Dunedin / Invercargill / Te Anau / Milford Sound

Hi Everyone

Thursday morning we said our goodbyes to the group and made our way down south stopping at Newzealands largest concrete damn. We arrived in Dunedin early afternoon some guys went to do a wildlife tour but we decided to do a cadburys tour and a tour around Speights brewry. Free chocolate and free beer - we love Newzealand! haha!

Friday we visited the Catlins where we walked up to a light house, we had some awsome views from the top. In the afternoon we visited Curio Bay where we saw dolphins jumping through the waves, some people went in swimming with them, but we didn't as the water was freezing! As we were stood watching the dolphins a seal came out of the bush beside us and sat next to us she was so cute, apparently she was a local seal that likes to hang around in the sun on the grass rather than down by the sea on the beach. We walked across into the next bay to have a look and walking along the rocks 3 penguins came out of the sea and were drying off their wings, they were so cute In the evening we just ate in the hostal, there wasn't anywhere to go in the evening apart from a pub next door so a couple of us went in there for a drink before having an earlyish night.

Saturday we went to the Tuatara Museum where we saw a 125 year old tuatoura (lizard like creature) after this we all went to a place called Riverton where we picked fresh mussels from the sea. A few of us tried them fresh (straight from the shell) Tom liked it and thought they were okay Kim tried one but as soon as it was in her mouth it was straight back out again! Slimmy, gritty and salty it was grose! After the mussel collecting we visited a paua shell factory, it's a huge shell with a pearly blue centre it's really pretty. In the evening we cooked our mussels and ate a nice dinner of pasta, mussels in a garlic and white wine sauce - very nice!

Yesterday we took a boat cruise to Milford Sound. On the way we stopped and walked through a couple nature walks before arriving at the boat. Once on the boat we enjoyed an all you can eat hot buffet which was really nice. The boat set off and the scenery was lovely, we saw seals on the rocks and huge waterfalls surrounded by mountains, it was stunning. On the way back we stoped off at the underwater observatory which was okay but a bit dissapointing we didn't see very much! The journey back was quite long (about 5 hours) but our driver kept us entertained, he taught us the Haka and we played battle of the sexes, girls versus boys - of course the girls won and the boys ended up doing the penguin dance around the bus in the middle of the road back in Queenstown (penguin dance is when they have to drop their trousers to their ankles and waddle like a penguin around the bus!) haha! BAck in Queenstown we met up with some of the friends we were with before who were still there which was really nice and of course we made a last trip to Fergburger!

Not much longer left before we head to Fiji now, hope your all okay at home.

Speak to you all soon.

Keep the messages coming, its nice to read them.

love us x x x