BKK --> NZ

We got our bus for Kanchanaburi and met an Irish guy called Mike and arranged to meet for drinks later on as this would probably be the last time we drank in a while :-(. We had a great night from what we can remember and woke up to find pictures of ourselves eating crickets and drinking more buckets....The next day we headed to the local shopping centre were Mike picked up a camera for the start of his travels and we wished we were starting again with him! We had tea that night and ha an early one as the next day we were going to the biggest market in the world apparently! The following day the market was insane and the heat was almost unbearable but we managed to get a few bargains for NZ and some souvenirs. That night we met Mike again and th days were going faster than we thought possible. The next day we packed our bags and sorted our tickets then watched the cinema to see the Avengers which was a surprisingly nice change of scenery. Once again the Thai patriotism surprised us by the whole cinema standing to the national anthem before the film started. That night we got the best sleep we could as the next days journey would be the hardest we'd done to date! 1 bus and 3 trains later we made it to the airport and were checking in our backpacks hoping we'd see them again at the other end. Our flights with Emirates were great both planes were empty so you could have four seats each and the transfer in Sydney was great. Despite the flights we hadn't had much sleep between us and the two hour drive to Lake Tekapo was hard going! Didnt really help that when we got there, there had been a power outage and we went to bed cold and hungry :-(

Scenery at Milford Sounds

Milford Sounds

The jet lag had different ideas and we were both still awake at 4:30am! We got our stuff packed up when Ben said where are the passports?? Then a horrible feeling struck and we realized we had left them in the hire car and we were about to get on a bus and head ten hours the wrong way with no way to pick them up! We would just have to phone the rental place when they opened...After arriving in Milford Sounds which is meant to be  one of the nicest places in the whole of NZ and it was beautiful! Ice capped mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and the bluest lakes, some of the nicest landscape we have ever seen!! We got lots of pics but unfortunately for us (which is a common occurrence for us in NZ by the way) the river cruise had been cancelled through a boat fault for the first time ever! We weren't really that bothered because with having no sleep we were pretty tired anyway and the four hour journey back we managed to get some zeds in :-) We got some supplies from the local shop and had Spaghetti bolognaise for tea which was yummy! We got some drinks and chilled out with everyone else in the hostel after a long day!

Our Open Spa Bath with the stars!

Queenstown

After sleeping a night in the cold dark cabin we woke at 3a.m. because we couldnt handle the cold. We cooked up some noodles as we were still on Thai time, packed our stuff and waited until 6a.m. to go the supermarket and get some breakie. We bought the essentials and went home to have eggs and soldiers which was long awaited after months of rice. We left the cabins and went to see Lake Tekapo which was beautiful! We continued onto queenstown and had a quiet night as we still hadnt recovered from the Jet lag.The next morning we had to take the car back so the little Getz had a good send off and we decided to do the 5 mile walk home along the Lake for a bit of exercise which was very scenic! That night we had booked ourselves in for a spa bath with a view of the stars lit by candles which was going to be pretty romantic! It was lovely and the bath was nice and warm! You could see the mountains and stars and it was a crystal clear night! Perfect! We got home and cooked upto pizza for tea  and chilled out again in the night because the next day we were headed for Milford Sounds at 7:30am!

On the road again in NZ

BKK - - > NZ

We got our bus from Kanchanaburi and met an Irish guy called Mike and arranged to meet for drinks later on as this would probably be the last time we drink in a while :-(. We had a great night from what we can remember and woke up to find pictures of ourselves eating crickets and drinking more buckets than necessary...The next day we headed to the local shopping center were Mike picked up a camera for his travels and we wished we were starting again with him! We had tea that night and had an early one as the next day we were going to the biggest market in the world apparently! The following day the market was insane and the heat was almost unbearable but we managed to get a few bargains for NZ and some souvenirs. That night we met up with Mike again and the days were going faster than we'd wanted :-(. The next day we packed our bags and sorted our tickets then went the cinema to see the Avengers which was a surprisingly nice change of scenery. Once again the Thai patriotism surprised us by the whole cinema standing to the national anthem before the film started! That night we got the best sleep we could as the next days journey would be a hard one 3 trains and a bus to the airport. When we made it to the airport we checked our bags in hoping we would see them again in NZ! Our flights with Emirates were great we had to get a plane to Sydney then transfer on another one to Christchurch and both planes were empty giving us 4 seats each! :-D. Despite the flights we didn't get too much sleep and picked up our Hire car (which was the exact same as Gems back home) and done the two hour drive to Lake Tekapo which turned out to be a hard one! Didn't really help that when we got there there had been a power outage and they couldn't remember the last one they'd had in town! The whole place was in darkness so we got into our dark cold cabin beds and went straight to sleep!