It's been a week since I could update this journal but her are the highlights of this amazing week.

Tuesday 24th April: We left Franz Josef and travelled down to Fox and had a short walk around the lake and viewed the glacier from a distance. Th weather that day was not good and it was rainingf so we decided to spend most of the day driving so we could make up the ground to be in Te Anau by the weekend. We travelled through Haast and up to Wanaka where we spent the night.

Wednesday 25th April: The weather was hot and sunny and we enjoyed a relaxing day by the shores of lake Wanaka. We went to see a Scottish / Australian group in the afteernoon and Poppy just wanted to dance all the time. We have a CD to remind us. There is a festival of colour on there at the moment which celebrates the Autumn colours on the trees and there was a street exhibition of some fantasic photos taken from the air accross the world.

Thursday 26th April: We spent the morning in Wanaka and booked our trip for the weekend before moving on to Arrowtown. This was a little town that looked like it was straight out of the goldmining era (which it is). There was an olde worlde sweet shop which Poppy spent some of her first pocket money in. We then saw a very odd mixture of people playing some music in the street and Poppy decided to spend some more of her pocket money by placing 10 cents into their collection box. She was really pleased she could spend her own money on somebody else. We then moved onto Queenstown which is an all year round resort with all sorts of activities taking place around the lake in the summer and when the snow arrives it turns into a ski resort. We also found the best chocolate shop in the world. They make their own chocolate and ice cream so we all went in to sample their wares. Highly recommended by me!

Friday 27th April. As the weather was not too good again and we had arranged to meet Phil and Chloe in Te Anau we decide to leave Queenstown to make the 2 hour drive to Te Anau. Once again this town was dominated by the huge lake with surrounding mountains. The scenery is spectacular. The weather was really cold and felt as though winter was drwaing in so I went out and bought a coat. I thought I would get away with it. We met up with Chloe and Grace and Phil turned up later after flying from Wellington to Dunedin and driving accross the country to meet up with us.

Saturday 28th April. We left Te Anau and travelled by minibus up to Lake Manapouri where we caught a speed boat to take us to the Fiords. We then had another 45 minute bus drive which took us to our boat on Doubtful Sound. There were only seven of us on the boat plus Dave the skipper and Wendy the crew. We travelled up through the sound (it is really a fiord) and it was so peaceful. We did not see another bot. We did see another colony of seals but were not fortunate to see the penguins or dolphins. We spent the night anchored in snug cove in perfect isolation and were looked after really well by Dave and Wendy. Poppy watched Dave fishing (he caught a fish every couple of minutes) but was not phased at all as he pulled hooks out of their moths, cut them up for bait etc. Noah thought everything was funny.

Sunday 29th April: We got back to the campsite about 12:30 and drove the 2 hours up to Milford sound. I took a helcopter ride with Phil and Chloe and flew over Mitre peak and saw spectacular waterfalls (including the 5th highest in the world). We landed on the top of one of the peakls and looked over the fiords and snow capped mountains. We flew really close to the peaks and saw the blue ice that never melts.

Monday 30th April: We were back in Queenstown and after our visit to the chocalate shop we went up in the cable car. We then came down part of the montain on the luge rides which Poppy really enjoyed. We stayed in Arrowtown last night as Chloe had offerred to babysit for us and myself and Jennie went out for a lovely meal. We are back in Queenstown today and are about to go on the TS Earnshaw which is a steam ship nad go and see some sheep shearing. Fun Fun Fun!