Queenstown, New Zealand

I'm glad to report the Tranzalpine journey was as beautiful as I'd hoped. Even though it rained throughout the journey! It was a great way to get up close to the snow-capped alps and enjoy the scenery as we trundled over huge viaducts. Of course I saw some sheep! as well as cows and deer, which they seem to farm here. The mountainous landscape reminded me of Switzerland and the ferns, birches, rolling hills and winter colours were more like the Scottish countryside. We stopped at a couple of small stations to stretch our legs and occasionally to drop off or pick people up, and our witty driver kindly informed us that "if you climb onto the coal train, you will be shot in the leg". Not sure if he was joking.
In Greymouth I stayed in a nice animal-themed hostel - in the 'Penguin' room! Which was decorated accordingly...quite funny. They had a naughty Golden Retriever puppy called Bez who tired to eat my shoes while I was watching TV, but I got them back relatively intact, if a lot smellier! Greymouth was definitely not very exciting, but interesting to see one of the bigger places on the West coast - everywhere else I saw along the way was similar but on a smaller scale.

In Franz Josef I did the full-day glacier hike, which was brilliant. We started out at 8am with two teams of eleven. I chose to go with the slower group, 'for those who haven't had that second cup of coffee this morning', not so much because I hadn't had coffee but because I wanted to be able to stop for photos. Definitely the right decision! It was still pretty intense walking, but very enjoyable and rewarding. We crawled through ice caves a couple of times, edged our way through narrow crevasses, hopped over cracks in the ice, and used ropes to help us clamber up or down steep steps hacked into sheer walls of ice. Our guide taught us the handy 'Franz Josef shuffle' for this, to stop us from tripping over our own feet (which were encumbered by big boots and clamp-on spikes). People have been hiking on Franz Josef since the 1940's but the equipment has improved a lot... it used to be hobnail boots which the guides drove the nails into the night before people went on the hike. We were very lucky with the weather as we had sunshine all the way up. It rained throughout our 50-minute descent and by the time we got on the bus to go back to the village we were all pretty uncomfortable despite waterproof gear, so I was very glad to get out of it and into the shower that day! All the hostels have been very homey and comfortable so far, with duvets, heaters, hairdryers, and some with open fires in the lounges.
The Magic bus experience has been pretty good until now. Unlike the buses I took in Australia they don't just get you from A to B but stop off along the way at tourist stops (viewpoints, museums, towns). You also get a fair bit of commentary from the drivers, who so far have been male, Kiwi and mad - either secretly (watch out for the quiet normal looking ones!) or obviously (with a blue mohawk...). That one advised us at one point that we should look to our right for the 'annual downhill sheep race', then honked the horn and the poor sheep in the field next to us stampeded down the hill in fright! Apparently he once had a shepherdess on the bus who told him off for it. He argued that he was doing the sheep a favour because now they would have something else to talk about. Instead of just commenting on the quality of the grass they would go, "What the heck was that godawful noise the other week?". Boys will be boys...

I've also stopped off in Wanaka for a night, from where there are great lakeside views of the surrounding mountains. Most people here, as in Queenstown, stay to go snowboarding or skiing at this time of year, and my hostel seemed to be overrun with wealthy snow-seeking Japanese kids! I resisted the snow-activity temptations and went to Puzzleworld with Japanese Katsushi, Australian Maria and Canadian Caroline. We got lost in the maze... it was good fun.

Queenstown is also situated on a lake and close to the alps, but it's a bigger flashier version of Wanaka with lots of restaurants and bars and snow-gear boutiques, and popular with holidaying Australians. Quite upmarket and touristy, but quite nice to wander through and have a hot chocolate. I also went up the gondola and had some good views. Unfortunately I've run out of things to do and when I tried to book my bus to Dunedin this morning I was informed they don't run a service on Fridays! Very annoying as it means I lose a day in another town (probably Auckland) and will be sleeping, reading and drinking hot chocolate tomorrow but I suppose it could be worse! I don't have any more big adventures planned until I get to Waitomo caves in the North Island, where I'd like to go abseiling, but I'm also looking forward to some penguin or whale watching along the way and maybe even dolphin swimming in Kaikoura if I dare to plunge myself into waters that are about 9 degrees Celsius...