small taster for what the next day would hold as we waved to her until the taxi disappeared around the corner.

23rd Feb - Picton

Today we will travel to Marlborough, one of New Zealand's major wine producing areas. We will visit an award winning vineyard for a tour through the winery followed by a tasting of their wines. We finish the day and the tour in Picton where we will say our farewells in time for the early afternoon sailing to Wellington.

Back to the start. We arrived in Picton, the final destination of the tour and the mood was unfamiliarly down. It may have been for better that I had to rush over to ferry port to try and fight a receptionist to swap some tickets over with a couple of my Danish companions but we had it all worked out in the end. When I came back out to where the coach was, everyone had dispersed and gone their own way. I caught up with a few of them in the waiting lounge and then more on the ferry, but most of us quickly fell asleep. It was a somewhat anticlimactic way to end the tour but I knew I would see most of them again anyway.

When the ferry came into Wellington the group of about 20 of us disintegrated further, catching planes to their farms or jumping on a bus to hostels. Finally myself and Jens were left standing at the port feeling lost. We had apparently missed the only bus into town and so took the depressing 40minute walk through the industrial dock of Wellington along a main road until we came to a hostel. Some trainees were there and told us there was a small gathering in town at a curry restaurant. So we pushed on and walked around for another hour through the busy "pub Street" of Wellington without finding the place (although we did bump into more trainees). In the end we gave up and found a small quiet curry house down a side street. The meal was good and the mood was reflective. Eventually we caught up with everyone, including my good friend Andreas who had faithfully brought my car to me in Wellington. It is most unfortunate that he had to miss the South Island Tour due to a selfish and slave driving boss and was a huge disappointment for most us. Fortunately I will see him again as he is planning to come to England on the 6th of June.

So again, somehow, we partied the night away in Wellington. I say partied but actually we just sat on the sofas of a night club until 3AM and enjoyed each others company. The mood was highly reminiscent of my last night in Japan as there were some final farewells to be made. Mag the lovable Swede was going home as well as Bjorn the equally loveable but slightly more male Swede. Also leaving us was the sweet faced "Katinka" ,actually called Katrine but had earned the nickname due to a Danish song and German boy Oke mispronouncing her name. She was spending the rest of her time back down on South Island. I have a funny feeling I will see her again as a trip to Denmark is now almost inevitable.

The next morning I drove my car back up to central North Island New Zealand with the 3 Germans, Hinnerk, Folke and Jens. They mostly slept and I mostly daydreamed but we all arrived at a local pub of Hinnerk and Folkes and decided we should finish the trip off unofficially with a beer. The landlord was happy to have us as the only patrons of his pub and we regaled him with tales of our adventures down south. When I finally got back to the Nursery I was tired and drained. No one was in the house and very quickly fell asleep. Little did I know that I would be returning to an altogether different Nursery...