Hey everyone we're so so sorry for the lack of blog action but theres just been sooo much to do! Thinking that pictures speak a thousand words i keep trying to load some of them up but i've just wasted an hour tryingv that and it won't work grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

So a brief summary in words will have to do:

After leaving Auckland for trhe Bay of Island we passed briefly through Sheep World to a lovelky place called Pahia where we zoomed around the island on a 90kmph speed boat, ate bbqs, snorkelled and saw dolphins. Our next stop was Hokianga a cute little harbour where we stayed at a hostel run by some Jersey people it was pradise-that evening we went on the Kauri footprints which involved a couple of awesome mauri guys saying "kia ora!"(a mauri greeting/expression used in multiple scenarios) a lot and showing us their cultural heritage in the forest with the lord and father of the forest being some 4 million year old ginourmous trees-as the sun set and the bark glowed silver in the moonlight they sang some mauri prayers and their voices sent shivers down our spines it was trruely spectacular (like the voices out of the liion king musical) That evening was definantly one of the highlights of our trip.

Back in Auckland we partied with a couple of the magic bus drivers who we had made friends with and did a day tour of the city including a bridge walk and a ttrip up a couple of volcanoes.

Then we commenced our tour..

In Whitianga we visited the hot water beach, Cathedralk Cove (which is also gorgeous) and carved our own mauri neclaces out of cow shin bone, we did black water rafting and saw the glow worms of the waitamo caves, and soakedin a natural hot springs jacuzzi in rotorua which left us stinking of sulphur but was a great experience(we even met a guernsey guy in rotorua). One evening we went to a traditional mauri feast and performance which was good but felkt a bit fake in comparison to the genuine mauros at hokianga.

The the weather turned on us and Taupo was a little disapointing as both our sky dive and Tongaruri crossisng were cancelled :( but this was where we met a really cool groyup of people who we are still travelling with now-some canadaians, scottish, irish, english and german and we had a big night of drinking!

Wellington and the sun was shining we took cable cars up to the top of the hill and wlalked down through the botaniclal gardens, went to the beach and went to a music concert in the evening with some famous kiwi bands! Our north island experience had been great!

The boat arrived in Picton early afternoon and we made our way through vinyards to Nelson where we again found ourselves at a beach and found a really cooll irish bar in the eve ning run by a guy who could have been the main guy from shameless! The next day was scorching sun and we embarked on a coach to Abel Tasman a spectacular National Park before we had even left the boat for our hike we had seen one of the worlds top 10 most beautiful beaches and a stinmg ray! Then followed the 13 km hike through jungle following the golden sands and turqoise clear waters of the coast. It was tiring but worth it!

Greymouth in comparison was a little dull but we only spent one night there which was enough for the brewery tour and a lot of beer tasting!

Franz Josef Glacier from what we saw of it was beautiful but we never managed to hike on the glacier itself due to the rtorretial rains which the south island is known for and which seem to be following us!

We did however manage to loose the rain for our stay in Queens town - the setting for the lord of the rings was around this area and it is just amazing! we viewed the rivers and lakes by boat before a trek up a mountain to see it all from above-i have some incredible photos! We also went down to the Fjords of Sound and saw what can only be described as paradise in the form of waterfalls, islands, clear water and of course the seals!

Today we arrived in Dunedin and have stuffed ourselves full of chocolate on the Cadburys Faqctory tour.

I'm sorry this has been such a brief over view but we are bith safe and having an amazing tiime! New Zealand so far can only be described (in local lingo) as SWEET AS!