Hello everybody, for the last few days me and a few mates have been driving around in a car travelling through the south islands sights.

First we went down to Quenstown; we all share the driving dutuies which is really fun. The weather on the way down was amazing, and the photos speak for themselves, the highlight of the first day was seeing lake pukaki with mt cook in the background, each view took it out of me. So we spenmt the night i queenstown, but we didnt really prty as we had a long journey the following day to milford sound. Alhtough it was raining, it was eerie and really actually quite cool. After milford sound we journeyed back past queenstown and onto a place called w***a.

The hostel we stayed in was really nice, wiht lots of culture. But twas the scene of the ultiomate crime......Basically we were packing up the car the following day, and my mate coles, decided that it would save us a huge amount of time if he reversed the car five metres to the entrance of the hostel. BIg Mistake. In doing so he ran over my acoustic guitar! aaaarrggghhhhh!!!! luckily i quelled my rage enought o a few swear words, and "youre buying me a new one!", but I couldnt quite understand why he needed to reverse 5 metres, but hey, not all his fault,,,,,,so woht that out the way, we headed for franz josef.

Franz josef was a nice little town, and although the weather was stil crap, we had fun in what was anothe rreally nice hostel; for $27 we all got a bed, a kitchen, an ensiute bathroom and a air con, which was staisfying. So after wed dried off, we went round to a pub, to have dinner and watch th weekends super 14 on the big screen.

So the last day arrived. The car at this point has had some serious treatnment. BAsically, the clutch had been goin day by day, and the night before it went nearly altogether, leaving us with gears 2 and 4..........mad!

But deciding the adventure was there for the taking, we tried to drive arthurs pass.

There was just one muinor problem, or three. the bridges in these areas caused us all kinds of grief, as they are one lane, give way bridges, so every bridge we came to (because we could not stop due to no first gear uphill!!) we had to floor to get onto it before anyone else so we could actually get over them!

But alas, we also ebncountered a huge double tow lorry going at about 5mph, so we needed gear 1, but we didnt have it, so our car coked out in the mildle of a steep road, with corners either side, and a cliff one side.

So we had to push it into the dirt layby, and then when all the gawping tourists had passed, start it boing acros the hil and then rev for britain upwards to keep the engine going,

Finally, we got half way through the pass, and a really shy driver in front of us gave way to a car he could see coming the other way from about 1/2km away, because it was their right of way. he wasnt to know, but as he was slowing down, we were all shouting "no, no no!!!!!"", and then the car had to be pushed to the dirt layby to the side of the bridge .

Heres the funniest part for me. We managed to get it going again, but because the gears wre all out of place due to a messed clutch, what was supposed to be neutral was actually gear four, so jaime was going round in circles in the layby at about 30mph, which was the lsowest he could go, and we all nearly contemplated jumping in on the mopve like bond, but we were all laughing so hard that we couldnt move, so we let the car die, and then got a tow truck an hour or so later.

An adventurous few days in all, and althought there waslots of bad weather, it was a bloody good laugh!!!!!!

Ive already spoken to some poelpe, but I hear my sister lucy is the next fashion designer of the stars! well done lucy, a whoppping 10,000 pounds raised over a few days, so if you havent already txted here get on and do, because she desrves it!!

Apart from that hope all is well, and that your all having a good time at home! love you all

Love to all the family,

George xxxxxxxxxxx