Southern Hemsiphere...LET'S SEE YA!: 8 - Queenstown to Auckland ...

End of March 2012

While in Queenstown I met up with Isabel and Therese, and I also met Emily and her parents who were over on Holiday. It was so good to see them all :) It's interesting how quickly you consider new friends to be good friends.

So my new friend Eve left Queenstown (and Lizz was absolutely broken hearted, they had spent the last 10 months together!) and then I left to continue my Stray travels.

I headed down South, visiting Invercargill, Bluff, Te Anau, Gunns Camp in the Hollyford Valley and the incredibly beautiful Milford Sound.

Milford sound is possibly my highlight so far. Words and pictures just don't do it justice.

I stayed in an awesome place called Gunns Camp in the cutest little building, It reminded me of a farm house from the 1940's ... It was almost enough for me to whip the red lippie out :)

After my Southern loop I headed back to Queenstown for a night and Stayed with Lizz, who was all settled with a job and a house, only to carry on my trip back up the East coast of the south Island, and eventually back to Auckland.

On the way up I stopped at Mount Cook (which I never actually saw due to the clouds!), Rangitata, Christchurch, Kaikoura, Wellington, Taupo and Rotorua.

In Wellington I bumped into Andrea, my boss from the bar in Stratford. We had a wander around together and a good catch up. I spent St. Paddys night in Wellington, with 2 dutch boys, first at a rugby game and then in the bars. I had such a great time with them.

In Rototrua I met up with a gentleman that I had met previously on Stray, and we went for a yummy dinner. Everyone is in the same boat, and so you're never short of company hsould you want it.

The amount of people you meet and bump into is weird! New Zealand has a small population anyway, and the route of travellers is often the same, so it's no surprise really, but it's still weird when it happens!

I met some wonderful people on this leg of my journey, and generally just had a fabulous time seeing more of New Zealand.

I had a couple of nights in Christchurch, which was a really great city. They are definitely making the best of a bad situation, and I learnt a lot from the local museum.

What a whirlwind few weeks that was!

I got back up to Auckland on 21st March, and checked into a hostel. Adam had travelled down to Auckland from the Northland, so I waited for him at the hostel. It was so so so exciting to see him again!

I also met up with Therese and Cate from Paihia which was also lovely :)

So after a couple of nights in Auckland it was time to pack my bag for Thailand.....