West Coast travels! South Island traversed!

Howdie! Well we are now in Wellington, capital of New Zealand and by far the largest place we have visit in this country so far! It was kind of strange actually returning to a city after 3 weeks of small towns and settlements! Nice though, we immediately settled in and went for a chinese!!!! So, what a week we have had travelling up the west coast of the south island...ups and downs definitely....but the lesson realy has been that you can do anything, or make anything right if you just believe! As well as Paragliding and jet boating in Queenstown we also did the Luge....a down hill go kart type thing that goes quite fast!!!! Watch those corners!!! We also visited the Kiwi Bird Park, which was really interesting and a great place to learn about some of New Zealand's native birds, and see some kiwis close up....they really are quite strange!!!! On Tuesday when we came to leave we had our first taste of downs.....we returned to our car to find it had been hit and the tail light and bumper were missing! In true New Zealander style though there was nothing to worry about.....the guy that had done it had given his details to the hostel staff, and was completely happy to claim all responsibility....so off to the dealer to see what they said.....the car was too damaged for us to continue with, so they swapped us for another one no worries. The other driver evencame into the office with us to sort everything....because he did this they were happy he would pay up so luckily they didn't take any of our excess!!! We were relieved!!!! So, but for a few hours delay.....we ended up with a new car (although an older model we preferred it as it was more like the cars we are used too!!!!), and no loss to us at all!!!! ups again! It was then on to Wanaka, which is not too far from Queenstown and holds a huge lake and is the gateway to many mountains! We visited Puzzle World that afternoon and had great fun in 'The World's Funniest Maze' - it was quite humourous......i have wanted to do a big outdoor maze for ages!!! Me and Mark worked really well as a team.....although i found the right way first of course!!!!! hehehehe ;-) It was then indoors for more puzzles and strange sensory mischief! There was a room that was completely tilted, you could do the lean that Michael Jackson does in Moonwalker film without falling over.....it was fab! Did mess with your head a bit though, so we didn't stay long! There was also a room that made you grow and shrink!!!!! We spent the evening at the cinema, the cinema in Wanaka is fab.....it was started by a Scottish man years ago, and is apparently modelled on a cinema in Inverness! You sit on sofas or lounge chairs, or even in the back seat of a VW Beatle, you get fresh homemade cookies and ice cream, and there is an interval half way through!!! It was a great experience! Talking of films we went to see 'The World's Fastest Indian' while in Queenstown.....i would recommend everyone go see it.....it is fab, quite emotional, but feel good!!!! And today in the Welington museum we actually saw the bike on display!!!! Anyway...back to Wanaka.....well we spent Wednesday doing a big hike, but i'll write about that in another blog! The rest of the week was spent heading from Wanaka up to Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers, then from there up to Nelson, where we did a day's sea kayaking in Abel Tasman, before heading on to Picton to catch the ferry across to the North Island! We have had quite an activity filled week....those that know us well would be surprised!!!! (oh and we finally saw Harry Potter!!!!) A little tale that maybe Mark should tell happened while driving the 8 hours from Franz Joseph to Nelson.....but he is not here, so i will tell!!!!.......we got stopped by the police! (and no, we weren't dancing this time!!!) Mark was going 115 in 100 zone.....and a police car caught us and pulled us over.....it was a bit scary....but basically he gave mark a ticket and a fine, but then said, "don't pay this fine, you'll get a reminder at home, just ignore that and you wont hear anything else, just keep the ticket as a souvenir and stay below 110!" phew!!!! I love New Zealand!!!! So, our South Island tour comes to an end....now the North begins!!!!! xxxx PS...we also had a drink in an ice bar, and Mark visited some Roman toilets...complete with Romans - can you spot his school boy error???!!