Greymouth to Nelson

Greymouth to Nelson

On our way through to Nelson we stopped at some cool places, One of them was Pancake Rocks.

Pancake Rocks was a really cool little stop the rocks were layered on top of each other in hundreds and thousands. It made a very weird and different kind of look I liked it! When I looked down at the  rocky punishing waves I was very respectful to the place and it's waters. The next day we drove on a pretty dodgy road to a beach called Tauranga bay. The place was awesome Mum and I were intrigued by the sea life and dad was intrigued by the surf. There were so many seals on the rocks it was awesome! In Gisborne we don't see to many seals at all. The next place we stopped at was called  Bula Swing Bridge. This place was really scenic you could see roughly 3 to 4 meters deep it was really clean. The Swing bridge that was there is the biggest in New Zealand it is very high and freaky. After that I really got my nerves going because mum booked us in for JET BOATING!!

I was shaking and many doubts were going through my mind but mum and dad forced me on to the boat. The driver was very funny, nice and to be honest I thought he was a little crazy. But the Ride was EXHILARATING it was filled with education, 360's, drifts, rapids and a bit of screaming. One of the things I remember is that he got a bucket dipped it into the water and then drank it! It was so clean that you could drink it. I had a little sip it was surprisingly very nice. We also went 80kmph over 3 inch deep water! It was like skimming a rock across a lake we were so fast! The driver was crazy enough to let me drive for a bit as well, the boat was actually very  responsive. So yeah that was the highlight of my week.

Wanaka To Greymouth

Wanaka To Greymouth

The trip to Greymouth started off great the Ashton family invited me and some other kids along to clip n climb. It was great I took on some fears and had a excellent time doing it. I tried getting a record at the place but the fastest time I got is 25 seconds going up a 7 meters high wall .  The record scoreboard said that a man did it in 3.3 SECONDS he would have had to basically run up the wall!

 After that we made our way through the haast pass and looked at some beautiful places. My favourite stop was the blue pools . The bridges were really wobbly and fun and the water was crystal clear it was amazing. We found our way across to a place called Bruce Bay the next day oh to play oh yay. It was the first beach that we have been to for a long time so we were happy to be there.
When we first got out of the bus we were greeted with a pile of rocks but when we looked closely they all had little messages on them and names.
So we thought we had to add our own so we gave the pile a nudge family.

A little while later the whole crew of gypsies came with a gypsy girl called Koko. Koco and I went to build a dam on the beach it worked out great. When we finally got to Greymouth we were at a pretty cool beach with actually good surf! We saw alot more of the crew there. At the end of the night we had a bon fire but as the tide came in we had to protect it so we got like 5 shovels an went hard at work. Eventually the rain came and ruined the bon fire. The next day we went to Shanty Town with Dani. Shanty Town was awesome we saw and gobbled up the history of Shanty Town. All the old houses and items in there were pretty cool you could easily imagine what it would have been like in the olden days. We met up with the Ashtons coincidentally as soon as the train was about to take us to gold panning. The gold panning was and experience and a half it would be very hard in the old days trying to find and see your gold.

After that we went around all the houses again till we found this dress up shop. 

We all decided to dress up in old clothes, to get a photo together. 

Lake Hayes Arrowtown

My weekend after Queenstown really wasn't that interesting. But i'll give you the gist of it. We went from Queenstown to a place called Lake Hayes and we stayed there for a while. Feeding all the ducks and checking out our surroundings. After that we drove our bus to this place called Arrowtown. We walked around the town and came to this Chinese farm place with lots of history. There were lots of old characteristic houses that were embedded into rocks which was pretty cool I liked imagining what it would have been like back then. We also came to this really awesome looking lolly shop it was a bit expensive but I still bought some things. We also stopped at this place called Cromwell the history of Cromwell was interesting did you know the town used to be UNDERWATER. They saved the houses from under the water! That was pretty much my week from Queenstown to Wanaka

