Yes ive been bad at writing but have been soo busy! And this is gonna be reallly long! Stayed in Sydney till Jan 7th, had an awesome new year (Happy 2007 everyone!) watching the fireworks over the opera house and harbour bridge. Was an amazing but exhausting day since we'd camped out all day for the best spot - met a group of friends and sat supping wine all day so wasn't all bad! The fireworks were incredible - at one point they were being set off from the bridge, over the opera house, off barges on the river and off the top of all the skyscrapers. Crazy!

Flew into Christchurch, NZ, and spent a couple of days doing not very much! Slept off our sydney mentalness and to be honest theres really not a lot to do in Chirstchurch! Headed down to Akaroa where we did an awesome wilderness cruise and saw loads of dolphins, seals and penguins! Spent a couple of days chilling out as it rained non stop so we got very lazy! Headed down south to Oamaru - where it was still raining but we managed to drag ourselves from the warmth of our hostel to watch blue penguins at dusk - was sooo cute seeeing them hop out of the water, brush themselves off and then have a little chat before wandering off to their nests. We got to see some very scared penguins in the car park on the way out - so cute.

We then headed down to Dunedin in the south - where we "Wwoofed" for a week (stands for willing workers on organic farms.) Apparently the thought of Anna and I on a farm is somewhat funny but we did have a really good time. We were surrounded by all things farm like - farmer has a 500 acre cattle and sheep farm. So funny watching TV being surrounded by cows! We shut the curtains and pretended we were in the city! We'd spent the first day doing domesticated chores in the house (more for our benefit than the farmer!) so the 2nd day of manual labour was a bit of a shocker! The farmer had asked us to do some weeding and promptly handed us huge picks, called grubbers which weighed a ton and asked us to remove thistles from a field ... which of course was full of them - every square inch was covered!!! Anna and I were obviously horrified but the farmer sent us off with sandwiches to work for the day.... After 4 hours we were in absolute agony but we had mastered the art of removing thistle roots with one fell swoop! Luckily we only had to do about 2 hours the next day and it was amazing how much our perspectives changed once we'd actually made some progress and cleared the field - we were so proud of ourselves! Rest of the week we didnt do too much - watched the farmer shearing sheep and we even hearded up some cows! We got fed really well - tasty lamb that even gets sent to Marks & Spencers at home! Spent the final day preparing for the weekend market, so Anna and I were in charge of veges - we made a complete hash off hacking the organic lettuces which were his pride and joy. We thought it was a nice little job but these organic lettuce were covered in maggot like flys and surrounded by nettles, by the time i"d pulled off all the dead leaves the lettuces were soo embarrassingly tiny!! By the time we'd finished with them, there were lettuce leaves all over the garden, half-hacked lettuces lying in the field from when i'd decided they were too gross to carry on cutting and the whole place was just a mess. Anna and I have now vowed that we are pro'pesticide all the way and if its organic we dont want to know! We were so worried about the mess we'd made of his garden that we gathered up all the disgarded leaves and hid them under a load of hay like naughty children, it was so funny! They weren't even properly covered coz we were laughing too hard by this point and there were a few silly songs sang ...our fav being "i see you baby, shaking that lettuce!"

Spent Saturday morning flogging his organic meat and veges at the market altho we were a bit gutted as no one seemed to want to buy the peas which we had handpicked ( i forgot this was actually the job from hell baring in mind my pea phobia, luckily they were still podded so i didnt have to face the greenness!) Definately had an eventful week on the farm!

 We then headed back up to Christchurch to meet my sister who was flying in to South Island for a week holiday after spending a week in Auckland with her friend. Spent a day in Christchurch, didnt take long to convince liz that it wasnt worth sticking around, had a shocking night out so i wont even go there! hired a car for the week, called enid, and headed up north to Kaikoura, where we toured a winery ...yum yum altho ive deccided theres waaaay too much hard work to work on a vineyard! Had planned on going swimming with dolphins in Kaikoura but due to the rubbish weather it was all booked out so headed up to Picton the next day, which was reaaaally pretty. Went sea kayaking...really funny bearing in mind liz and i were in a tandem kayak and i was in charge of steering! Im quite impressed we didnt capsize or kill each other altho it was close!

 Spent the next morning on a Dolphin cruise to go swimming with them .... a really good trip altho we didnt see as many dolphins as we had hoped. Spent ages jumping in the freeeezing cold water chasing dolphins and singing away only for them to rudely keep swimming in the other direction. Luckily for me, i got stranded in the water as the current kept pulling me and 3 others away from swimming back to the boat so we were just told to hang tight while they turned the boat around. Whilst being stranded in the middle of the South Pacific i got surrounded by dolphins .... so cool but a shame Liz and Anna weren"t with me. They did get to swim with some tho. Was really fun!

Spént the afternoon driving to Hamner Springs, pretty comical journey in Enid ... whilst i was behind the wheel i turned a corner only to be greeted by hundreds and hundreds of sheep in the middle of my road! Liz and Anna were laughing so hard whilst i was trying not to run over any wee lambs ...such stupid animals as they kept running out in front of me! It went on forever but the farmer had told me to keep driving but i really felt like stopping and peeping my horn!!! Spent the next day at natural hot springs in Hamner ... really pretty and my sis bought me a beauty package at the spa (i think i looked like i was in need after 4 months!) so i had a lush facial, mud treatment and massage! Its a hard life

! Liz is flying back as i write so Anna and i heading down to Mount Cook tommorrow and then Queenstown where we are hoping for some party action!

 Lots of love xxx