“3, 2, 1, Go!” I race frantically up the wall like a spider(I hate spiders!) gripping the handholds with white knuckles. I smash the top button only moments before Lettie hits her button on the other side of me. Leaping off the wall and abseiling down is my favorite part!

My amazing Godmother Sunny Sky and her daughter Indigo took my brothers, Tiwai, Lettie and I to the Wanaka clip and climb on Friday. It was so much fun! After that we retired to the hot pools at the hotel Sunny was staying at. The rest of the day was spent eating chocolate cake and watching a movie. My ideal day!

An average weekend, very social and busy, with my good friend Mia and her Mum staying in a tent behind our truck. Fish n chips on the beach. By Sunday afternoon I was peopled out and couldn’t bear talking to anyone any more! The rest of the afternoon was spent in hibernation.

Sea spray, rugged rocky coastline, deep green forest, winding twisty roads. The stunning scenic west coast. At one part we sped over some bumps and almost left the ground. We stopped to check for damage, luckily only one cup smashed.

We drove on to the Copeland valley.  One of the Gypsies friends brothers has a farm which he kindly let us park on in order to be in close proximity to the Copeland track entrance. There would be too many house trucks to fit in the car park.

The Copeland track is a 7 hour walk up the Copeland valley to some amazing natural hot pools. We packed our backpacks (and yes I did carry one) and went to bed early, ready for the long walk tomorrow.

All the Gypsies that are going on the walk arrived last night. There was 13 of us in total. As usual we dressed up extravagantly! Tutus, headdresses, elf ears, parasols and more tutus. Did I mention tutus? We started walking around 10am Tutus and all!

At the pace we were walking we got there in less than 6 hours, giving us more than enough time to soak in the amazing natural hot pools, have dinner and soak some more(under the stars and moon until 11 pm)!

Ok, I’m going to press pause for a minute and explain the scenery. It was the most beautiful walk I have ever been on and that’s saying something! Imagine every shade of green you know in one immense rolling rain forest. Did you know that green is the most peaceful colour on the human eyes, and it’s my favorite. As you look higher up, forest gives way to sheer cliff faces and the rugged beauty of the mountain tops iced with snow. What a stunning cake it would be!

O.K back to the hot pools. After a fulfilling sleep we jumped back into the hot pools. The only problem in this beautiful place is the sand fly’s, the one handicap that’s stopped fancy apartments, hotels and houses being built all along the west coast.

We managed to walk out in 5 hours. Bye bye hot pools. We got back to the truck and drove to Franz Josef to park at our friends house and have dinner with them and their kids, Scarlet and Tom. It’s great to catch up and play with them every year.

The next morning we played some more then sped off to Greymouth, stopping in Hokitika for some much needed school work, but ended up staying until dinner time and past because Mum and Dad had a massive blow out. We finally left at 8 pm and arrived in Greymouth at 9 o’clock at night! They said sorry and that was it. Everything was back to normal again.

“Whew!’ what an exhausting, fun and exciting week! Tomorrow  setup, this weekend Greymouth. Bye!