Hello everybody! I am in the sleepy seaside town of Kaikoura at the moment and its' a miserable day so I thought I would update you on the last 6 days! I had a quiet night in Queenstown sorting stuff out such as journal on the night I got back from thr Routeburn walk, and briefly met the people in my dorm - 2 Irish girls working in a school in Auckland making the most of the school hols, some German kids on school holidays, studying in New Zealand, and 2 girls from Bournemouth - how bonkers! Its' quite mad when you meet people not far away from where you live on the other side of the world, but not that unusual, although these are the closest to home, I have met quite a few people from Southampton and the West Country. They all went out partying and I somehow managed to sleep right through them coming back at silly o' clock! The next day I went paragliding! It was a really nice drive up to the mountain where we took off from - you could see the massive lake, snowy mountains and the green hills and valleys below. It wasn't long before I had a seat attached to me (sounds crazy I know!) then my pilot attached to the back of my seat with the parachutey thing on the back of him. He then told me to run until I ran out of ground which was a very frightening prospect as we were several hundred metres above sea level - but it wasn't as scary as I thought - as soon as the ground ran out we were flying! It was great to soar above the ground at about 40kmph I think, and the sun was out and all the mountains and then trees below - was very relaxing, didn't feel like we were going fast at all. Landing looked scary too as the ground came hurtling towards me but it wasn't either, and I waited there for the others to come down. It was so good but over so quickly! The guy took 12 piccies of me whilst paragliding but me being the dippy blonde I am managed to leave them in my room in Queenstown I think they must have got mixed up with the others stuff as they were really messy and had their belongings all over the place, so I blame them entirely! I rang the hostel loads of times to see if they had found them but to no avail. Never mind, at least it wasn't my passport or money ay! I have noticed I keep saying ay on the end of my sentences the Kiwis and Ozzys do that all the time so I am afraid I will be doing everyones head in when I get back! Later that day I bought myself I naf film camera (remember those!?) as I fell over with my camera round my neck whilst walking the Routeburn and it doesn't take pictures any more! Luckily I didn't lose the ones I had already taken (as you can see from the photos on the website) but I won't be able to take any more so everyone back home you will have to wait till I get home to see the rest of the pictures unless the insurance peoples don't take a year to sort it all out which I'm sure they will! Also went to see the doctor about my knee and apparantly it's a running problem where I have run so much there's this tendon type thing that runs down your leg at a funny angle making your knee cap push outwards and some female runners suffer from it so thats whats going on there! I have 4 exercises to do to build up my muscles on either side of my right thigh which should help but until they grow big and strong I have to grin and bear it which is a bit crap because I am planning to do a 7-8 hour walk but it will be worth it, it's in about a week I am really looking forward to it! I chatted to the Bournemouth girls for a bit and we seemed to get on really well so I went out with them that night in Queenstown it was a really good night. We went to a place called Minus 5 - a whole bar made out of ice - even the cups were! There were really cool sculptures in there too. You had to pay and then go in at a set time for half an hour and you got a free (well not really free) cocktail it was great. Then we went to the hostel bar where we sung kareoke I'm pretty sure it was awful but the others in our room that were there said it was fine but I think they were just being nice! Was planning to go upstairs to bed at 11/12 but couldn't drag myself away from the dancefloor so in the end it was 3! Had to get up at 6.30! I made it though, and was glad I made the most of my last night in Queenstown. Would have felt like a boring fart if I hadn't too as everyone else on the bus had been out too and looked worse off than me as some people had only got about an hours sleep! The scenery wasn't that amazing and it was a bit of a dreary day so I had a snooze and got off the bus at a random little town called Twizel to get my connecting shuttle bus up to Mt. Cook (how clever am I?!) I had an hours wait and there was a chinese girl there waiting for the same bus so we had a good chat and she was nice if not a little bonkers! Our trip up to Mt. Cook was nice to begin with past a beautiful blue lake but then the weather changed and it poured with rain and the winds were so strong I thought the little bus