After a long (freezing!) cold night at Melbourne airport, we boarded our plane to Christchurch (New Zealand) both immediately falling asleep on the plane as we were taking off. Those of you who know us, know that neither of us like flying, so the fact we managed to fall asleep during take off and not be wide awake with nerves, shows you how tired we were!

We arrived in New Zealand and got a shuttle bus to our hotel. We were both looking forward to having our own room after staying in hostels in Australia. The hotel was really nice and in a great location on Cathedral Square. We forced ourselves to stay awake, enjoying the TV in our room, which was showing British programmes like 60 Minute Makeover and Come Dine With Me. We had dinner at a really nice pizza restuarant and then finally gave in to sleep!

We had one day before our tour started so we explored a bit of the square and went into the cathedral there, which was beautiful. That night we went to an Ice Bar, we'd wanted to go to one in Sydney but it had closed and the again in Melbourne but we never got round to it, so we said that we had to do it. It was really good (and obviously very cold!) We then re-packed (yet again!) ready for the start of our tour.

We had an early start getting picked up outside our hotel, there ended up being 16 of us in total on the tour from all over the world. We had two tour guides this time and were played our bus theme song, which Candy loved straight away. We drove for a while and stopped off mid morning at a sheep farm, where we were given tea and cakes and then saw a sheep being sheared. Driving through the landscape, it is hard to describe how beautiful this country is. We had only been here for a few days and only seen the countryside for a small part of it, but already we were in love with it. We then stopped at Lake Pukaki, which has amazing clear turquoise blue water. It's running from Mount Cook, an ice capped mountain, so the water had particles in it from the ice that reflect in the sun giving this amazing colour. It didn't look real! That night we stayed at Lake Ohau Lodge, a really cute little lodge set within the mountains, we had dinner and then some drinks getting to know the group.

Today our destination at the end of the day was going to be Milford Sound, and to visit it would mean an overnight stay on a boat. Something we were both a bit dubious about but nonetheless, we were looking forward to the day ahead! We stopped off at a fruit farm and then walked up through a group of mountains called the Chasm. We got to see some more breath-taking scenery, the photo's just do not do it justice! We then got to the boat late afternoon and boarded for the evening. Immediately you could feel the movement on the boat as it wasn't that big and it didn't help that our rooms were down at the bottom. We both took sickness tablets and went and sat on the deck up the top. Emma felt better pretty much straight away but Candy wasn't feeling too great, then we got splashed by a massive wave, time to go inside! After that though, Candy started to feel better and took photo's of some of the group jumping off the side of the boat (they were allowed to do this as we had anchored!) and then we had dinner. That evening we played boardgames, both of us challenging eachother and two American girls we had met - Shannon and Jamie. It was a nice chilled out evening and another good way of getting to know people better.

The next day we travelled to Queenstown - the adrenaline capital of New Zealand. You can many acitivities here and the nightlife was meant to be really good too, so obviously we were looking forward to that! We were staying at Lakeview Holiday Park and although there was only four of us sharing, there was enough beds for six as it had a living area aswell. It was really good to have some space and we were staying here for a few night so a chance to un-pack (if only a little bit) We had access to a kitchen and we'd bought some food from the supermarket earlier that day as we were trying to save the pennies. Many people on the group had the same idea so we all cooked there that night. We didn't end up cooking until gone 10pm though as we were chatting to the girls we mentioned earlier (Shannon and Jamie) who were now sharing a room with us. We all got on really well and clicked really quickly, we are all on the same wave length - don't know if that's a good thing or not!

The next day people went and done their individual activities. We hadn't booked anything up as it was all quite expensive and plus not much of it was our kind of thing anyway (well, maybe not Emma's kind of thing, Candy may be slightly braver!) In the afternoon the four of us 'roomies' went for a walk along the water (again, some amazing views!) and then had lunch at Ferg Burger. It's famous for it's huge burgers and anyone who's been to Queenstown says you have to try one as they are so great. We have to say we agree! And they aren't joking when they say they are huge! That night we met the whole group for dinner and then onto an Ice Bar - we're pro's at going to these places now! After that we went onto several bars. It's safe to say, a good time was had by all!

The following day Candy and Shannon went on a little tour with the group to various sights around Queenstown and even tried panning for gold (not much luck though unfortunately!) and then were given some money by our tour guides to by some fudge from this cute little sweet shop. That evening we all went out for a meal again at a really great pizza restuarant, food was lovely and it was paid for as part of the tour so that was even better! After that we checked emails and then packed as we were leaving the next day for Fox Glacier.

Fox Glacier is a tiny 'town' which has around 150 people permanantly living there (a local apparently disputed this and said there was actually closer to 300 but still, very small!) where people stop over when they do hikes up to the glacier. You could take a helicopter up there and then land on it which whilst amazing, was also really expensive so we gave it a miss. The people that did do it said it was amazing which is great but as we are backpackers, every penny counts! We've still seen some amazing views which hasn't cost a thing so we're not too disheartened about it, and the best things in life are free as they say! That night we stayed in Fox Glacier, we were sharing with the girls again and stayed up for a fair few hours laughing our heads off trying to imitate eachother's accents! We headed out early the next morning back to Christchurch.

Half of our group were only doing a 7 night tour so for them, tonight is their last night with the group. The girls are staying for the full 15 nights like us which is really good but it's sad to see some of the other people go. We've become a little make shift family and it's shame we won't all stay until the end. But we're going out for a meal and some drinks together to give them a good farewell. Then we head up to the North Island tomorrow. If it's anything like the South then we're sure it's going to be amazing. New Zealand has surpassed both our expectations, to say it's beautiful would be an understatement! We're both really enjoying the tour so far, we shall of course keep you all posted...