New Zealand- The Kiwi Experience- The South Island

The south island Kiwi Experience crew

With the North island completed we boarded the ferry in Windy Wellington and sailed on towards the south island. It was here we met our new travel pal Elliott. I am a huge fan of reality tv. The Only Way is Essex, The Hills, Geordie Shore, Made in Chelsea. You name it. I love them. This young English chap was the image of Made in Chelsea's Spencer Mathews. Of course we thought this was great and the jokes began. He became a bit of a mini celeb around the place.
I felt there was quite a difference between the north and south island. The north island was beautiful with much of its scenery similiar to Ireland. Only, it had better weather! The south island on the other hand had images almost like they were paintings, but they were real. The natural beauty of the south island is just phenomenal.
When in New Zealand you kind of get that feeling of, where is everybody? It's very relaxed. In actual fact they're are only 800,000 people on the entire south island. The Kiwi's are very protective of their environment. I can honestly say that throughout the four weeks I was travelling NZ I did not enter one dirty bathroom, never seen any toilet without toilet roll nor any rubbish on the ground. Anywhere! A lot of people could take a leaf out of the kiwi's lifestyle book and it definitely reflects in their positive outlook.

Myself and 'Spencer' lookalike Elliott

The first night we stayed in a place called Ki teriteri. This is located on a beach and there is a nice little walk to do here. There was a pub beside our hostel and we went in there for a few drinks. To our disappointment the bar closed at 11 so we had to prematurely head to bed that night. The following day we drove on to our next destination, funnily enough called Westport. That night we had a BBQ cooked by Cam our bus driver and some of the other guys from the bus. We had a few drinks and then relaxed in the sitting room. For some reason everyone went to bed really early that night so we had the sitting room to ourselves. Myself, Ann and Tisha found some old VIDEOS ( I haven't used that word in quite some time) and we stuck on Ali G. I had forgotten how funny he was. We laughed and laughed. What a show!!
On to Franz Josef. It was the 17th of March. This meant one thing. Paddy's day! We stopped off on the way and we got our green tshirts, flags etc. After a quick shower in our hostel we headed over to the hostels bar. In fairness they had gone all out!! The whole place was covered in green. Even the pints were green. Irish tunes were being blasted out all night. The atmosphere was electric and other people from the Kiwi Experience bus from all over the globe, no matter what nationality they were, were keen to get in on the celebrations. We had people dressed in green from Canada, California, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, ENGLAND, Wales, France, Denmark etc. It was probably the best Paddy's Day I've ever had. It's certainly one I will never forget. It's amazing to think that our country is so widely celebrated all over the world. Awh, it's good to be Irish!!
Franz Josef hosts a 12km long glacier. This is one of the biggest tourist attractions on the west coast of New Zealand's south island. We were due to be brought by helicopter to this glacier the day after Paddy's day however due to weather conditions, we did not get to do it. We were a little disappointed however, I suppose google images is a great thing! :) The five girls from our original group (who were travelling a few days behind us) were lucky that the weather was on their side and they got to climb the glacier.

Paddy's Day in Franz Josef

Susan, Graham (Congrats on your engagement guys x) and Ann

Franz Josef Helicopter

After a brilliant time in Franz Josef we were off again to Wanaka. We spent one night here in base hostel and we had a really fun evening. They had a bar downstairs. The drink was fairly cheap and they had competitions throughout the night. The first competition we had was musical chairs and everyone was going hell for leather at this, the next one was the lads having to imitate the "Call on Me" video and the third was a challenge to see who could get the most items of clothes on them at once. The three winners then went on stage in a final decider. The decider being the person who could make the best orgasm noise would win a bunji jump in Queenstown. My God! Lets just say I was glad I was eliminated in the early stages of musical chairs!!!
We arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand's adventure capital the following day. New Zealand is home of the world's first commercial bungee jump, created by A.J. Hackett. One of the talking points of Queenstown amongst backpackers is the Nevis Bungee Jump. This bungee jump is 134m and is not for the faint hearted. I didn't do it, because I am faint hearted :) . It is the third highest bungee platform in the world. A trip to Fergburger is a must whilst staying in Queenstown. The queues are out the door and up the street with backpackers eagerly awaiting the famous burger.

Us three with Oliver, Michael and Gareth

Shots with Mr. San Fran Michael

Gareth, Harry, Ed and Ann

Harry and Graham in  our Queenstown hostel

Photo bombing Mel!!

Queenstown is easily the nicest town I have ever been in. It's scenery is so beautiful that you would actually think you were looking at a painting. It's just surreal. The night life is brilliant and there is a great buzz about the place. It's a hard place to leave. But for us three, time was pushing on. Our flight was leaving New Zealand on the 24th of March. We only had two nights there but one could easily stay in Queenstown for two weeks. There's just so much to do.
We got back on the Kiwi Experience bus and headed north to an isolated place called Lake Tekapo. Here, myself and Tisha left our hostel at 11pm and joined the local Earth and Sky Night-time observatory tour group. I have loved gazing at the stars from a young age. Ever since Daddy taught me how to recognise the plough and how to find the North Star. I was delighted to get this opportunity. We were brought out to a field in the middle of nowhere by bus. I have to say our tour guide was excellent. It was so refreshing to see someone so passionate about their job. He had two huge telescopes and it was amazing to see Mars and Saturn through these. Even though it was FREEZING out there, it was well worth it and I loved it.

Getting a lift with a local cop in Christchurch

Randomly meeting David in Christchurch

Mirror lakes

Final night in Christchurch in The Bog Bar

Our last NZ destination was Christchurch. This place was in bits. The three of us had friends from home working in Christchurch. As we only had one night there, we asked anyone we knew to come in to meet us in The Bog Bar. (An Irish bar of course). It was great to see them all there and everyone doing so well, so far away from home. We had to be up early to catch a domestic flight back to Auckland. Our Kiwi Experience had come to an end. What a wonderful experience it was. I made brilliant friends who still entertain me with their regular snapchats and I'm sure I will see them again. I would recommend The Kiwi Experience to anyone thinking about travelling New Zealand. Their website is www.kiwiexperience.com .
The New Zealand chapter had now closed. It was time to open the next one. One of my besties from home, Aoife Campbell had been living in Sydney since November 2013. I was only delighted to have her with me as I entered my Australian experience. Queue Stratton's Hotel. Little did I know what lied ahead. Stay tuned folks.

xoxo