New Zealand has been fan-blooming-tastic, but I can safely say that we're looking forward to leaving for the sunshine!

After flying into Auckland over a month ago, we started our journey south in a posher little campervan to our first stop Rotorua, which is one smelly place due to sulphur from the geo thermal activity. Next stop was Lake Taupo where we both did a skydive from 15,000ft - Joel is still asking himself why he jumped out of a perfectly good plane. We survived though, an amazing experience but it was bloody cold up there. The views of the lake and Mount Tongariro were awesome and it made nearly freezing to death well worth it. Over to Hawke Bay to stay with friends (thanks Steve & Debs!) - did some wine tasting and honey tasting, not at the same time though. Qucik drive over to Palmerston North where we stayed with more friends (thanks Sandy & David!) for a true Kiwi experience - lamp, L & P, all the Kiwiw sweets (sorry, lollies!) and hokey pokey ice cream, yum! On to rainy/windy/cold Wellington - went to the hude museum there which is really just too big, then thought of a better way of hiding from the rain - Indiana Jones at the cinema, thank you very much!

The ferry crossing across the Cook Strait to the south island was beautiful, esp coming into Picton. Kaikoura was next, no whale spotting for us but we did see some stinky seals and dolphins from a distance. We then stayed a couple of nights at the incredible Limestone Hills (thanks Gareth & Camille!) - family friends of Joel's parents and wow we were spoilt! Not only did we learn about truffles (it's a truffle farm!), have home cooked meals and fine wine, we had our very own cottage to stay in! Unfortuntely we had to leave :o( , tried to snatch Peg the dog, but thought it best we leave her there ti sniff out the truffles this winter.

Onto Christchurch for Joel's birthday and after briefly seeing the sights, it was off to another friends for the night (thanks Trudi!). Homemade soup and green tea were on the menu, true Wiz style. A really awesome evening catching up and what a good way to spend a travelling birthday. Next morning it was onto Dunedin via the Moeraki Boulders. Clare was really looking forward to the Cadbury factory tour, but can you believe it was closed for annual maintainence?!? So not a happy bear. She soon cheered up as onto the next best thing - beer and the Speights Brewery Tour. The tour was good but even better when it finished as it was off to the bar to sample the products.

Over to the West and Milford Sound via Te Anau - an absolutely incredible drive. Milford Sound itself was just breathtaking, perhaps the most beautiful place we've seen on our travels. From tranquil Milford Sound, it was onto adrenaline crazed Queenstown. Seeing as we'd both done a skydive and Clare a bungy in South Africa and Joel too scared, we did the Shotover jet instead and that was brilliant - whizzing through the canyon at 80k's an hour doing 360 spins in water less than a foot deep! We also tried to hit the slopes at Coronet Peak but on the opening day, when we had all our gear and had driven up the mountain, everything was closed as it was pissing down with rain Oh well, we didnt stick around and headed to Wanaka. It was SO cold there, we chickened out of sleeping in the van and upgraded to a nice warm dorm - good move as the van was covered in the ice the next morning!

The drive up to glacier country via the Haast Pass was also incredible. After seeing Fox Glacier from the bottom, we booked an all day walk on the bigger Franz Josef Glacier. Before starting we were kitted up in the full gear - over trousers, rain jacket, hats, gloves, boots and most important - crampons. The walk to the front of the glacier took about 45 mins even though it only looked 10 mins away! Once on the ice it was awesome, first hour walking up through the dirty ice then into the beautiful clear blue ice higher up. We hiked and climbed down cravasses and through caves, our guide had to cut steps along the way! Awesome day.

From there we headed up the west coast and eventually back to windy/rainy/cold Wellington on the ferry. Hoped for better weather to see the city but it was crap so a no go there. We camped one night in Mount Tongariro National Park and hoped to see 'Mount Doom' but surprise surprise it was cloudy! Next attraction we did was the Waitomo Caves - awesome place, thousands of years old and full of glow worms. Weather couldnt spoil that as it was underground! Also saw a big fluffy rabbit get sheared which was so funny!

Back to Auckland for the All Blacks v England game and it was a great experience even though we lost. To see them so the Haka was wicked and the atmosphere was great too. We changed our travel plans in NZ just so we could see this match and were glad we did.

Next up was the Bay of Islands, which we didnt see as there was a storm so will have to come back in the summer! The weather improved though and we had a fantastic day seeing Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach with an awesome guide. Sand Toboganning was brilliant and we didnt mind walking back up huge dunes.

So now we're back in Auckland and we fly to the sunshine (hopefully!) of Western Samoa tonight. Had a great night catching up with friends last night (thanks SJ!) and now it's time to say goodbye to NZ!