Wakatipu & Queenstown

                                                                Wakatipu

After we finished driving to the end of the whole of New Zealand we ended up in this beautiful, amazing, magnificent, outstanding stunning lake. There are many words for this lake because it was just truly amazing. This was my best stop yet! Every morning when I woke up I would see the clear glistening water and the giant mountains with speckles of snow covering them. We had lots to do there such as kayaking, building fires, partying and for me hanging out with friends. Us kids enjoyed kayaking the most. We named this rock that we board onto with our kayaks "The Log" and another one called

 "The Rock". Riley Danielle and I had a picnic on "The Rock" It was nice but the water was very  cold when we jumped in. You could see the coral so easy when you jumped in, it was kinda 

scary.

Queenstown

When we made it to Queenstown we parked up in a pretty nice motor camp. Then we made our way into town we looked at all the things you could do. We were intrigued by the jet boating but in the end we didn't. But we did go under the wharf and looked at all the fish. There were many more than I thought there would be. It was actually really cool! I imagined swimming right in front of the observatory I would be on top of so much fish and eels ewwww. The best part of that was seeing the ducks diving for food they were like real fish. After having a look few some shops we went up the gondola. It was very freaky because my mum stood up every 5 seconds trying to get the perfect picture and she was shaking the whole GONDOLA! It was a very nice view but still the gondola made my ears pop and kept my head spinning. We bought some bean boozled  jelly beans for me and the kids in the weekend. Then had dinner at a place called The Cow. It was a very old English like pizza restaurant. The weekend wasn't very nice it was raining all the time. Everyone didn't get much money wise that weekend. Everyone was a bit down and in the dumps. But we made the best out of the rain and started sliding around in our shoes and throwing rugby balls around. 

Dunedin To Invercargill

Dunedin

At Dunedin I had my first surf for the season yet it was pretty good! But it was sooo cold I only went in with booties and a wetsuit, I thought I was gonna freeze to death or get icicles on my hands or something! The days of the fair got a bit rainy and everyone got a bit down and droopy. 

Kaka Point & Nugget Point

On the way to invercargill wich is a 5 hour drive by the way! We stopped the night at a small little town that is called Kaka Point. Where we were parked we had a view of the pretty little beach with pretty good surf, but after dunedin I thought to myself "wayyyy to coldd". The next day we went to a place called Nugget Point and WOW it was so scenic the views of the sea and mountains were outstanding! I really loved looking out at the lighthouse. My dad seeked a sealion out at the rocks and he looked majestic through mums camera lens with his yellow whiskers.

The Falls

On the way down from Nugget Point we met this woman called Melody she came from France and was a teacher coming for a bit of a holiday. She was hitch hiking her way around New Zealand, so we took her with us through eventually all the way to these nice waterfalls. The awesome photographer I am! I went out of bounds and next to the rocks to get a little side photo hehe. Once done with looking at the breathtaking falls we found these nice people travelling around in a van and let Melody go with them!

The Next Stop

At the next stop we meet up with the other gypsies at this little campsite. There was this little pa
thway out to the beach and we made a fire because fishing didn't work out. After a couple of minutes the tide started to come in so I took it upon myself to make a little barrier. The next day I had the BEST time going to this place called the lost gypsy it had lots of inventions this guy made. I was greeted with this button and a sign saying "push this button if you dare" me being a kid and all I obviously was intrigued with this so I slowly pushed the button.. I GOT squirted with a facefull of water!!! Anyway the place was alot like that with little surprises and humour I thought that was one of the best moments yet of my extravaganza trip.

The Next Next Stop

The next stop we drove to this cafe looking place and was pleasently surprised to see that they had a dump station and a place to stay the night. Behind the cafe there was this massive lake with lots of ducks it was really cute to see the  tiny ducklings. My dad picked one up and let me hold it, once I put it down the duck charged at me to send me warning to not hurt her babies. I got given some duck food by the cafe owners and I threw some around. After a few minutes I had huge duck army chasing after me for some food IT WAS SCARY. They all started jumping up at me then some chickens came along and joined the army! My mum thought this was funny so she got her camera out and took photos of it all! Anyway that pretty much sums up my week alot happened this week so it was awesome! 

