Yo, how ya'll going? C here, brilliant news…the Crusaders have just beaten the Bulls!!! Back in the hunt for the Super 14's title!!!

So after yet another beautiful coach ride, albeit hungover, we arrived in Te Anau, the gateway to the Fiordland National park, we arrived and went for our standard Wayne wander! Went and saw lake Te Anau which is the 2nd largest lake in New Zealand, it was pretty spectacular as all of the lakes have come to be. The town itself was quite a small town but was really nice. We had a little chat on the pebble beach with an 'old boy' and his wife, and as we were chatting to his wife this old bloke was launching stones at ducks! Haha!! When we caught him out, he said it reminded him of when he was a young'un!!!!

So the next day we were booked onto a day trip to Millford sound, or Piopiotahi (if you can speak Maori!!) We had been told this trip was going to be a good one from a couple of people in Aus, and for the Aussie's to praise the Kiwi's it must be special, and it definitely lived up to expectations, the drive to Millford sound was about 3 hours and along some more beautiful roads that led through the Fiordland national park, the coach was a glass roofed coach so the surrounding mountains could be taken in, Fiordland is one of the wettest places on the planet and rains about 300 days a year, as we entered the national park the sky went from being Blue with a few clouds to being a clear blue sky, not a cloud to be seen! A good start to the day, we had a 2 and a half hour cruise booked on the Fiord, yes that's right, Millford sound is actually named wrong, as it's a Fiord not a sound, a Fiord being a valley carved out by a glacier and then flooded by the sea and a sound being a valley carved out by a river and then flooded by the sea!! The cruise started with great views of mitre peak, the tallest mountain surrounding Millford Sound, we then travelled down the fiord towards the Tasman sea, it was quite spectacular, the cliffs either side reaching heights of 1700m and the fiord that we were travelling on being 400m deep in the deepest places, as we cruised along we even got to see some fur seals lazing about on the rocks in the sun, it really was an amazing cruise. The sheer scale of the fiord is hard to describe, it really was huge, yet at the same time some of the best scenery in the world I would of thought, all in all it was a great day out and a must do for anyone thinking of a New Zealand trip. One thing the nature guide did tell us was a Maori story of how the Fiords were created, their was this boy who was being very destructive in his home area and was misbehaving so his father sent him down to the west coast to do something productive with his life, he started by hacking into the rock face and made the furthest south Fiord, his dad came and inspected it and told him he could do better, so he moved north and tried again, he kept trying and finally created the perfect fiord, his 14th and most northerly Millford Sound! A crazy story, but all in all it was a great day and we're very glad we managed to fit it in!

Yoyo, JB is on the keyboard.

Wow, so as if what C hasn't put isn't amazing enough. We decided to take our self to Doubtful Sound which, like Milford, is in fact a fiord.
In my opinion, twice as good, awesome, way bigger and way better. We were on our boat cruise through the fiord when we were joined by a (pod?) of dolphins maybe about 15 or 20, C was delighted, that's what he really wanted to see, after seeing them I could see why. Cool stuff. Then we headed out towards the Tasman Sea, back down the other side of through a few of the 'Fiord arms' where we did a 'sound of silence' basically where the boat switched its engines off and the only noise was the Fiords itself, basically silent minus a few bird noises. Pretty spectacular. Spectacular is the word I would use to describe the place. The pictures don't do it justice. Fantastic.
Then we got to go out on a kind of a mini lifeboat raft thing, exploring because we were staying over night on the boat.
Only 5 (out of about 70) were brave enough or stupid to go for a dip though, me n c included. 10 degrees apparently, to put in perspective for us, when were scuba diving on the barrier reef it was about 30 degrees. So a big drop. I wont write what C's words were when he jumped in…. ha.. "**** it's freezing". Mine were….. "**** it's cold".
Anyhow, once we'd got over how cold the water was we then had to get over how cool our little cabin was (please see album for excited cabin pics) we headed upstairs into the 'Titanic' style dining deck, for the grub they put on. For us anyway, it way out of our league. Ha.
So we slept overnight and woke up in the Fiords, doesn't get better than the view we woke up to I guess. The cloud was so low, very impressive, we then headed back to Te Anau for a needed rest.
But in fact what happened was we found a rugby ball so we went and kicked a rugby ball round for an hour or 3!! Good times.

So onto Wanaka, another coach journey, ipods and scenery saw the 5 hours trip seem quick. We checked into the backpackers then headed to 'Puzzle World', pretty funny, they had a massive maze, which me and C strategically (blagged) our way round then scooted round the Illusion rooms. Good afternoon. The next day though was the real deal. Wanaka Golf Club. New Zealand Open I believe me and C called it. A round of golf. For the first time in 3 weeks, we had hit Eglish weather. Rain. Didn't stop us. C was buzzing bout the Golf Cart we hired I was buzzing bout the 'Taylor Made' Clubs we got given. I guess I wont dwell on this bit too much C shot 152 that's right 152. He claims. "I'm the real winner I got 60 more shots than you, I'm all about value for money". I hit 97. (tut tut poor for me, but bad weather, is my excuse). Good times anyhooooo.

