I was on a boat cruise/walking trip in the Abel Tasman National Park when I took a bit of a tumble whilst climbing around some waterfalls. Nothing too bad, but to my horror my camera bag opened and my camera fell out, bounced off a couple of rocks and disappeared into a large deep pool of water. B#gg#r. After some loud cursing, I jumped in after it and managed to dive down and retrieve it but it does appear to have been pretty convincingly destroyed. At least I didn't lose any photos, as the memory card in it has survived!
Apart from that unfortunate incident, the rest of this week has been really good! I went for a hike in the Tongariro National Park on Monday, and climbed up Mount Ngaruahoe, otherwise known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings. I now know how Frodo felt - it was bloody hard work climbing up it! As it is a volcano, the side is loose scree so it is often a case of 2 steps up, slide back 1 step! The views from the top were amazing though, and it was excellent fun running/sliding down the side of it afterwards. Click HERE to see the photos.
I then caught the Magic Bus down through the rest of North Island to Wellington, and then travelled by ferry on Wednesday morning to Picton, on the South Island. The ferry trip is quite scenic as it comes in through Marlborough Sounds - at one point around 5 dolphins came swimming and jumping out of the water alongside the ferry.
I've been staying in an excellent hostel here for the last couple of nights - it has a swimming pool, a spa and a sauna, all for NZ$22 (around 8 pounds) per night! Fingers crossed that the weather clears up so I can go kayaking tomorrow......
