Hi everyone,

We finally left Wellington on the 8am ferry, arriving into Picton on the south island. We drove around Golden bay, and spent the night in a small town called Collingwood, which didnt have much except for an amazing chocolate shop which sold hand made chocolates, and it would have been rude not to visit. The next morning we went for a drive back around the bay and stoppped in Kaiteriteri, a beautiful bay, for lunch. Next we went south to Westport and stopped off to walk across Buller Gorge swing bridge and after a walk around the woods, we came back across via a zip wire, whcih wasnt half as scarry as it looked. We spent the night in Westport camped down a side street, where after cooking our tea of 2 minute noodles on the pavement, we decied to go to the pub.

Thursday morning we went to a seal colony at Cape Foulwind, which lived up to its name as the weather was horrendous! We carried on down the west coast, stopping of at Pancake rocks, where we got completelly soaked through in the rain. We finally made it to the glaciers and found somewhere to stay.

Friday morning we set off on our Glacier walk up Fox Glacier. We trecked through the rainforest for an hour or so (up hill!) and after shimying along the cliff face we emerged at the glacier. Before we could go onto the ice we had to pile all our layers back on, tuc our trousers into our socks and attach metal spikes onto our boots, we looked Hot!! then we walked accros the ice for about an hour, stopping to take LOTS of pictures. The glacier was impressive but not as clean as we thought it would be, nor as flat. There were lots of crevaces from where the glacier is continually moving. Every now and then you could hear a little bit more ice drop off. We were really lucky with the weather, it was a sunny clear day, but the clouds were so low that you couldnt see all the way to the top of the glacier.

That afternoon we drove down to Hasst, where the population of the town is less than 300. There is not really anything there apart form a pub and a 'supermarket' which is really more like a corner store. There were 'No Camping' signs everywhere and we didnt want to pay to use the holiday park, so we drove down onto the river bed and camped there. Thankfully the river bed was huge, so even with the torential rain during the night, we managed not to float away.

With nothing to see in Hasst we set off the next morning towards Queenstown. We stopped off at Thunder Falls (yet more pictures you lucky people!) and Wanaka, where we finally found the hair product we have been searching for in vain since Vegas, we were feeling lucky after this and bought a lottery ticket...but unfortunatelly our luck had run out, so were are still skint. We got to Queenstown around 1pm, it is set down in a valley, on the edge of a lake and surrounded by snow capped mountains. As soon as we arrived we got straight onto finding somewhere to live. By half 3 we had found our house....a beautiful log cabin, set up on a hill with mountain views. we have a fireplace in our bedroom and doors which open onto our own balcony/deck area (await photos.) So next we just needed a job. Our tactic to find the best place to work was to do a bar crawl...which was a lot of fun and we certainly found out where we didnt want to work! The next morning we hit the town with our C.V's and within 24 hours we both have jobs! Jess is working in a Bar/ Restaurant in town called Guilty, mainly waitressing. KAren is working in an ice cream / coffee place called Lick, also in town.

We dont move into our house till friday, so at the moment we are still living in our van in a carpark, with our en suite of public toilets, but no showers. Today we are going for a drive around the lake and maybe up into the Remarkables (the mountain range.) We still need to take the van back to Christchurch for thursday, so we will probably set off tomorrow and stop off to do some whale watching en route, before flying back to Queenstown to start our new life (for a few months.)

Thats pretty much it for now, hope you all managed to check out our pictures on facebook (photobucket hates us and wont work!)

lots of love Karen and Jess

xx