Onto Mount Cook, or Aoraki as the Maori call it which stands for Cloud Piercer. The tallest mountain on the continent, and it's a big b*****, stands over 3700m high. Nice nice. We went for a 5 hour valley walk which took us right to the bottom of the mountain which was cool. At the bottom there was a huge Glacier lake, very impressive. Defo worth a visit and a walk!

Over to C for the rest.

After the long way around of getting to Franz Joseph, (Mount Cook is actually only about 40km away, but has the southern alps in the way so we had to take the long way round!!) we arrived at the hostel and then headed straight for the Glacier guiding building, there were a couple of options to choose form but from the start their was only really going to be one winner, a full days ice climbing, it sounded great so we booked it up for the following day. Luckily it was about 7pm by this time so we didn't have long to wait…at 7.45am the next morning we were ready and waiting at the office, their were 6 of us booked onto the ice climbing that day, me and JB and a family of 4, luckily for us, they had stated they wanted a tour to themselves and paid extra to get this privilege, so lucky for us, we got a personal tour as well and dint have to pay for this!!! HAPPY DAYS!! It worked out really well as they seemed the type we wouldn't want to be stuck on the ice with for 6 or so hours!!! So we got kitted up, waterproof trousers, special boots, rain jackets, hats, mittens, backpacks with our harnesses, crampons, helmets and ice picks in and then headed off to the glacier, we then split into our 2 groups, we headed off first, me, Barnesie and our instructor for the day, Henry. It was about a 45 minute walk to the bottom of the glacier, through the rainforest, then over a couple of streams and rivers, another bit of rainforest and then we finally arrived, it was massive, it is also one of only 3 glaciers in the world to come within 300 meters of sea level, we stopped to put on our harnesses' and crampon's (things that go on your boot so you can walk on ice!!) we then started our ascent, the first part of the trek was fairly straight forward but no less amazing, it was the part where the half day trips went as well so it mainly had ice steps carved into the ice for ease of walking. As we had such a small group we were making great progress, we reached the first climbing area after going through one of the ice caves, a little cave which you could walk through to get up to the next level of ice, it was amazing and had been carved totally naturally by the melting of the ice! So we got our demonstration and then we got to have a little practice whilst Henry went up and set up the ropes. Rock, paper scissors again decided who went first and I lost again!! So it was JB up first, we started on some fairly simple walls and both managed to get to grips with it fairly quickly, we managed to have 2 go's each on two different walls in that area. Although it didn't have the adrenaline of a Bungy jump or skydive it was still just as good if not better, climbing about 20m in the air, using crampons and ice picks, was a great feeling! We then moved onto something better, a bit of a bigger wall and both got to have a couple of goes at that one, so by lunch time we had done 6 climbs each, the amount that people usually get to do in their whole day, and we were only just about to eat our triple ham sandwiches on the glacier!!! After lunch we set off for our next couple of climbs, their were two next to each other, one was ok, we both managed to do that one, nice and refreshed after lunch, the pain this sport causes the forearms in unbelievable, trying to hang on when your feet slip and then pull yourself up after becomes almost impossible after about 5 or 6 climbs!! We then got to try the same climb again, this time we both only used one ice pick! It was a lot harder and meant we had to try and really master the technique, this was the time we both had our first real falls and all four points of contact both came off the wall so we were being held up by the rope!! But we didn't let that get in the way, we were ready for the final challenge, it was about 30m high and had a nice little overhang at the top!!! JB was first up and after some good climbing managed to make it to the top, I was next up and well……I didn't want to get top the top, I was happy about ¾ of the way up when I "jumped" off….…ok I fell off about ¾ of the way up then couldn't muster the energy to get started again!! Failure! We both had another go at this climb, Jacko just about making it to the top again, and me just about NOT! Haha! It was still a great day though, we both thought it was going to be a good day but didn't think it was going to be this good, we managed to get 10 climbs in when usually people would get 4, a big thanks to the posh people who wanted their own tour!! Haha!!!

Back over to JB for the trip down the mountain….

O yea by the way big thanks to the 4 fags who got us a private tour of the Glacier! Ha. Wooooooooo. So after 10 climbs, we headed down officially zonked, but seriously, some of the most amazing ice walls and crevices were on the way back down, it's class, and ice climbing was MINT! Hope the pics do it a touch of justice. Because there were only 3 of us including the instructor. We just 'wandered' back down. Which is the coolest way of putting it. O yea and we even got to walk down a new route that had been carved out that day by the Glacier workers. Mint.

So with all our South Island adventures done, time for the reality neither of us wanted to face. North Island. Work, but gotta do what ya gotta do. We smashed a 9am-6pm coach journey up the west coast to Nelson, and were writing this from CAPITAL CITY, we've made it to Wellington, which by the way is class.

So hope that's a good un' (blog) the next may not be as entertaining for us but for you I'm sure it will, as it hopefully will involve us doing some work….. (uuuuhhhhh that word makes me cringe…. Ha, nah looking forward to it).

Take it steady!

I think the message board is working again….. try it and see?

Love to you all mo fo's

JB and C, still "Living the Dream".

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX 4-1 isit!!! He he.

BOUNCE NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

P.S. Super 14's title is going to the Chiefs not C's much loved Crusaders.