New Zealand-day 10!

December 30th 2010

We left Christchurch with 25 new people. The group is now 52 people. What a huge group! I loved our small amount of people before because we had known each other for 10 days now and had been through so much together. BUT...It's always exciting to meet more people from around the world! The new people join just in time for the South Island, the crazy island. We spent a couple of hours exploring Christchurch and then on the road we went...

Our awesome bus!

Charlotte pretended to be the tour guide and spoke in French and tricked the new people...it was fun!

I'm all packed up and yes, we still have the vodka!

Last couple of moments in Christchurch

We traveled all over the South Island. Here are a couple of pictures of the bus ride...

It was a stupid view...look at all those sheep!
Brooks feel asleep so we got a special drawing :)

Picking out the last activities that we were doing on the South Island.

We stole peoples cameras and took kissy pictures.

We did a couple of stops on our way to our final destination, which was Franz Josph. We stopped at a rock formation first...it looked pretty cool.

The next stop was a small town right by the Tasman Sea. There was a small shop there that sold jade Rocks, they are good luck when someone buys it for you. It's a tradition from the Maori people. We ran out to the beaches so we could dip our feet into the Tasman Sea. It's not everyday that we get to experience a different Ocean or Sea.

The different types of Jade rock. Bryan and I bought my mom a pair of earrings.

We loved being down by the water. It was beautiful. It looked just like a California beach but it was empty. No one was there :)

2010-2011 Contiki

Then it was off to Franz Josph. I couldn't wait to see our hotel. The pictures of the hotel looked amazing and the beauty around the hotel was breath taking! It was like a rain forest. On the way to Franz Josph we drove through Arthur's Pass. It was just a taste of the beauty that was about to come.

Tasty coffee...

The crazy Kia bird. It would steal food right out of your hand! This is a video of Bryan pretending to be a Kia bird.

Here are some of the beautiful sights we saw on the way through Arthur's Pass.

Finally! We arrived in Franz Josph. It was beautiful. I couldn't believe it. I was in love. Once inside our hotel room Bryan started to rip apart his bag...He couldn't find his passport! We gutted every bag we had...it didn't surface. We called the hotel in Wellington (where we thought it might be). They said that the manager wouldn't be in until tomorrow and we could call back then. I was so angry! For those of you who don't know my husband, he looses everything...This was something that you can't loose. I just kept thinking that I should have taken it from him and kept it with my stuff. But this is the man I married. He is my teammate. He may not be good at organizing or keeping his things together but I am. And he's better at other things than me. We are a team. Next time the passports stay with me and if they get lost, at least they will be lost together. This, of course, wasn't what I was thinking at first though. I instantly thought about the added expenses, the activities we would have to miss to fix the problem and I though about how we were in the most beautiful place in the world and i was pissed. I said nothing and left for a peaceful walk around the hotel. It calmed me down and off to dinner we went.

After dinner we stayed in the Monsoon bar and had a wonderful night! This is a picture of us enjoying the beauty of the rain forest. At the bar we played a giant game of pool. it cost 2 buck and the money went to the Miners. The game was so much fun. I had quite a few drinks, what a stressful day!

Brooks and I.

Steve and I.

The winners of the giant game of pool. Charlotte got first place, Steve got second and Bryan got third! Off to bed we went because we had an Early morning the next day!