Cannot believe our time in NZ has come to an end already and we are only just updating the website, but its time to move on?South America here we come!

New Zealand has been awesome in a word!We have traveled the North and South Islands in our trusted campervan and have seen some amazing scenery, and taken part in some amazing treks and adrenalin rushing activities!

Where do we begin, we will just sum up what we got up to as I know these little blog entries of ours can sometimes turn into epics!

The North Island, 3 days in Auckland which included watching the V8 super cars, which was a deafening, but a fun day out.

Hot Water Beach was like nothing you can imagine, unless you have been there as Chris and Leona have!Basically you dig a hole in the beach and sit in it and the water that comes up is near boiling - seriously nearly got third degree burns, it was fun, and Jason just had to dig the biggest and best hole on the beach, which everyone then proceeded to join us.

Rotorua - the smelliest place (Sulphur gases) in the NZ and the place where the earths crust is at its thinnest, but also one of the nicest, loads of hot springs to venture into.We also luged - which was so much fun! and yes Dawn was the champion, zipping down the course at break neck speeds, we both had a couple of whiteouts, but that didn't stop us racing each other.

Lake Taupo was truly amazing, mainly because this was where we decided we would throw ourselves out of a plane at 15,000 ft, freefall for one minute and then parachute down.Totally exhilarating! and a must to for everyone.We still get stomach jitters when we talk about it.

Tongariro Crossing, another amazing memory, this trek took us 7 hours and at times was physically challenging, well for Dawn anyway!But every step was worth it!Walking across a volcano crater and to its summit - well it was magnificent! Just view our photos.

Watimo Caves - this was a fun filled underground adventure which involved abseiling down an extremely small crevice into a cave, zip lining, caving, tubing and climbing up small waterfalls!It was very cold, but worth every penny - we had loads of fun.

The South Island - An extreme contrast to the north island, and the scenery here was extremely dramatic and was dominated by the southern alps.

We undertook numerous hikes here - most of them consisting of walking up mountains.Which Fordy enjoyed immensely - not.Actually some of them did afford some magnificent views, our favorite places on the south island for views were the Takaka region including Cape Farewell, and the Spit, Abel Tasman National Park, Kahrangi National Park ( this was where Dawn decided to Sprain her ankle! Don't ask)

We took a Heli Hiking adventure on the Franz Joesph Glacier, it was a tad nippy as you may well imagine walking on a glacier, but again, it was a great experience, and we managed to get the helicopter pilot to do a 360 corkscrew before landing.

Milford Sound - the dramatic Fiordland - we took a boat trip through these waters which are some of the deepest in the world, carved out by glaciers, there are some great waterfalls and snow capped mountains.

We went whale watching in Kaikora - which was awesome, we saw 4 giant sperm whales - which are resident in the area and one humpback which was migrating through the waters - these animals are huge and to see them surface and then dive again is certainly a once in a lifetime experience.We also saw a pod of about 100 dusky dolphins who were playfully swimming around the boat, it was amazing.

This is only a brief summary (believe it or not) of what NZ entertained us with, it is a truly great place and everyone should come here to visit at least once.Lets hope South America holds just as many great memories for us.