So... We're home on Wednesday. How wierd is that!? Thought we'd just give you a last little update before we leave ;)

Had a great evening the Tuesday we last posted a blog!! Jenna may have had a few misunderstandings but she doesn't remember- so it didn't happen!!

Had an early start on Wednesday, with everyone feeling a little worse for wear, and had a long but very enjoyable journey to Milford Sound. Stunning lakes and snowy mountains :) and the most traffic we've seen in New Zealand- literally hundreds of sheep in the road!! The weather made the sound (or fjord to be technical) quite disappointing, look it up, our photos do nothing for it. Not surprising though really as they get less than a hundred dry days a year! Nice buffet lunch though ;) shared an absolutely enormous pizza with Dan for tea :)

Thursday, had our truly deserved lie in followed by an awesome breakfast fergburger! Wandered around the lovely town, shopping and chilling out. The Manchester lads arrived in the afternoon so we teamed up for the horizontal bungee whilst the rest of our bus went on a pub crawl. Lauren and Paul made a great effort at the horizontal bungee with Laurens running skills and Pauls drinking skills and won a Nevis arc each! However Jenna and Gary didn't do quite so well with them getting the lid stuck on the drink and setting the record for the worst time they'd ever had, whoops! Caught up with the others on the pub crawl but had to hit the sack earlier than we wanted as we had to get up early for skiing.

Got up early for skiing but never made it as ski fields shut due to poor weather. Luckily Laurenswas able to do the Nevis Arc now so Jenna went along and did the Nevis bungee, 3rd highest in the world at 134m with 8secs of freefall! Was great fun and then had to wait for a blizzard to pass for Lauren to do her arc. Had a nap before going out in the evening for a curry with our bus, for what we thought was our last night with everyone.

Tried to get the bus to Christchurch Saturday morning but only got 6km before we had to return to Queenstown because of the 7.4 earthquake! Many panicked phone calls later, Jenna's mum got us a flight from Queenstown on the Tuesday so we could stay away from the danger. Had a nap, Lauren stayed in bed all evening and Jenna went out for the last night with the group.

Got up early on Sunday to say goodbye as everyone left for Christchurch. Sad saying bye to Anne and Nicky after two weeks together! Watched "Hot Fuzz" and had a farewell coffee with Dan. Went to the cinema with the lads to see "SALT"- good film. Lauren went to bed as not feeling good and Jenna had an awesome night out with Sunday rock music with the guys.

Jenna got up on Monday and watched some ultimate fighting championship with Gary and Paul in the bar and went and got a final fergburger. Lauren eventually woke up and we all watched "Lock, stock and two smoking barrells". Enjoyed karaoke in the bar and then Lauren went to bed (there's a recurring theme here!) Sang "Wonderwall" with the guys at karaoke before moving to another bar.

Checked out on Tuesday and said goodbye to Paul, the only one out of bed, then waited around in the airport. Fairly short flight to Auckland, got a bus into the city centre and checked into Base! Wandered around, went to McDonalds then to the cinema ;) saw "Inception" which we both really enjoyed!

Flew to Nadi on Wednesday and finally got to enjoy some sun :) Arranged a three day trip to Mana island. Had a lovely quiet night in, good cup of tea and biscuits! 

Had an awesome little journey Thursday morning, led on the front of a speedboat to Mana island on Thursday. Lovely ensuite twin room with three meals a day, heaven! Sunbathed, read and Lauren explored the sea life- crabs, loads of fish, wierd looking sea snakes and a lovely big blue starfish! We abandoned the beach when a wave unexpectedly soaked Lauren and her stuff! Watched the sun set :)

Friday was lovely and restful ;) literally lay on the beach all day! Had an extremely amusing "interaction" with the local kids in the sea!! Really good curry.

Happy Birthday to Lauren's dad on Saturday! We had a continental breakfast then soaked up the sun, probably for too long! Had lunch then went on a wicked snorkelling trip :) left our stuff on a gorgeous little sand island, then headed out to sea! Saw the most stunning coral, blue, green, orange, pink... Loads of different, beautiful and interesting fish!! Jen managed to slash her leg open on some spiky coral- not good! Had supper and watched a Fijian fire dance.

Sunday was a very long day, 43 hours to be exact! We had breakfast, packed up and read in the shade, we've both had too much sun now. Got the little boat back to the mainland and experienced a "Fijian ritual"... We had too sit in the back of a shop in sarongs and clap and bless this pepper root, and drink it out of coconut shells. Very strange experience- Jen wasn't at all convinced!! Took off from Nadi at 10:20pm and went over the date line, which put us back 24 hours then on 5, so we landed in LA at 1:30pm the same day... Very confusing. Took us ages to get out of the airport, bumped into James, a guy from the Kiwi Experience bus, which was very random. Got to a hotel, which was a luxury! Not only huge beds, free internet, flat screen TV but a bath at last which we rather enjoyed ;) Had a lovely stroll around Santa Monica, cute little shops, cool street buskers and an amazing sunset over the beach! Had a donut from a bakery before having a Mexican dinner, weird we know! Lovely sleep in our huge beds.

Got up early this morning and went on a tour of LA. Went to Beverley Hills and walked around the swanky shops. Peered into the most expensive shop in the world, it costs $1500 just for an appointment to look around! Took a photo of the hotel where "Pretty Woman" was filmed before heading to Sunset Boulevard. Saw homes that belonged to Simon Cowell, Phil Collins etc and past the famous Hotel California. Passed an amazing penthouse where Matthew Perry and Catherine Zeta-Jones have both lived. Saw the hotel where Heath Ledger passed away and the hotel where Marilyn Manroe had her first photo shoot! Then we arrived in Hollywood. Checked out the Walk of Fame although we didn't have time to look at all 2500 stars on the floor. Went to the Kodak Theatre- home of the oscars, the El Capitan- home of the Disney premieres and the Chinese theatre - where the collection of handprints and footprints of celebrities lies. The final stop was on Mullholland Drive to see the famous Hollywood sign ;) pretty cool! From here we could see the Hollywood Hills houses of Ben Stiller, Jack Nicholson and the house Harrison Ford built and used to live in. We headed back to town and went to McDonalds and Jenna was thrilled that they served Dr Pepper, don't ask for medium anything, it's massive, we then checked out the pier. Sat on the beach for a while and hit the shops before having a Starbucks and another Mexican dinner. Back to the hotel for coffee and cake :)

Hope you've enjoyed our travel stories!? Straight to the airport tomorrow for our 4pm flight and back in the UK at 10am on Wednesday. Thanks for all of your messages :) we can't wait to see you all this week! It has been the most amazing 10 weeks ever but time to get back to reality! See you soon xxx