wellington, pictin, Able Tasman National park and Barrytown

Hi all! Im alive and having an amazing time in the south island. Im just goign to get into it casue i only have a limited amount of time on tehi computer, i apologize in advance for tyhe typos. So Thursday Summer and I flew to Wellington to stay the night and catch the ferry to pictin the next morning. We get into Wellington at around 4:30 and taxi'd it to my friend Daves house. It was so nice to see dave, I havent seen him since the summer. Dave and his Girlfriend Rochelle have the cutest apartment, Summer and I decided they are very grownup. That night we walked around Downtown Wellington and in a matter of 2 hours the city had wom me over. Everyone here asks me how i like Auckland and my answer is always, Auckland is a great city and i loved more before i went to Wellington. So we got some food and chilled out, it was a nice relaxing night before our adventure, too short a visit by far but iwill totally be abck, a huge thank you to Dave and Rochelle for putting us up for the night. So the next morning We caught the 9:30 ferry to Pictin, it was a 3 hour boat ride fo beautiful proportion, there are many pictures. We rean into a kid we met the night of the live show, he was doing a south island tour through another company, but it was a friend on the boat. We arrived in pictin at 12:30 and was piced ip by Dodgy Dave, the Stray bus driver. A really nice and enthusiastic guy. and a good driver, dont worry mum. So the first day was going to be Pictin to Able tasman National Park. The drive was bautiful, mountains, ocean, vallys, cows. It was beautiful, found myself smiling a lot. We get to ATNP at around 7ish and checked into Old McDonald's Farm (seriously, thats what it was called) and signed up for activities for the next day. That nigth we hung out with the other backpackers in the kitchen/lounge for a while then at around 9 we headed down to the local (and only) pub where a regge/maori band was playing, it was a great night filled with hippies and happy backpackers. The next mronign we woke up early for our half Day Catamaran ridse around the park...BEAUTIFUL. We had tea and coffee on the boat and just relaxed and took in the scenery. The boat dropped us of at a beach and we did a hour hike back to the hostle by 12:30. We hopped on the bus and headed for a 2 night stay in Barrytown. The only thing in Barrytown is the pub/hostle we are staying at...and Steve's house. Last nigththe guy who ran the pub asked summer if she wanted to work in exchange for free room for the 2 nights, so she did, it was really funny. Today we went to steves house and made knives. Yup, i am a steelsmith and i made my very own knife, from scratch, fordged it in the fire and everything. It was such good fun and this guy steve, who was about 60 was the funiest guy ever. Lunch was proveded by his wife and a after knife making nightcap provided by steve, a home brew of 70% alcohol called White Lightning, we were warned to bring mixers. Anyway, it was really good fun and i have my own homemade knife. Tonight at the pub was a roast for all of the backpackers, delicious. Sorry this was all so quick, im saving yuo all from a novel at the end of my trip. I am meeting a lot of people on the bus, people from everywhere, and i am getting a severe travel bug, i just want to keep traveling. All tehse people ive met have been traveling for months and months all over the world, its inspiring. Well tomorrow we are off to Franz Joseph to climb Fox Glacier or in my case, take a helocopter ride over it...jealous? talk to you all later.