Well well well, sorry we havent updated in a while but here goes. (especially for you uncle steve!) enjoy.

tues 29th - got up at 5 o'clock it nearly killed us! arrived at the train station ready to catch our train from christchurch to greymouth. the journey lasted 4 hours and we passed by some unbelievable scenery. the train ride is supposed to be one of the most scenic in the world and it is! We arrived in Greymouth in the afternoon and stayed in a lovely cosy hostel there was an open fire and a resident cat! (incase you didnt already know, New Zealand is freezing this time of year , hence the fire) we went straight into town to buy some warm clothes as we were still in shorts and flip flops! went we got back we found a box of free cakes donated by the local bakery and managed to make our way through most of them! (made a welcome change from noodles!)

weds 30th - first day on the magic bus, it was a drizzly morning so we didnt do much on the journey. We arrived in Franz Joseph and were dropped off at the hostel. However only I went in and booked a bed for one person (this is one of our money saving schemes) and 15 minutes later we snuck ali in!...perfect...or so we thought! We just so happened to leave our buss ticket on the bus so the driver dropped it in and said its for alex and rob, the receptionist said "theres no one called alex here, only rob" and she then put 2 and 2 together so we were BUSTED! luckily she let us stay but we still had to pay for the extra bed. That day we chilled and watched fims because the weather was s***, this was a given seeing as the west coast is known as " the wet coast" the whole area is a rainforest!

thurs 1st - up early once again ready to report to the hiking centre, we got kitted out with all the gear including crampon spikes for our boots. then it was an hour and a half hike to the actual glacier, we had to climb through waterfalls, up ladders and even climb ropes! it was a bit trecherous and some people even wimped out but it was worth it in the end. when we arrived at the glacier we saw people who were already climbing it and only then did we appreciate the sheer size of the thing! we were walking for about 5 hours on the ice, and many blisters later we were back in the hostel ready for tea and cake.

Friday 2nd - Franz Josef to Queenstown. Just another day on the bus stopping at a lovely ski town called wanaka. queenstown was verry similar also and on the way in we stopped at the Kawarua Bridge (the verry first bungy jumping site) and got to watch some jumps. we also booked our own for the nevis jump for the follwing day (will explain later) we also mannaged to get 1 bed in our hostel here! queenstown was even more freezing so we went out the the nearest bar for a whisky to warm our cockles and sat around the fire.

theres more to come tomorow so keep checking! (including the BUNGY!!!!)