might blow off the road! The guy driving said its' often like that though, so I was thinking maybe my trip into the highest mountain in New Zealand (4000m) wasn't such a great plan! It was so misty when we got up there you couldn't even see any mountains but we were assured they were there! The hostel was pricier than most but was worth it - it was so warm and cosy with pretend log burners, cute lounge with nice sofas and the lovliest, smartest, cleanest, well equipped, organised kitchen I have ever seen! (It doesn't take much to please me obviously!) The whole hostel just felt really homely and relaxing. It rained all afternoon so I finely tuned the rest of my travel plans and tried to sort out my claims forms for my camera and seeing the doctor - its' a nightmare! At 6 the rain stopped so went for a short walk up the hillside next to the hostel through the trees which was really nice as all the water was dripping off the rock and trees but the sun was shining. I had a much needed chilled out evening and rung my mum for a long chat which was lovely. The next day when I woke up it was still raining but by the time I was ready to go out it had pretty much stopped. I did a 4 hour return walk - not a 12 mile or a 20 km walk, 4 hours. The Kiwis don't put how many km the walks are anywhere, just how long they take which is quite good I suppose it saves you having to estimate how long it will take you, but I find it quite amusing. It was a nice easy walk, not many hills at all I think I only climbed 200m in 2 hours! The whole walk followed the foot of the very snowy mountains which were amazing (hence the snowy mountainy picture attached to this postcard!) and a lot of it followed a fast flowing icy river! I stopped for some lunch after walking about 45 minutes in a shelter where I fed a black bird with only one foot! It got about ok though, was very cute. There were 2 swing bridges - yay I'm still finding them so fun but they weren't as bouncy as the ones on the Routeburn. I saw 2 massive lakes at the edge of glaciers (not as impressive as the Franz Joseph one) but the lakes were fab they had iceburgs in them that had broken off from the glacier! Its amazing that they don't melt. As soon as I was at the half way point (i.e. time to turn back!) it started sleeting quite a bit and got really cold and windyso luckily I had all my waterproof gear and gloves etc.! Later it turned to snow and when it stopped you could see the thin coating on the mountains where before there was no snow! When I got back to the village I was quite relieved as my knee had really started hurting, and I went for a very yummy and much deserved hot chocolate in the only cafe and sat by the log fire - bliss! The village of Mt. Cook is so tiny - just 2 hostels, and inn type place, loads of little chalets and a grand hotel, oh and a handful of actual residents! Only 13 kids go to school there how cute! Was so nice to warm up at the hostel and make some food, then spent ages writing my jounral (not the internet one a book!) Got my shuttle bus back down in glorious sunshine (wasn't annoyed at all!) then caught the Kiwi bus in Twizel - all perfectly timed! We stopped at Lake Tekapo for lunch it was gorgeous (as you may have guessed, bright blue, mountains, etc. etc!!) We didn't arrive in Christchurch till 5.30 so was relieved to get to the hostel there. Went to the supermarket then won't bore you with the rest...chilled out evening. Went to a place called Akaroa the next day - further out of Christchurch than I thought! Was a French settlement, not that you would be able to tell apart from a few French names here and there. Went for a nice walk along by the sea and had some lunch, then went back to Christchurch to buy a few bits and spent hours putting my piccies on the net for you all to see! Today - yay finally onto today! Got the bus to Kaikoura on the East coast of the south island. Quaint little place, not much to do, but was booked on a whale watching cruise as they guarantee you see the whales or you get 80% of your money back! Couldn't do it though (which is quite a relief really) as the weather is awful - rainy, windy and cold so it was cancelled as the sea was too rough. So I have booked on to do it tomorrow, as have the nice Danish couple I spoke to at lunch time in our hostel. There are 2 girls from Manchester, 2 from Denmark and a girl from Ireland all on the bus staying in the hostel, but they are all leaving tommorow. Just before going to our hostel our bus driver took us to the Kaikoura peninsula a few miles out of town to see a seal colony! We were just a few metres away from some of them they were gorgeous! There were loads out on a rock they were so funny to watch waddling around and one was playing around in the water. Will probably be going to see a band later in this rather funky looking bar! Wow I think I'm done, next time I write I will be in the north island! Yay the sun has come out might go for a walk.