sicne we had missed mt cook comign down teh other side, we were determined to get a good view from the west coast so we followied the signs for the viewing spot. when we got there we werent impressed as you could only see the peak so we carried on driving...for 12km on a dirt track and eneded up the other direction. not really sure how it happened but we found a loan house/farm up there, 100m away from a gorgeous beach with driftwood all over and up a hill, a decent view of mt cook and mt tasman. perfect. nearly ran over a possum on the way back but other than that it was well worth it!

got to franz josef and we discovered a hostel that you could pay $10 for use of all of their facilitets inclunding the hot tub and park up round teh back to sleep in teh van. we stayed here two nigths in teh end.

we went to book our glacier tours and i wanted to do teh ice climbing one, the next one wasnt for two days. all worked out int he end, the weather has been crystal clear so we booked a skydive for teh next day. incredible. a 20min plane ride up there over mt cook, mt tasman, the sea, meadowlanmds and teh fox glacier follwoed by a jump over all the same, the views were stunning and it beat the one in oz hands down.

the next day i did teh ice climbing. a bit of a treck to get up the glacier, theyve cut some form of staird to get you onto teh main face but its still fairly tough going. again, amazing and ice climbing is a fair buit easier than rock climbing. you doint have to find places to grab onto, just smash the axe in and walk up with yuour spikes. loads of fun and again...another brilliant day.

now with all of a week left to get to the north island and see it all we are statting to panic a bit. so off we set to race to picton to get the ferry across to wellington.

new rule...we never speed. i got pulled by the police and breathelised, not cool! this car was keeping up woth me for ages, and then all of a sudden teh lights came on. my heart sunk. he just said your lucky to get away with a warning and left us to it after lecturing me about how im responsible for the passengers and if they go home in body bags its my fault, thanks mate thats terrific!

got to picton just in time for the ferry which at $240 dollars was pretty pricy and lasted nearly four hours we soon discovered.

briefly stopped in wellington to get some food and have a look around which seems pretty funky and then headed north for the tongariro national park.

not before having two more petrol scares. we seem to be incapable of filling up until there is a huge gap between the bottom of empty and the top of the needle!