So... after an uneventful ferry journey where we saw no dolphins and we both caught up on our sleep we arrived on the South Island! We headed to Picton where we were spending the night to find that there was not a lot going - another tiny town! We had bit of an issue with our bus out of Picton- one of us was leaving the next day, the other couldn't fit! oops! After sorting this out we headed to the bar and got a drink since our room was not big enough to swing a cat and was currently filled up with 2 cute Danish boys. After dinner we watched a film (how rock and roll) with the boys before we all attempted to fit into the room Jen having a slight breakdown over the lack of room! Next morning we carried on to Westport stopping on the way for another walk where me and Katy got separated from the group but miraculously managed to find our way back to the start. Some crazy people jumped off the jetty into the freezing cold waters to swim with the eels but the more sane of us settled on sitting down by the lake side. This turned out to be more perilous than you would expect however when Katy and Sue decided to feed the ducks and almost got us pecked to death! After this near death experience (ok slight exaggeration maybe) we headed on to Westport - a town that was actually smaller than Nelson - who knew! Due to the lack of things to do we headed to the supermarket, stocked up on wine and drank the night away in the little garden outside. Next morning Sue and Mike abandoned the bus in favour of a car for a few days vowing to meet us again in Franz Joseph whilst we headed on to mahnipua. On the way we stopped for a walk along the cliffs to see the seal colony which was more than a bit elusive and then went to see the pancake rocks before jumping onto the bus to go to Greymouth where we hit the charity shops for our fancy dress outfits for the night - the theme... bad taste! After buying a few choice items we then carried on to Mahnipua and the 'Poo Pub' where we were met on arrival by Les, the 90 odd year old landlord who was more than a little bit scary! After firmly telling us there were 16 cameras around the place and if we drank alcohol that was not bought from him we would be caught as well as mentioning that he had no issue with calling the police to people caught smoking pot - he'd done this before with the little ***** from the village (his words, fresh from his 90 year old mouth - not mine!), he finally let us in. Needless to say none of us dared take in the wine we'd bought that morning! On finding our rooms it was immediately clear why the Poo Pub was such a legendary party place - you needed to be beyond drunk to stay in the place - the rooms smelt of wee, the beds practically collapsed when you sat on them and aside from drinking there was precisely nothing else to do - Les's was the only building in sight! Consequently, we dropped our bags off and went straight for a few drinks before having another BBQ and getting ready for the night. Needless to say most of the lads jumped on the opportunity to dress up as girls - bras, knickers and make up all inlcuded while me and Katy went for the chav look, complete with gold chain and blue eyeshadow! It was then time to party and who was the first person we see when we walk in but Josh looking very fetching dressed as a policewoman complete with wig, lipstick and boobs! We started on the wine but really there was only one thing that would help us cope with the situation - Jager!!! A couple of these later and we were getting rather merry - Katy lapsing into her drunken dancing and wandering off (hmmm wonder where she went .... Les's room maybe!) while i was being swung around on the dancefloor by one of the Dansih boys who was wearing the tightest pair of blue trousers - how they didn't split i don't know. All in all a really good night despite the rather gross surroundings.

Onwards to Franz Joseph the home of the glacier. Here you could choose to either walk up the glacier with the aid of a tour guide and the expense of 70quid or walk to the glacier for free - guess which option we chose! So, being cheapskates me, Katy and Jennifer decided to do the hr long walk in the blazing sunshine. We had been tempted to walk to the base of the glacier (not something your supposed to do without a guide) but rapidly went off the idea when we saw the stories of those who had - to their peril. After this we went to the bar with Sue and Mike caught up on all the gossip and arranged to meet again in Christchurch.

On it was to Wanaka, another town by a lake, all be it a really nice town and a really nice lake AND there were shops and civilisation - well done Wanaka! Here I cooked for the first time in New Zealand while Katy and Jen sat chatting away all but banging there knives and forks on the table. After a night of shocking films with the Danish lads it was time for bed to be up the next morning to go to Queenstown! Yeyyyy!

