Hello everyone! sorry it has been so long. So much has happened since I last blogged. So we left Geraldine and headed for Lake Tekapo, although we missed our cosy BnB straight away lol. The lake was beautiful, an amazing blue colour with mountains surrounding. We only stayed one night then we carried on to omaru. Omaru looked really nice and we had a really good evening as we went to see the blue penguins that stay there. They are the smallest penguins in the world (about 30cm tall) and they weight about 1kg! The suf up on the beach in groups called rafts then make a dash tp their little nests. It was really cool they were really cute. They all have a specific nest aswell so if one runs into the wrong one there will be loads of noise then you see him run out lol. When we went back to the car park we were about to drive away when I spotted one in the car park! He had wondered off to a dark corner lol. So after Omaru we drove to Dunedin, on the way we went to see some cool boulders and also we went seal spotting and saw some lazing about. We had a really great time in Dunedin, staying 2 nights at a motor camp. We went to the Cadburys factory which produces most of the chocolate for nz. We got some free chocolate too which was good :-) On our last evening we drove on to the Otago Penisula and went tot eh Rayal Albatross centre so watch the Albatross, its the only place in the world where they land on the main land. We saw 2 massive fluffy chicks and as we left an adult flew over us. They are so massive, they have an average wing span of up to 3 metres! After that we went to see the yellow eyed penguins, which are very rare now. We got to walk throught trench and peep out at then doing their thing. They are really antisocial penguins as then go solo all the time and they wont even nest if it can see another penguin lol. They were pretty cool and we saw some really close. Unfortuately camera batteries died when we got there :-( So that evening we drove down to the catlins forest and stayed at a DOC camp which was beautiful, we camped between the ocean and forest and their were loads of loose cows. We did have a rather unfortuante evenign though when we arrived it was really dark and we drove staright on to the field withouth realising it was a bogland! We got toatally stuck for over 2 hours, Hen managed to put our snow chains on in the thick mud and luckily we managed to get help for a couple who pushed us out (they got pretty muddy lol). The next morning we went to see some falls nearby which were really really good after all the rain. So then we headed off to Te Anau, nearly hitting a cow on the way! lol We stopped for some Lunch in Gore and admired the scenery all the way which has been amazing. We arrived at Te Anau at a good time because after we got there it bacame so foggy. The next day we set out to go to Milford sound driving ourselves down the Milford road, so we had to get pertol and food etc. It's a very dangerous road in winter as there are a few avalanches. On the day we went the risk of one was low though. THe drive was breathtaking really amazing, we made lots of stops to look at everything. The Homer tunnel is pretty cool, it a tunnel through a mountain basically but really rough roudn the edges. We sayed at a motorcamp that night and booked up a boat trou for the next morning to take us out to the Tasman sea to have a good look at the Fiords and waterfalls. We were so lucky when we went a dolphin came a swam with our boat, which is appartently quite rare, and then we got to see seals aswell! If you come a little bit later in the year you can see the rare yellow crested penguins which come here. The boat trip was so good the driver pulled up the boat really close to one waterfall and we got sprayed. Half way through the trip we went tot he underwater observatory and saw balck coral. We wated to do a winter kayak trip aswell but didn't realy have time. We also saw the only alpine parrot in the world which is called a kea, when we first met one it came up to the van and was really cute and we thought it was pretty lucky, but that evening at a motorcamp Hen was in the van and heard a load of noise and found 2 outside the van screeching trying to get food then snatched our rubbish bad away from him and got aggressive. It then stalked the van for a long time and when I went out to look at it with Hen it got angry and chased us lol They are so cheeky! We saw loads of eagles on the road aswell mostly eating squashed possums. We then stayed the night agains at a 1930s old style camp called camp Gunn, which was really coo. We got a specail deal on a cabin and we had our own coal stove which was an experience! It smoked us out at first pretty bad, but then was really warm, I want one when I am older. We bought some greenstone from the camp which is the only place licensed to sell the greenstone from MIlford sound, you can only get this type on greenstone in 3 places all in nz. The maori people considered them very precious, and scientists are baffled by the nickle that is found in it as there is no explanation to how it got there. We are now at lake Wanaka. We drove here yesterday stopping in queenstown for a Fergburger, yum. We were supposed to be doing a skydive now but the weather is bad so may be able to do one at 3. If not we will have to move on and maybe do one ont he north island. Anyway bye for now! Hope everyone is well. Thanks for the messgae nick! I defo miss cake all the time, I am wasting away! Will blogs again soon hopefully. Abbey and Henry x x xx