Hi all,

Yesterday I took the Tranzalpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth which takes 4.5 hrs.  It's one of the best train journeys for scenery in the world and it did disappoint.  Once in Greymouth it was onto the bus for the journey down to Fox Glacier.  The bus took about 5 hours but you really don't mind when your looking at such fantastic scenery.  I must admit that I nodded off a couple of times though!

Got to the hotel - was a bit of a splurge but felt I should have some luxuries!  The room has a tv!  Fabulous!  Had dinner in the hotel and then watched loads of rubbish tv - bliss!

Have had one of the best days of my trip so far today. I took a 4.5 hour hiking trip up to the Fox Glacier.? Yep, I know what your thinking - Julie & hiking don't go together and believe me I didn't think so either but I did it. Looked like a sweaty mess by the time I got to the top but I was worth the effort. It was breathtaking. Will add my pics as soon as I get onto a decent pc.

Hels - I wore my hoff pants on the hike - if anything was going to get my up that mountain it was the power of the hoff!!

Met a lovely aussie couple on the hike, Kristy and Steven. We went for dinner this evening and had a really good evening laughing about how bad Neighbours is!? They live on the Gold Coast?and have invited me to stay when I get to Oz.

Am getting on the bus to Queenstown tomorrow. It picks me up at 8.45 so a bit of a lie in! It takes about 6 hours to get there!? Everything is so far apart in this country but the drives in-between are spectacular.

Queenstown is the home of adventure sports and the birth place of bungy jumping. Seeing as I'm now queen of hiking I hink I might be up for a bit more adventure stuff....watch this space!!