We were very excited to arrive in Queenstown after being told it was one of New Zealand's biggest cities...imagine our dissapointemnt to find out that it actually resembled a small town! Its saving grace though, was in the fact that it had some amazing bars and you could drink by the stunning lake until 10pm! Notice a theme developing to our time in New Zealand?! It also had a few decent shops which was helpful as both mine and Katy's camera decided to pack in! These were needed pronto as we were booked into a day trip to 'Milford Sound' which was heralded as the best thing to do while in New Zealand, with Josh commenting that missing it would be like going to Egypt and missing the pyramids. What Josh failed to mention was that the trip to Milford Sounds, which was basically a boat trip through some stunning scenery, was miraculous if you managed to see anything out of the boat windows, with it raining in Milford most days! The day was saved though by a very amusing coach driver (who had tunes for every occasion, including 'if your happy and you know it')and a good buffet on the boat! Back then to Queenstown for more drinking with our kiwi experience buddies and eating the infamous Fergburger...a local delicacy of a giant burger which has to be shared otherwise heart attack will surely occur!

Next day we left to go to Christchurch where we were to say goodbye to all of our friends bar Jen and were almost back to being a duo again! Here we checked into one of our more exciting hostels, with it being an old jail that only shut in the 80s. The jail theme was present everywhere and our room was basically a cell, complete with iron bars on the doors, fun times for people as innocent as us! On our first night we caught a bus into the city to meet Jen for goodbye dinner and drinks, ending up with Jen educating our tastebuds with Greek food! As we were eating we spotted Sue and Mike who were with their Norweigan friends and so we went for another drink, needs must! We took some snaps by tjhe huge Christmas tree (well done Christchurch!) and then said our sad final goodbyes before returning to our cell! The next day was spent being productive, trying to work out how to get to Kaikoura to see whales and what the hell to do on Christmas day which was fast approaching! Unable to work out either of these things we headed back to our jail, moaned to the receptionist who then sorted out our whale watching trip for us- success! We took our bus to Kaikoura, which Katy slept through- and headed to the first hostel we saw, eventually settling in and falling asleep to the Grinch (our only Christmas film of the season...bad times!) Finally we ventured out in gale force winds to jump on a boat and see some whales....only to find that it was cancelled due to bad weather! By this point Katy was feeling near suicidal with Christmas blues and a lack of whale watching so we watched another film and headed to bed. The next day we got up at 6 to try again to see some whales and hurrah the trip was on! After bouncing along on the waves we eventaully came to a stop to view our first sperm whale...it was a bit of a let down though as the beast was asleep and refused to move for us, Katy suggesting we poke it with a stick! The next whale encounter was much more successful as it was splashing about and this definately made up for missing christmas! Following that we saw another couple of whales before being hounded by a pod of about 50 crazy dolphins, who were showing off around the boat! Needless to say we both had grins like Cheshire cats and loved every minute of the trip.

After our whale watching we booked into a new hostel to spend Christmas day in the city centre. It wasn't the nicest of hostels but we got a room to ourselves, hit the shops for our 10 dollar suprise Christmas presents and then got ready to hit the town on Christmas Eve! The city was pretty quiet to say it was Christmas eve but we went out regardless in our nice frocks, had plenty of wine and wandered down to the park for a candlelight carol concert. The park was packed full of people in full Christmas cheer and finally we felt some Christmas spirit! After this Katy dragged me to Church to another carol concert, the cathedral was packed and it was slightly distracting to have about two hundred people snapping away throughout the songs! After this we headed to bed! The next day was Christmas! Katy left me in bed to go and visit the Church again for xmas mass and then we sat out and had a starbucks on christmas day! Very strange! Later on, in true English spirit we cooked a roast dinner, swapped gifts, had some wine, watched Avatar and wore our santa hats throughout! Finally at 2am we wandered back to the room, moments after a huge earthquake/after shock hit and people stood about in the corridor panicing (Katy was the worst!) We were told it was all fine, went back to bed, having a further 3 more aftershocks, all slightly bigger in size. On boxing day I awoke abruptly to a screaming Katy and a shaking room as there was another and we were evacuated from the room. This panicked Katy further as i insisted on getting dressed while she practically sprinted for the door and remained braless for the rest of the morning! After leaving to find a toilet and having some breakfast we returned to the hostel to find the road had been cordoned off! Great stuff. We were allowed in though and were allowed back into the hostel where panic ensued again when we heard there would be a builder coming into the room to check out the damage. Cue a lot a running about and shoving things under the bed. Eventually though we were told it was all fine and we were alright to stay in the room as long as we didn't go near the windows - my pillow end of the bed was next to the window! We didn't have to worry about this though as we were hit by another quake and the hostel was evacuated again - this time for good! We trooped out, passing the broken chandeliers and cracks in the walls and headed straight back to our old faithful - Jail. So began a nice relaxing aftenoon of film watching culminating (to everyones delight) in the second Lord of the Rings film before our flight out the next morning to sunny Australia!!! Goodbye New Zealand!!!