Hi Everyone!

After a fantastic fun day in Queenstown we went back into the Fiordlands to Manapouri where we left for our trip on Doubtful Sound! The tour company ensured us it would be quite a journey to get to the sound and they weren't joking! First of all we got on a coach, then onto a boat, followed by another coach and then onto another boat then finally into our kayaks!

As we were travelling the tour guide/bus driver/skipper gave us the history of animal imports onto the island. Did you know there are approximately 50-60 millions possums in NZ…More than the number of sheep, and this probably solves the mystery of the phantom scrabbling animal last night that was keeping us awake!

Anyway I digress…I forgot to tell you that in between all the various transport adventures we were kitted out in the most attractive rubber babygrow! Chris looked particularly fetching in his J We hopped into our kayaks and began our days paddling out on Doubtful Sound.

We were so lucky to once again be seeing such an amazing place out of season as the whole day we saw less than 10 people! The one thing that strikes you the most is the deafening silence; the only sounds we heard all day were a couple of ducks, birds and a tiny sprinkling of rain. Even Chris commented that I had been unusually quiet but I think even I was enjoying the silence for once J

We paddled upstream to an island and then traced the cove around to where we stopped for lunch. The sun had come out at this point and the sandflies were having a field day nibbling our cheeks and noses! After a quick break we hopped back into our kayaks and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the sound. Once again I'm finding it hard to describe how beautiful it was and even the photos don't do it enough justice...let me just say amazing! The only disappointment of the day was that we weren't lucky enough to spot any dolphins…however, our guide did get rather excited at a couple of over-enlarged paradise ducks…nice but not quite as entertaining as dolphins!

The boat picked us up and Chris just had time to strip down to his swim shorts to throw himself into the freezing cold water…I honestly don't know what makes him do it but he came back out pretty damn quick!

Today we spent the day in Wanaka relaxing by the beautiful lake. We have just had a great night out at the Wanaka 'Cinema Paradiso' which is an old school tiny cinema (set up in a kiwi's shed). It is decked out with retro sofas and armchairs and there is even an old Beatle car for you to sit in! We enjoyed a warm giant cookie whilst watching 'The Boys are Back', a true sad story, which was good but to be honest it was more about the setting for us! After we had a lovely home made pizza and now I'm frantically catching up on 3 days blogging…fun is really getting in the way of my new hobby!

Speak soon folks,

Netti & Chris xxx