Next stop was Makarora, in the Mount Aspiring National Park, for a night's stay. We were in the middle of nowhere, in the valley of the mountain ranges. We spent the evening laughing at the various karaoke efforts but we both managed to abstain for everyone else's sake! On the way there, we stopped off at Lake Matheson which we were really looking forward to but the weather was atrocious and we were unable to see much at all.

We went to Queenstown from there and stayed for a few nights. We stopped at the Kawarau Bridge to watch the bungy jumpers at the world's first commercial bungy jump on the way into town and then had a night out with our friends on the bus. We went to the traveller favourite, World Bar, to drink cocktails out of teapots! Phil had to get up nice and early the next day to go and do the Nevis highwire bungy, the 134 metre jump from a cable car in the hills! It is the 3rd highest in the world and involves freefall of about 10 seconds. I was safely tucked up in bed at the time having decided it was not for me, especially after a night of cocktail drinking.

When he came back in once piece, we all went to Fergburger for a delicious giant burger which we had heard so much about. They are truly wonderful as far as burgers go! We had a walk by the lake and around the town (which consists of about 2 streets) and then had an early night as we were catching a bus at 6.45 the next morning.

We headed to the 'Deep South', starting with Milford Sound. It is in fact a fiord, not a sound, and is really beautiful. We did a boat tour and saw seals and a pod of dolphins came to play by the boat. The drive to and from Milford Sound was wonderful too. They have a lot of rain in the area so it is really lush and green but thankfully it was sunny whilst we were there.

We also went to Stewart Island, New Zealand's 'third island' which is the most Southerly point of the country - next stop: Antarctica. The ferry crosses the Foveaux strait, which is notorious for the roaring forties trade winds, and I felt horrendously travel sick within about 10 minutes of being on it. Distraction came in the form of more dolphins and a huge albatross with a 3 metre wing span. On the island, we went for a walk on the hunt for kiwi birds and penguins. We saw no kiwis (at all in New Zealand!) but we spotted a Little Blue Penguin playing in the bay. We followed him around the coast for an hour just watching him swimming around and playing.

In the evening we headed to the only pub on the island for the busy weekly quiz. Surprisingly, we won and were given a bar tab as a prize. We stopped via the Kai Kart for some obligatory fish and chips on the way home, which was delicious.

The next morning we caught the ferry back to bluff and headed for the Scottish town of Dunedin via the Catlins wilderness area which is stunning. We stopped for lunch and were greeted by two huge sea lions. Later in the day we stopped to investigate a bird hide and saw penguins coming in from the sea after feeding and waddling up the beach to their nests.

We looped back to Queenstown, where we had another day to enjoy Fergburgers and the lake. We caught the gondola to the top of the mountain which overlooks the town and did some luging up there. This was really fun and the views were awesome.

We went rafting on the Rangitata river, which is halfway towards Christchurch from Queenstown. We spent the night at the lodge and then spent the next afternoon on the river. There are all grades of rafting, 1-5, and so we got to do it all. The water was from a glacier and was freezing but really blue. We did not fall in whilst tackling the rapids but we chose to jump in off the rocks at the end. I did the 6 metre jump and Phil did the 10 metre one as well. After the rafting we had a barbecue and then expressed to Christchuch, where we had a quick change and headed out to meet Brad and Bish, two friends from home on separate trips! It was lovely to see them both and we enjoyed Christchurch during the brief time we were there, but we flew to Sydney the next day.

New Zealand was absolutely amazing and we are already planning our return!

Lots of love,

Ali and Phil xxx