Hello everybody!!

well it has been a very long time since i updated you all about my travels so this could be a long one but i will try to keep it brief-

South island- beautiful, stunning, incredible, awesome
North Island- less spectacular but filled with friends and a sky dive so just as well ...awesome!

will that do? :D

that basically is the gist, but i will elaborate a little...

we hired a camper from christchurch and set out on our adventures hoping to conquer new zealand in 3 weeks. we headed straight onto queenstown, another lovely little new zealand town. we attempted to sleep on a back street in our little camper in queens town only to be woken by an angry council man at 8 the next morning tell us to shift in 5 or get a $100 fine- we moved!! we spent the mornign there then headed to te anou and onto the spectacular sights of milford sound, one of the incredible ffiords on the west coast of south island- it was absolutely breath taking!!! from there is was back to queenstown, up to lake wanaka and onto franz josph and an encounter with the ice as we scaled the glacier, which yet again was amazing! we actually went through the ice at one point, it was so beautiful, the blue colour was stunning! it was an amazing experience! we then travelled further up the west coast and in through national parks and incredible mountain scapes to the north of the south island. we travelled passed some of the most awesome scenery, from mountains, to rolling hills, to far spreading planes and onto rainforests and finally beautiful beaches. we headed to golden bay the northern most point of south island and it was beautiful! the south island was as i said beautiful,stunning, incredible, awesome!!

after a 3 hour pretty bump boat ride, on which emily had to stay out side despite the rain in order not to throw up, we hit wellington and the north island. we had a wander round wellington but we decidedly underwhelmed, it was larger than any city we had been to so far (tiny little chrischurch being the biggest place by far in the south island), but it was also dirty and there wasnt really much there and i dont think the rain helped so we soon heade off and well we ended up in taupo. we hadnt intended to go that far, but with the scerey looking like the bleak black mountains of mid wales we decided to just keep on driving! we passed mount doom on the way but failed to get a photo as it was covered in cloud- the highlight of the drive :) so far we were not too impressed with north island, oh dear! but taupo was lovely, a stunning lake and lovely town with great coffee shops and a lovely hostel where we crashed out and read books and watched films waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for the reain to clear so we could do our sky dive!! it eventually did, we woke up to blue skys, looked at each other and said lets do it, so at 10 we went to see if we could book in and at 11 we were on a bus on our way to the airport and at 12 we were in the gear waiting to go.....INcredible!!! so much fun!!! absolutely terrifying but aweome! the moment where u are sat on the edge of the plane about to fall is honestly one of th scariest moments of my life, but when ur out and uve done a sommersalt and righted urself, then u just fall. it is such a cool feeling! u have no depth perception at that hight so it just feels like the wind is passing u really quickly and ur looking at some beautiful scenery, than a minute later the paracute opens and u realise uve fallen 10000ft!!! so cool!!! :D then u slowly paraglide down admiring the incredible scerey around taupo... we were now sold on north island!!! :D from there we headed to rotorua to stay with friends of emilys- the weather was again appauling!!! we got absolutely soaked!!!! then onto hamilton to catch up with luke, a friend from primary school who i havnt seen in years but is in new zealand so we thought hey lets go say hi! so we did! we had an awesome time there then we were onto other old friends of my parents in hamilton who also fed and watered us well! so fully refreshed we headed onto the last part of our journey, up to the far noth of the north island and to the ba of islands! again we were driving in aweful conditions, but the day we had there was beautiful!! the sun shone, we had fish and chips on the beach and basically chillaxed- lovely!! we are now in auckland having given back the camper, i have to say im not so sorry to do that, it was the best way to see the country, but it definitely gets a little claustrophobic after 3 weeks! with only one speeding fine-doh!!, but no fees for any damage we headed into town excited to see what is supposed to be the best city in n.z. and so far it has not disapointed!

we have one more day here to fully explore then it is onto south america on monday.... i can not wait!!!!! :D and the last leg of our journey, only 2 months left now i cant believe it!!!

so we have had a great time in this beautiful country but are both very excited about buenos aires- steak and red wine here we come!!! :D

hope all is well at home, much love to u all, keep in touch!!! x x x x x