Kia ora from Queenstown my people! Yep, thass right, we are now in Queenstown. Well, I am at any rate. And Farida was until about 7am this morning, but then we realized that we'd left our home somewhere, so she went back to find it. Good girl. Where were we last...Taupo, and just about to jump out of a 'plane if I'm not very much mistaken? Well, jump we did, and once more, the tandem skydive experience was phenomenal. The views of Lake Taupo and the volcanic landscapes around it were beautiful, and of course, the adrenaline from the 45 second freefall was a bit of a buzz. We jumped from 12000 feet...and as we were ascending I noticed the other novices clambering up onto the laps of their instructors to get safely strapped in...so I began to do likewise. Only it turned out that those others had paid a little extra for some 'special' treatment, so I had to make do with being secured whilst sitting on the hard wooden bench. Dommage. Anyway. We both landed safely, and then set off for the long(ish) drive to Wellington, where we arrived just in time to book ourselves onto the ferry across to the South Island. Once on the South Island we headed pretty much straight away, barring a night's sleep, for the Abel Tasman National Park up on the north-western peninsula. Having been assured of a few days of fine weather, we decided to book ourselves into a hut on the Friday night (28th April), so we could do a couple of days trekking along the coastline. The trek involved catching a water taxi on the Friday morning about 50km north, and then hiking back to the starting point to pick up Brains (or Homey if you prefer...the monikers are abundant). From the moment we sat down in the boat (being towed to the jetty by a tractor) to the moment we dragged our sorry selves through the door of the hut (no heating, no electricity, 7 people to each bunk), we got rained upon. Or on. Either way, we got wet. Still, the coastline was as spectacular as we'd been promised, and the sun came out for our second day's hike back to the van. I was trying to subtly drop in somewhere that the trek is meant to take 3 days, and that we'd beasted it in 2, but I have failed, so I'm just going to boast about it instead. Look at us, the fit and healthy travelers. :s One trek down, we headed down the west coast to a place called Franz Josef, famous for its humungous glacier. After giving up on the cooking the night before our glacier trek, and opting for pizza and beer instead (lots of carbs...needed the energy), we set off in 2 separate groups to go tramping around tonnes of ice for 6 or 7 hours. The photos (which will come in the next couple of days, I promise) are basically of just that..tonnes of ice, so you may want to skip a few, but I was pretty impressed. Aside from 500kg of ice falling down a few metres ahead of our guide and me, leaving another 500 precariously balanced above us, the day was fairly uneventful - thoroughly enjoyable though, and slightly taxing on the now weary thighs. Another pizza and a few more beers down and the Frodomeistress and I headed further south to Te Anau with a couple of lovely Irish lasses from Galway (one was actually from the border of Slygo Robin, you'll be enthralled to know). Te Anau is the main stop-off point for people wanting to get to Milford Sound to go on a boat cruise or a helicopter ride over yet more stunning scenery. Not being the richest fit and healthy backpackers in the world, we opted for the boat cruise, and the photos will have to pretty much speak for themselves. The main bonus was seeing a pod of bottlenosed dolphins, some of whom came and swam along at the bow for a while - see photos again. Farida and I then decided that we hadn't punished ourselves enough, and that some more trekking was in order...so off we went on the Routeburn tramp. (No, we didn't find some homeless dude from a place called Routeburn and ask for a piggyback, a 'tramp' is what the Kiwis call a hike. Look at me and my lingo. Sweet as). The Routeburn trek is another one that should really take 3 or 4 days to complete..but full of confidence on the back of our previous experience, we decided that we were more than capable of surpassing the recommended distances in all of the guidebooks, and chose to trek ¾ of it, leaving poor old Brains at the beginning, stay a night at a lodge, and then trek back the next day. Check out the not-so-sensible, not-so-rich, not-so-very-fit-and-healthy backpackers as they weep at the end of the first day. The Routeburn is an Alpine trek, and parts of it we were up in the snow, if only briefly...the views yet again made it all worthwhile, but once we'd made it to the lodge (which we did manage, to our credit) we were so exhausted we decided to just hike out the other end the next day, and then try and make our way back to the beginning by bus. Small problem - low season started beginning of May, so no buses. Hitching a lift it is. A kindly Korean fella by the name of Tchi-Pin-Wah (ok, I made that one up), gave us a lift all the way to Queenstown, and then Friday, as I mentioned at the beginning of this lengthy script, caught a bus in the early hours of this morning to go and pick up our little buddy. I did try to hitch there last night, but it seemed nobody wanted to pick me up. Can't think why...it's not as if last night provided my first shower in a week. Too much information, move on, Dave. Right then, that leaves us with little old me in Queenstown, writing you guys an update for the blog. The only thing I managed to do this morning was pay for a bungy jump from the second highest base in the world - the Nevis. Doing that on Monday. Yes, I am afraid. Thanks G&G. I love you guys. Oooh, what's almost interesting is that I paid for that using Farida's bank card, without even knowing. Hope she's got some cash on her otherwise paying for the petrol could be interesting...poor girl might end up washing some dishes...who knows to what levels she might sink... I was going to include some (more) Interesting Facts for you all to note down, but have decided that this has been a fairly lengthy entry already. What's that? You REALLY want to read some Interesting Facts? Oh, ok then. If you insist: Franz Josef, receiving an average of between 40 and 65 metres of annual rainfall, stands at the third wettest place in the world. Last year, they had 80 metres. That compares to a UK average measured in hundreds of mms, which I've been looking for on the met office home page, but I can't find. I'm sure one of you really busy guys back home (Dan, Boon, Sam...in you I trust) will find it out for me. The visible part of Franz Josef glacier, which you'll see on the photos, stretches for 6km...only half of its actual length. It was named after an Austro-Hungarian Emperor by one of his brown-nosing subjects, Herr Haast. For this incredible gesture of butt-kissing, the honourable title of Herr Von Haast was bestowed upon him. Wow, how interesting. The second wettest place in the world is Milford Sound. Tick. That receives....ummmm, more rainfall than Franz Josef. Cherrapunji, in the Indian state of Meghalaya, purports to be the wettest place in the world, although I've also been told that somewhere in Thailand holds this trophy. Good stuff. Right, congratulations on getting thus far...log in again for a few more photos in a couple of days time...I promise not to write another entry for at least another week. That's not to say I won't be checking my message board, so be friendly. Hope you are all well, lots of love! xxx