It's time for another update everyone!

Since our last blog, we've finished our time in Fiji and are now in New Zealand. As we said last time our next stop in Fiji was Waya Island in the Yasawas where we stayed in a place called Octopus Resort. Let me tell you, it was pure paradise! We didn't want to leave. As we arrived on the island, we were greeted with a traditional Bula welcome, where all the staff stood on the beach singing and playing guitars and ukuleles. That night, we had an official kava welcome ceremony. Kava is a traditional Fijian drink that basically tastes and looks like muddy water!

Whilst on the island, we made a group of friends (ahhh, Fiji friends!) who we later went on to win the quiz night with, getting us a $100 bar tab and a champagne breakfast the next morning! We were also able to visit the village on the island where the staff live which was really interesting. Everyone was so happy and friendly, calling out bula (hello) whenever you walked past, even the little children. Sam went on three scuba dives while we were on the island, one being a night dive. On his first dive, a couple who we became friends with, got engaged underwater! Kind of makes the third dive seem a bit boring really doesn't it! Only joking, he said they were all fantastic and he saw so much.

We both really enjoyed our time on Waya Island. It felt like a little holiday within a holiday. I'd say it's been the best place we've been so far in terms of beachy places and the people that we met made it all the more enjoyable. I don't think we would have had half as good a time if it wasn't for meeting them.

After we left the island, we were back on the mainland for around a week, a bit in limbo as we'd wanted to make our flight to New Zealand a bit earlier. We met up with some of the friends we'd made on Waya Island back on the mainland, going rum tasting and driving around the town looking for mud pools but unfortunately, not being able to find them. Sam wore his speedos specially for the occasion so he was pretty gutted that the world didn't get to witness his white ass! The time will come one day Sam, don't worry!

During the time on the mainland, we decided to go to another island for one night just so that we weren't stuck on the mainland the whole time. We went to Beachcomber island which is supposedly the party island, although it was quite quiet when we were there so we didn't see much partying going on. Our main reason for wanting to go there was for Sam to do some more diving and I wanted to see some sea turtles. And we did just that! Sam managed to fit two dives in, one was a shipwreck and the other was a reef and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy both of them. While he was out on the first dive, I went along to the turtle feeding session where I got to hold a 4 month old turtle!! Day..made!!

We decided after a few days that we may as we'll wait until our original date to fly to New Zealand, so booked a couple of nights in a resort in Pacific Harbour which is just up the Coral Coast. Whilst there, Sam went diving with sharks...not in a cage...he was free balling! Thankfully he's still got all his limbs intact. He did two dives at different levels in the water and saw lots of bull sharks, white, grey and black tip reef sharks and lots of other big fish like giant trevally. He even got a little souvenir when a tooth fell out of one of the sharks mouths! I'm looking forward to watching the DVD when we get the chance to see what it was like!

Something I will definitely take away from Fiji is how happy and friendly all of the Fijians were. We were there for three weeks and in that time, I think we came across maybe one or two people who were a little on the grumpy side and that was on our last day in the hotel we stayed in just to be closer to the airport. They get paid barely anything in terms of wages yet they're always smiling and laughing with one another. It just goes to show that you really don't need a lot to be happy in life and that's something I hope will stick with us when we get home.

As I said before, we're now in New Zealand. We've only been here for 6 days but we've done so much already. We flew into Auckland (with a little brat sitting behind my chair kicking it the entire journey) where we stayed for two nights. We planned to travel round the north island first, then go and travel the south island, however when we went to book the campervan, there was no availability for our dates to do the islands that way round. Instead, we ended up flying to Christchurch two days after getting here and have started travelling the south island.

Our camper is like a go-go-gadget car, they call them 'the Swiss Army knife of campers!' It has a mattress in the back with a fridge underneath, the back seat can swivel round, we have awnings that can go on the side and the back - it's really cool and much better than the box on wheels we drove to Ayers Rock and back!

So we picked the car up from Christchurch and after stocking up on food, we hit the road and drove to Dunedin. We couldn't really do a lot by the time we got there so we just set up camp for the night. The next day though, we went to Cadbury World! We both had a lot of fun here and got lots of free chocolate along the way...what's not to like?! Just 5 minutes up the road from Cadbury World is a street called Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the world. When we got there, we couldn't believe how steep it was, it was ridiculous! But, we did climb it. And the view from the top was well worth getting so out of breath for, it was lovely. Whoever lives in the houses at the top have wonderful views from their living rooms.

It was then time to move on and find somewhere to camp for the night. We headed towards Invercargill but along the way found a small, cheap campsite that was basically on someone's farm. It was a great little find though, as just up the road from it is the beach and if you carry on going for about 10 minutes, you get to a lookout point where you can see yellow eyed penguins (which are quite endangered apparently) on part of the beach. We then drove a bit further up towards the lighthouse and along various parts of the walking track, we looked down towards the rocks in the sea and saw lots of groups of fur seals going about their seal-y business. It was so fun, I could've sat there for hours watching them but Sam wanted dinner!

The next day (yesterday), we drove to Invercargill town centre but there wasn't really anything to do there so after lunch, we headed for Te Anau where we camped for the night. The drive in was lovely. So much farmland and mountains and sheep, sheep and more sheep! We also saw a few farms with deer in and a couple of alpaca farms too. The best part about camping here last night was the stars. We were lucky enough to be here on a clear night and at around 11:30pm, we looked up and saw absolutely thousands of stars. We could see the Milky Way, Orion's Belt, lots of shooting stars and we think we saw the southern lights, very faintly. It was such a peaceful night. We even set the alarm for 3am just in case there were anymore stars but there didn't seem to be.

So that brings us to today, where we've probably had the best drive of our whole trip so far. We went to Milford Sound this morning where we got on a cruise that took us all around. It was a two hour drive there and the views were absolutely stunning! When people say that New Zealand has some of the best landscapes, they are 100% right. It's quite a windy road and with every bend you go round, there's a new reason to say 'wow!' The pictures we took don't do justice to the beautiful mountains and lakes we saw. There was snow on the mountain tops, waterfalls coming down and millions of trees. According to our sat nav, as we were going along the road climbing the mountains, we got to around 910m above sea level! Both of us had to keep clearing our ears to stop them from popping. Once we were at the top at the highest point, we had to drive through the mountain. Yes, through it! It was incredibly dark in there and once we came out at the other side, again, the view was stunning! Finally we started to descend through the mountains and eventually reached the boat terminal. It truly was an amazing road to drive.

The cruise itself was very picturesque, if a little overshadowed by the drive there! Evidently, Captain Cook sailed past Milford Sound twice as it's completely hidden when you're out at sea. It just looks like a solid cliff. We saw some more fur seals sitting on the rocks as well as two giant waterfalls. Apparently when it rains, there are thousands of waterfalls on the mountains, but there are only two permanent ones. On the way back to the harbour, the skipper took the boat right up to the bottom of one of the waterfalls to get the spray from it, so Sam and I stuck our rain macs on and braced ourselves to get a bit wet...but we got soaked! I don't think either of us were expecting to get quite as wet as we did, but it was really fun.

And that brings us to now, sitting in our go-go-gadget machine back in Te Anau. It's looking quite cloudy this evening so I don't think we will be able to see very many stars tonight which is a shame. Tomorrow we're going to head towards Queenstown where we're planning on doing some wine tasting, but I think Sam will pass when it comes to the red wine though!