wellington, picton, able tasman, barrytown, franz josef

this week im down in the south island! but first things first - i stopped in wellington for a couple of days, which is the capital of nz and a really nice city - very livable. in my 2 days there i went to the national museum and the botanical gardens, the latin festival and the farmers market for fresh produce. lovely couple of days!
after a lovely 3 hour ferry ride to the south island, i was in picton, which is the gateway to the Marlborough wine region. stayed in a realllly fantastic hostel called the villa, which was quirky and charming and friendly - i loved it. there, i went on a one day wine tour of Marlborough vineyards (famous for its sav blancs), a really great day!
next up, back on the bus and heading to able tasman, another nz national park with great hiking. we had absolutely beautiful weather so enjoyed doing the coastal hike and stopping at the beaches along the way.
almost not worth mentioning is our next stop, barrytown, which im pretty sure is just thrown in there because stray gets a bigger kick back than usual from us staying there. sigh, commercialism.
but nowwwww.... dum dum dum! im in franz josef! at the moment my co bus riders are currently hiking up a huge block of ice known as a glacier. no thank you! im waiting until the afternoon and seeing it all from the warmth and comfort of a helicopter!! so excited! i was masochistically going to make myself do the hike, but realize i wouldnt be able to enjoy it at all with the cold and ice everywhere - and ive never taken a helicopter ride and have always wanted to! soooo excited, fingers crossed it wont be cancelled (for weather)!

next stop is wanaka, then queenstown, then christchurch, then flying out back to sydney! i can barely believe i only have a few more days here... and so much to do!