We left Queenstown on the 4th (finally!) and headed to Kaikoura stopping off along the way at Mount Cook to look at Australasia's highest peak and its surrounding lakes which are a crazy blue colour - quite hard to explain and the pictures probaly won't do it justice but for some scientific reason which we don't quite understand the water is this brilliant blue colour. We stopped the night just a bit further on at Lake Tekapo. The weather was gorgeous here so had a few hours in the sunshine the following morning before continuing our journey up to Kaikoura, which is just north of Christchurch.

Kaikoura is popular for its whale watching, dolphin swimming and crayfish! The day we arrived we visited the seal colony where we were able to get quite close with one of the seals who was led out, the others were a bit further out in the distance. After we stopped off at a roadside food stall to sample the local seafood. Our budget couldn't quite stretch to the crayfish so Charlotte had a whitebait omelette while Becky went for seafood chowder and grilled fish. Very nice! The next day we had booked ourselves on to a whale watching boat trip which we were really looking forward to but unfortunately the weather had turned very English and the water was too rough out at sea so the trip had been cancelled. We had the option to wait until the afternoon to see if any boats would be running then but we didn't have the time so headed straight up to Nelson, on the north coast.

We spent 2 nights in Nelson so that we could access from here the Abel Tasman National Park. On the Friday we hopped in our beloved hire car and drove an hour west to kaiteriteri which is a small coastal town on the edge of the park. We had planned to spend the day kayaking, the weather was beautiful but a little bit too breezy so we went for the safe option and spent the morning on the beach. After lunch we booked a water taxi to take us an hours ride along the coast and drop us at Bark Bay. As Abel Tasman is a national park there are no inhabitants so the coast line is just forest right up to the beach, its really stunning to see. The water was so clear despite it being choppy that day, we even got to see a blue penguin swimming around. We had about an hour and a half at Bark Bay before the water taxi came back to take us back to Kaiteriteri. We wished that we had had longer to hang around here and actually stay in Abel Tasman rather than Nelson but unfortuantely with only a week left we had to head to the north island....

We caught our 'pride of cherbourg' ferry the next day to Wellington. A 3hr journey that really felt like we were heading to France! The weather turned miserable from half way across the water and that is how it has pretty much stayed in the north island! We stopped 2 nights in Wellington which was probably 2 nights too many!! We really weren't keen on Wellington, we'd heard that it had the best nightlife in NZ so we headed out Saturday night only to be tucked up in bed by 11.30pm - it was that bad! It felt like a night out in Gloucester!!!! The next day we visited the Te Papa museum which was probably Wellington's only saving grace! The museum was excellent, we learnt lts! It was huge so only checked out a few of the exhibitions including the whale one which was nearly as good as whale watching. Really interesting to see how the attitudes in NZ have changed towards whaling. In the 70's whaling was a big industry in NZ and now NZ head up the anti-whaling committee and have banned all commercial whaling. Free willy!!! After a few hours of educating ourselves we went to the cinema to see Atonement! The next morning we had a scary Peeping Tom incident in the girls showers so got the hell out of Wellington!

Next stop.. Taupo!!! Rain, rain and more rain!! So we got the hell out of Taupo! Thats it - it was that exciting!!

Next stop.. Rotorua!!! A bit of drizzle and it stank of rotten eggs becuase of all the thermal pools but we decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and stayed for 2 nights. We really liked it Rotorua and managed to fit in quite a lot while we were there. After arriving in the morning we spent the afternoon at the Agrodome checking out sheep! We went to a 1hr sheep show where they displayed 19 breeds of sheep that they have in NZ, showed us how to shear a sheep and gave us a sheep dog display with the dogs jumping all over the backs of the sheep!! Very random but it was good fun! That evening we went to the Mitai Maori village for a Maori cultural encounter evening which included a cultural show, walk through the rainforest to see the glow worms, a canoe display and a sit down Maori meal where the food is coooked in the ground (hangi). The evening was fab and it was really good to learn about the Maori and their culture, the food was excellent too!! They performed the Haka for us which was brilliant but quite scary!! The next day we were booked onto a white water rafting trip along the Kaituna river which has Grade 5 rapids and a 7m waterfall which we would be rafting down!! The rafting was great fun, it only lasted an hour but that was probably long enough as we were aching from all the paddling the next day. The waterfall was pretty scary as we all had to hold on and duck thinking that we might capsize. We all went underwater but managed to somehow stay afloat - check out our photos! In the afternoon we went back to where the Agrodome was for Charlotte to try out Zorbing! Zorbing is where you are put inside a giant inflatable ball with water inside and rolled down a hill! It was so much fun, just like a giant waterslide! That night it was industry night at one of the local bars so we went out and crashed the christmas party and met up with the guys that we went rafting with and also those that worked at the zorbing place. Good fun!

After our 2 nights in Rotorua we drove to Raglan on the west coast stopping off at the Waitomo caves along the way. We payed for the Glow Worm Caves tour which took 45mins and included a boat ride through the cave where you get to see the thousands of glow worms that line the top of the caves. You are in complete darkness so the glow worms are all that you see, it is a really pretty sight and just like seeing thousands of stars in the sky. We're really glad that we did this.

We arrived in Raglan in the afternoon, Raglan is small coastal village not too far from Hamilton and is famous for its surfing and featured in the surf film Endless Summer. The hostel that we stayed in was probably the nicest hostel that we have stayed in throughout our trip. It had such a homely feel to it and great views out to sea. That evening we just chilled out ready for a full day of surfing the next day. We hired boards and wetsuits from the hostel so were able to grab a free ride down to the beach. The waves were excellent and perfect for beginners. We manged to stand up quite a bit and do a few turns!!! There are no sharks in the water here so we were a lot more confident than we were when we were in Byron Bay!! The sun came out too so we managed to squeeze an hours sunbathing! Bonus!!

We are now in Auckland which is much nicer than Wellington! We met up with some friends yesterday that we had met in Oz so went out for a few drinks last night. The bar was mostly full of 18yr olds - we're definitely getting too old!!

All in all we've had a great time in New Zealand, we much preferred the south island to the north but glad that we did it as it has got better since we've gone on. This month has flown by and we really can't believe its going to be Christmas in a matter of days and only a few more weeks left of our trip :-(

Not sure when our next blog will be, we may end up doing seperate ones as Charlotte is off back to Oz for Christmas and New Year and Becky is going back down to the south island. Next stop after New Zealand is Fiji, bring on the island life!!

We hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year, wish we could be there to celebrate with you all! Lots of love and seasons greetings! Charlotte and Becky xxxxxx