Hello to you all, Am nearly at the end of my New Zealand leg of the trip now so will try and recap all that i have been up to in the last 4 weeks. After our journey down from Christchurch to Queenstown (with a stop over in Cromwell freezing in the car) I had to ring around town to see where i could get a nights accomodation as it was the winter festival there, so most places were fully booked. Over the next few days i tried to acclimatise to the cold weather all while moving around town every day staying in different hostels where ever there were beds available!! On our 3rd day there i was able to move into the same hostel as Paul and Stu and we picked up our ski passes ready to hit the slopes of the Southern Alps!! Our three days skiing were great and helped by the fact that the day before we started there was a huge dump of snow that covered the mountain! As Paul and Stu hadnt skiied before, i spent the first 2 days skiing round on my own and having lessons and then on the last day we all met up and spent the afternoon skiing together! In the evening we went out with some australians who were were sharing a dorm room with and watched some big australian rugby game! They decided that we should join in with supporting their team so were covered in blue sun cream which i am staill having trouble getting out of my shirt! It was a really good night but ended up being very tired the next day and sleeping in till late in the afternoon.

When we eventually got out of bed we set about trying to hire a camper van for the next week so that we could explore the south island. Ubnfortunately there were no camper vans to be had in Queenstown so we had to make do with getting a lovely nissan sunny and then trying to find cheap hostels to stay in! Our first trip was down to Milford Sound where we were hoping to take a boat cruise to see the wonderful scenery. Paul didnt have his license with him so he wasnt allowed to drive so Stu and I decided we would take it in turns to drive! My first chance to drive came on the way to Milford Sounds and it was very strange as the car was an automatic which i have never driven before. It also got dark very quickly and started to snow while i was driving so it made for an interesting first drive abroad! By the time we got to Milford Sounds it was deserted and everything was closed apart from a bar where they told us to head back out of Milford where we would find a little camp site where we could stay for the night and head back into Milford the next day. After driving for 30 mins we stillhadnt found the campsite so we found a little car park and settled down for another night freezing ourselves in the car! We were then woken at 7am by a road patrol telling us that the road we were on was being closed due to the heavy snow and they advised us to head to the cmapsite we were lookign for which was only 5 mins down the road. When we got there we were shown to a little log cabin with a log fire that was freezing cold. The owners then told us the road was likely to be closed all day so we would be stuck there with no chance of getting out! so we settled down to collecting wood and coal and picked up some puzzles and games form the kind owners of the camp! The day was then spent reading and exploring some of the sites around the camp (it had its own onsite museum!!) and also making the best snowman that the owners have ever seen!!We also put the chains on the car and slowly crawled down the road to a place where there was another waterfall and a place where Edmund Hillary did his training before he attempted everest!!

When the roads finally were clear we didnt have time to visit Milford Sounds as we needed to start our journey up the West coast. We drove for most of the day and managed to get to Wanaka just intime for us to check into a tiny little cabin and then settle in and watch Con Air! The next morning we headed off for a fun filled morning at puzzle world which involved a museum of illusions, lot so puzzles and also a huge maze which took over and hour to complete!! After that we headed to a place where we had a game of croquetpool which was playing croquet but in the form of a pool table, needless to say we were all rubbish at it! Paul and I also had a round of crazy golf which i won with a superb showing on the final hole! We stayed around in Wanaka for a bit longer and meet up with Manda from school before we headed off to Haast!

We arrived in Haast just before the hostel closed and found out that we were the only people staying in the huge place. Therefore we made ourselves at home and spread our stuff all over the living room, Paul then went 1 step further by dragging a duvet in and setting up camp in front of the tv! As there was nothing to do in Haast we left relatively early in the morning and headed to Franz Josef where we were planning on doing a glacier walk. On our way we stopped off and did some walks where we hoped we would see some dolphins and penguins, unfortunately all we saw was a lot of black dots on a far away beach that we were told were seals by some people who had some binoculars. When we arrived in Franz Josef we had plenty of time to settle in and cook ourselves some food before we had an early night ahaed of our great glacier walk the next day. After we got all kitted up in some lovely gear we headed out for the glacierand spent the day hiking u and then back down it. The weather was really good and the views we got were stunning especially in places where the ice was a vivid blue! It ended up being not quite as tiring as we had expected so we had an evening outand toured the few bars that there are in franz josef. The next day we set offon a long drive up to Picton so we could get the ferryover to the North Island and the only real thing of note was that the hostel we stayed in served free hot chocolate cake at 8pm which was awesome!

When we arrived on the North Island we trudged arud to find somewhere to stay and ended up in the worst hostel i have been in on this trip! The staff were surely and didnt understand a joke, everything seemed to be broken and we ended up with a weird kid in our dorm room aswell! We got out of there as early as we could and hired a car to take us up to Auckland. From Wellington we headed straight to Taupo as its the cheapest place in New Zealand to do a sky dive. Unfortuantely the first day we were there it was cloudy and windy so no sky diving could take place but we managed to book ourselves in for a lunchtime slot the next day when the weather was perfect! Up until the point we were getting kitted up i hadnt actually been that nervous about doing it as it was just something i was doing in the future but the nerves started settling in then! I then had to cram into a tiny plane and watch someone jump out at 12,000ftbefore i was able to do my jump when we had reached 15,000ft! Luckily all i had to do was tuck my legs under the plane and lean my head back and my tandem diver did all the rest. I would try and explain how i felt when i first fell out but i dont think i can! All i can say is that apprently we were free falling for over a minute but it felt like 15 secs. The last bit when i had finally got used to the fact that i was free falling was awesome and i really had the chance to take in the whole experience. I was on a high for a while afterwards and couldnt quite believe that i had just jumped/been pushed out of a plane.

To recover from our huge adrenaline rush we decided to head to Rotorua where we had been told there was some awesome luging action to be had! This ended up consisting of the three of us hurtling down a hill on various courses in little go kart type contraptions. It ended up being a lot faster than i had expected and after mentioning the fatal words that i thoguht it would be impossible to flip a cart i ended up on my elbows after paul rammed me out of mine! I ended up winning the most arces overall though even if it came at the cost of a scabby elbow!

Anyway i think that is enough typing for me for now! Sory if it seemed like i just left the previous upate without finishing it. My time ran out on my computer so i thought i would just finish it off another time. Hope all is well at home with everyone and i look forward to seeing u in less than 4 weeks!!