Timaru And Oamaru

We arrived in Timaru after an awesome weekend at Orari Rivermouth fishing, kayaking taking the long line out to sea and reeling it in excitedly hoping that there would be a massive fish on the end all we got was alot of sharks and a red cod.

         

                                                     In Timaru
In Timaru we had a blast looking around the city admiring its special details and getting to know the cities history. I really liked the public glass elevator I thought to myself we should really have one of these at my city! On the day of the fair we were bummed out, to see so much rain when we woke up. In the morning but we tried our best. That day was pretty dull my highlight of that day was getting a panda facepaint with all the other kids and being apart of the PANDA SQUAD! I havent got much to say about the next day only one thing my friend Aiden 7 years of age who is a gypsy kid had his first day lighting his staff on fire and it was so cute this feeling of just happiness and joy overwhelmed me I was so happy for him!



                                        On The Way To Oamaru
On the way to Oamaru we had to stop at Timaru's local pools and it was great they had the fasted hydroslide! Also a very fun inflatable obstacle course. It wasnt a very exciting trip to Oamaru as it wasn't very far away so I can't write much here.




                                                                      Oamaru

Oamaru was a picturesque city the buildings were amazing! You could see the history in the buildings with one glance it was like being in the middle of paris! Me and some friends had a explore around town (it felt like a town) observing the beatiful buildings and the things in it as we made our way to Steampunk HQ. In steampunk HQ we looked around glazing at every sculpture and object we saw until we made our way to THE PORTAL oh my we stayed at the portal for over half an hour replaying the majestical song and light show. up the top there is a photo showing some of the portal, not nearly capturing the full amazingness of that experience. The next day we had a full day of playing on the playground and getting to know our surroundings. At that night me and mum went to the wharf to see the penguins that come out at night. We saw quite a few, they were very shy. The next two days were normal fair days that went pretty good. Not to much rain and yeah that was pretty much my week. Hope you enjoyed reading this!

Christchurch, First Day Of The Fair

Hanmer Springs

On our drive down to Christchurch we recieved a very scary night parked up in a truck station because we couldn't drive through Lewis Pass as it was blocked off due to ice and snow. The next morning we drove through Lewis Pass adoring the beautiful mountains and scenery, it was probably the only time I have seen snow since being three years old. Once the curvy, windy roads were behind us we HAD to go to Hanmer Springs Hotpools! The pools were luxourious and picturesque with rocks as stepping stones, little waterfalls and rising steam. There was a water slide that looked very fun but I couldn't go on it because of my chest. 

                                             Christchurch

When in Christchurch we made a grand entrance to the park and got STUCK after all the rain. Everyone was VERY nice and about 10 to 13 adults came to try push the bus out. After that failed we had to get towed out and drive to our spot. Everyone was busy getting setup while the kids invited me to their bus and showed me some of their card games called magic. On the first fair for the third season in the Extravaganza mum had quite a big queue for her first day. I was making a few relationships with the kids. They showed me these practice devil sticks that I thought were very fun and required a certain amount of skill. The weather was very good to us so the fair went very well for everyone I think. 

Exploring Christchurch

On packing day the wind was furociously rocking all the buses around sending us all to stay the night in a vacant lot. Instead of staying all day in the lot my parents decided we should go into Christchurch to see the destruction of the earthquakes. We asked one of the kids if they wanted to come, so she did. Her name is Danielle. While in Christchurch we walked slowly to the Cathedral Square glazing at the abandoned building. We carried on walking to the botanical gardens and stumbled upon the art gallery so we decided to have a look with the persuasion of Danielle and the piano bull sculpture.

When done with the art gallery we finally found our way to the  botanical gardens. I brought out my devil sticks for a little session of practice. 

                                                               THE END FOR NOW