Christmas Eve and started the day with a river cruise on the Daitree River....spotted one very large crocodile ! And lots of Mangrove swamps. We walked through some of the Daintree Rainforests and saw wonderful trees. A lovely lunch stopped where we got to feed a kangaroo and some wallabies . Very strange tonight as no stockings to fill , no turkey to prepare but tomorrow we will raise a glass (before you!) to absent friends and family ....

Today we fly to Australia .... Last night we ate dinner at The Sky Tower with lovely views over Auckland. The last three weeks in New Zealand have been amazing , we have met some wonderful people , made new friends and seen the most wonderful scenery in the world. Looking forward to Australia and a few more adventures x

Left Punakaiki and through Arthur's Pass and across Canterbury Plains ..... Beautiful scenery all the way and a nice way to end our last day on the bus....looking forward to getting to Aus again x

Left Franz Joseph in the rain ..... I didn't think we would see so much rain but the South Island has been quite wet ..... Normal apparently but Simon forgot to tell me! Views we slightly obscured by the rain as we travelled but we stopped at Hokitika and had plenty of time for retail therapy .... Beautiful Jade and some lovely copper wall hangings.... Arrived early at our hotel in Punakaiki so had a walk to the Pancake Rocks before our last dinner with our fello...

6.30 alarm! ..... Too drizzly too do our helicopter ride over the glacier..... Simon went kayaking on a lagoon with some of our tour and the rest of us took a shallow boat ride to see birds at the Waitangi Roto Nature Reserve ....at least we saw birds and our guide even made us a cuppa on the waters edge.A free afternoon and our bus driver took us for a walk and despite the heavy cloud we managed to see some of Franz Joseph Glazier just making it back before heav...