Hello all, hope all are well and happy back home in Sunny England. We left wet and very windy wellington on Thursday 6/7 to cross the sea to Nelson. The previous night we managed to catch up with Trevor and Dennis who we met in Auckland, as they are both working in Welly for a couple of weeks. It was great to see them and catch up. After the 3 1/2hr ferry crossing we arrived in the South Island. We expected the rain and wind to have died down a bit but this was a bit of wishful thinking on our part! That evening we had a walk up a very steep hill to the middle of NZ where there wae a big pin on top of an even bigger hill. The views were great though, so it was worth it. That evening we had a scrummy Roast and pudding and free wine tasting. We were in our element. The next day we left quite early to head out to the Nelson Lakes area where we went for a gorgeous walk at Lake Rotoiti. I then decided to go horse riding again in the afternoon. My horse was called Ollie and had a stick phobia! This was not fun as we were trekking through the bush and then up a deep river with big floating sticks. There was lots of cantering and lots of holding on when Ollie decided to bolt every once in a while! It was great fun but not as good as the River Valley. Once at our stopover for that evening at Westport Team extreme hit the cinema for pirates of the Carribean. It was so funny as it was an old fashioned cinema with an interval and everything. The next day we headed down the Tasman Sea shoreline to Tauranga bay to see a colony of seals and their pups. They were so adorable and we all stood there (including the lads) cooing and aahhhing for quite a while. We then went to see Pancake rocks and the blowholes where the rock formations did look like big scotch pancakes! It made sense to then have pancakes for Brunch in the Cafe. (Great excuse) That evening we stayed at the poo pub which is ran by an ex all black player. Here we all had to get dressed up. The boys had to get dressed up as girls! They all loved putting on mascara and skirts - they got right into it. (I have many pictures of Ben in a skirt with make up so if anyone needs any copies for a laugh then you know where they are!) The theme for us girls was anything involving a black bin liner! There are 6 of us girls and my idea was for us to go as a herd of Fresian cows! We went to town and got the bells off cat collars to wear around our necks, pink rubber gloves for udders, paper cut out for our spots, black tights, plaited hair, false eyelashes and marsmallows for a bit of fun. We ended up winning and won a canyon swing at Queenstown. The girls decided that i should have the prize as i am so keen to do the jump, and it was my brain child to become cows. We are now upto date and are spending 2 nights here in Franz before heading down to Wanaka for 3 nights for a bit a skiing!!!!!!! Hope all are well. Miss you all lots. Loads of love Zella and Ben x x x x