Well, our tour has now come to an end and we are both very sad. We've made some great friends and will hopefully be meeting up with some of them further into our travels.

Our South Island adventures began back on February 3rd, where we boarded the Inter-Island Ferry and did the North to South Island hop to Picton. From there we travelled by coach to Christchurch. On the way we stopped off to admire some of the seal colonies along the coast. Josie wanted to take one on board the coach, as the tour mascot!

After one night in Christchurch and a very brief visit to the city, we were back on the coach heading to Franz Josef. This journey took us to Hokitika to see the Jade greenstone carving factory. Very nice, but also very expensive!! We arrived in Franz Josef early evening and had a group meal and a few drinks with our tour (some of us had one too many...Danny).

The following day we had a refreshing start to the morning, we completed a four hour hike up to Fox Glacier. We saw some amazing views, drank the pure water running through the ice and rubbed exfoliating mud on our faces, the years fell off us instantly! We were pretty exhausted by the end but were looking forward to reaching Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world.

Our first in evening in Queenstown, we went for dinner at the Skyline restaurant on the top of a mountain, where we had to ride a gondola to reach it. There was a six course buffet dinner, where Danny definitely got our money's worth of food!!

The following morning, we both woke up very anxious ready for our skydive. The weather was perfect for what was to be an amazing experience. We both jumped from 12,000 ft and we bought great dvds and photos as evidence (especially for those of you who didn't believe Josie would have done it).

Later on Danny went to do the Mad Dog River Boarding Experience, in the Shotover River. It included boarding through rapids and whirlpools (where Danny actually thought he'd drowned), jet boat riding, rock jumping, a river slide and river swing! Amazing fun! Josie however, opted out, and stayed at the lodge to do the washing (good girl), she'd had too much excitement for one day!

That night we both went into town and drank in the Minus 5 bar (where everything is made from ice, and we had to wear fluffy coats and gloves). We later found a bar/club where we drank and danced the night away until the early hours of the morning. This bar allowed us to drink cocktails out of teapots, really fun!

The next morning, we had forgotten to set our alarm and we were both very hungover and nearly missed our White Water Rafting trip. Luckily enough the coach was waiting for us! We had a really good time rafting, no one fell in (Josie did lose an oar though). We all jumped in to swim through rapids, loads of fun. This helped clear our hangovers.

That afternoon, whilst Josie had a nap, Danny did one of the most terrifying things of his life (apparently). He did a Canyon Swing, over the Shotover Canyon. It was a 60 metre freefall jump, then 200 metre swing at the bottom of the canyon, before being pulled back up to safety. He bought the dvd as evidence, and you can tell how petrified he was! That night, we ate at our lodge and drank the bar dry with the rest of our group.

We were both then very sad to leave Queenstown the following morning, as we loved it so much. Our next stop was Milford Sound, a far quieter place, however very beautiful. We had an overnight cruise on a small boat, where we enjoyed some amazing views and copious amounts of alcohol.

From Milford, we went to Lake Ohau, where that evening we had a toga party, dancing and drinking the night away (again). It was really good fun, and the whole group participated. We then went back to Christchurch, where we had a final tour dinner, and a few drinks, before saying our goodbyes. Very sad.

The following day, we wandered around Christchurch centre, with a few close friends, before having lunch back at the hotel. We were then picked up at 4pm by friends of Danny's family who are putting us up for the remainder of our New Zealand experience. We fly to Sydney on Wednesday 13th Feb, and are really looking forward to what lies ahead.