Hi there!!

As it is nearly Christmas we thought we would give you a quick update on our trip!

We are still in Queenstown working away but we are starting to organise some activities...this is the home of extreme sports so it would be rude not to join in!!!

Karen did the Kawarau Jet boat ride the other day, which was loads of fun, and Jess did the Dart River Safari which also involved jet boating down the dart river, which was amazing! We are also planning on going horse trekking hopefully before Christmas but as we work opposite hours its hard to get days off together. We will also be skydiving and quite possibly bungy jumping...don't panic mum its not definate yet!!!

We both have this evening off which makes a change so went out and treated ourselves to an infamous Fergburger! A ferg is a local tradition...huge, meaty and just what every girl needs at 4am!!!But as you all know we are ladies so went for dinner at 6pm and tried our best to keep our dignity while devouring an amazing burger!!!

Karen also has a second job now at Red Rock which is a pub, she is working in the kitchen, making coffees, running food etc, hopefully this will mean more cheap beer! Jess is still at the same 2 places but contemplating a third job!

We are still living in the same place but have some new housemates who are just lovely, so now its us an irishman, an scotsman, a kiwi guy, an english couple and an english/italian couple. Everyone gets on dead well and we've had a couple of krazy nights together!!!

We are still playing as hard as we work too, this town is fulls of bars and there really isn't much else to do when you finish work but after a particularly big weekend for us both we are not drinking until next weekend...we'll see how that goes (Jess has a christmas party tomorrow night!)

So about 3 weeks ago we had some surprise visitors...Karens parents arrived in Queenstown for 10 days!!! Jess was given 2 days warning and struggled to not tell Karen, Karens face was a picture when she saw them walk into the pub! Karen showed them the sights in Queenstown and took them out to Arrowtown and Wanaka. Unfortunatly we both still had to work in the week but they took themselves down to Invercargill and up on the gondolas. We all went out for dinner one evening to Brazz on the special pizza night!!!We were really hungry and figured as they were thin base we could manage a whole pizza each, all 13 inches!!!How wrong we were!!!Jess beat karen and only left one slice but then spent the next 3 hours trying not to be sick...rather like Vegas! It was amazing to see them and we hope they enjoyed their stay as much as we enjoyed having them here.

Well Christmas is nearly here, we have had some presents and cards arrive already, for those of you who are last minute christmas shoppers our address is 66 Fryer St, Queenstown, 9300, NZ. We will forgive you if they are a day or two late. Jess went to the charity store last week and bargained with them for some tinsel so now our room is covered in tinsel in an attempt to feel festive, karen even made a tinsel christmas tree! We will be spending Christmas day at our friend Marys house (not that one, shes irish!), the chef from Jess' work will be cooking a pig spit roast which should be good, obviously not for Karen but there will be all the trimmings!

We will be thinking of you all at Christmas and hope you all have a great day.

Lots of love from sunny Queenstown. xxxxx