Hey all, time for another installment from the life of ed and hayley. We are nearly coming to the end of our time in the south island and will be heading up to the north in a few days. Out of the 6 weeks in NZ we have spent 3 and a half in the south as it is just stunning the mountains and mirror lakes never get boring and our bus journeys from place to place have been really fantastic as you round the next corner to another amazing view, there were loads of stops along the way too like checking out a jade factory, gold panning and seeing the natural wonders left in spots such as the pancake rocks.

After Kaikoura we headed over to the north of the west coast to a town called Nelson. On the way we stopped for a couple of hours in a place called Picton which is where we will get the ferry from in a few days, had some nice fish 'n' chips here too. Nelson was pleasent enough and the hostel we stayed in was like a house and had great heated floors. The highlight here was a trip out to Abel Tasman national park. We drove out and took a boat to a walking track and took a 13km hike back to the start. We thought it would be tough but there were 6 of us and we talked the whole time that it went so quickly. The water was aquamarine and there were some really nice sights, sometimes you felt like you were on a deserted tropical island.

Next stop we went to quite an industrial town called Greymouth, the only real highlights of this place were the good views of mt.cook from here and the Monteiths brewery tour and bbq we attended which passed an evening quite nicely we assure you. This was a good stop to chill for a couple of days though. After this we went to Franz Josef. This was an absolutely amazing place. Here we did a full day glacier hike and just walking on this moving glacier, going through ice caves and crevasses was awesome. We also took a kayaking trip on a mirror lake and in some points the lake was frozen so we were sitting on ice in our kayaks at points which was quite amusing. One evening we braved a walk in the dark into the rainfirest and ended up surrounded by glowworms and they put on a great show, it was like fairy lights in the trees and plants.

Next stop was Queenstown. Here we took a trip out to a place called milford sound which is fiordland. There were amazing waterfalls and as we climbed higher it began to snow and it was like a winter wonderland with the mountians, trees, well everything covered in thick snow. Also, there were huge icicles hanging from the rocks and mountains, which were pretty impressive, we took a cruise round the fiords and some bottle-nosed dolphins came right up to the boat and we saw some more fur seals as the bow of our boat was taken into a huge waterfall 3 times the height of niagra falls. The nightlife and atmosphere in Queenstown was great and the placejust had a real sense of fun, as it the adventure and activity capital of the world we decided to do somethin we'd never done before and went skiing for the day. It was hilarious, but really fun and by the end we felt like pros going down the slopes looking across the alps and down at the lakes and scenery below.

From Queenstown we went to Dunedin. Here we went to Cadburys World which was really fun and we got so many freeby goodies and stocked up for a while as it was so cheap. We had to wear hair nets and ed had to wear a 'beard hat' which was so hilarious i laughed the whole way through a 10 minute film and i think ed got a bit paranoid! he he. We had a real good laugh with the manager of our hostel and hostel guests here and celebrated someones birthday by chipping in for a big feast and beverages and ended up playing drunken jenga and pictionary then decided it would be a good idea to partake on our own ghost tour as Dunedin is apparently the most haunted town in the southern hemisphere, the stories are spooky but safe to say we saw...nothing!

We are now in Oamaru and have just got back from a yellow eyed penguin colony and a blue penguin colony. We were so close to them it was so amazing, i was made up as we both really wanted to see them while we were here and we were even treated by a performance of two blue penguins mating! hmmm interesting! The victorian town of Oamaru is really quaint and you can even learn how to ride a penny farthing here. Also, alot of the buildings are made from 'oamaru stone', which is limestone, so the intricately detailed white buildings line the street and look really pretty. Thats us for now ive just put the general things but i can assure you we are having great fun and meeting some great people too.

Another essay down...for now...love to all at home,

hayley and ed x x x x