Hi peeps,

With only 8 days, 22 hours and 29 minutes to go :-D we thought it may be an idea to do a quick list of what we are up too in NZ, as a few people have asked us what activities we are doing and when etc etc... so here goes!

Next Friday, we are gate crashing Nat's lovely mum (who is going to cook us a delicious meal!) and staying the night in Eiron's (Nat's brother) bed (don't worry - he'll kip on the couch!) On the Saturday we are being exclusively driven to our hotel near Heathrow, and will say goodbye to Nat's Fab mum and who ever else decides to tag along for the journey.

Sunday - Tuesday will be spent on a variety of planes. Don't think we're going on an Airbus A380... although maybe they'll have sorted out the slight problems of exploding engines by then? We land in Christchurch at approx 2pm on the 16th November.

On the 17th November we have (stupidly) booked a flight in a hot air balloon. yeah its gonna be fantastic, yeah it will be worth it, the champagne brekkie and overall experience will be an amazing start to our honeymoon... but its a 5am start... OUCH!

18th November is a free day in Christchurch (we expect we'll be sleeping/staying in bed most of the day...)

19th Nov is another early start to catch the train to Greymouth (the Tranzalpine if you fancy googling it?) and then a further transfer to Franz Josef

20th Nov is the day we get cold and exhausted walking to the glacier. Bit scared about the need for "ice Tallonz, woollen socks, goretex waterproofs ..." - wont be wearing bikinis that day!

21st is a boring day spent travelling down to Queenstown via coach.

22nd we're doing a Wilderness Safari involving a jet boat ride, forest hike and 4WD trip - not sure what we'll see but it looks good on the website!

Tues 23rd is a free day (Whoop Whoop!) to catch up on sleep and shopping.

24th November we have a trip to Milford Sound (where they filmed some scenes of Lord of the Rings I think?) and a transfer down to Te Anau, and in the evening (because we dont wanna get bored or nothing) we're going on a two hour excursion to some caves to see the glow worms!

25th is another day spent within the confines of various motorised vehicles as they take us across to Dunedin...

On the 26th we're visiting the only castle in NZ and having a trip on a boat to see the albatross, penguins etc etc

The 27th is another day spent in a coach or two, ending up in Christchurch again. We get to go back on a train (YEY!) on the 28th as we travel to Kaikoura (another very early start BOOOOO) - but in the afternoon we are going whale watching (so excited about this!)

the 29 -travelling again (yep you guessed it - coach) to Blenheim and on to Nelson

On the 30th we're going on a tour of the Abel Tasman national park, where we should see lots of wildlife and may get the chance to chill out on a beach for half an hour... or not?

1st December we're going via coach/ferry and another coach up into the North Island and staying in Wellington, and the 2nd is another day travelling to Taupo.

On the 3rd December we're doing a full day trek through the national park in that area... looks very mountainous in the piccies...

The 4th is another transfer day to Rotorua via coach (and here we were saying we'd never do another coach trip?)

On the 5th December we are going up in a helicopter and flying around/into a volcano (this is why our holiday cost so much!)

On the 6th we're doing a geothermal wonderland trip - should see geysers, forests, and steaming mud pools.

The 7th is again spent travelling to Auckland

On the 8th we're going on a boat trip to "discover the bay" and we're going to don wetsuits and get swimming with some dolphins (Hopefully!)

The 9th we have another trip called "Bush and Beach" - basically it covers forests and coastal places!

On the 10th we have a transfer by CAR (!) to the airport, where we will be flown out to Fiji for four days of complete and utter meltdown... ahhhhhhhh

Back home on the 15th Dec. Being collected from heathrow by Nat's mum who has kindly offered to bring soup/blankets and set her car air conditioning to mega hot to get us used to the climate here.

Can't believe how close it is now! Whoop Whoop we are both so excited. Well done for reading through this - cookies all round :-)

Love N & N x x x x