So Guys, this is the next installment of our adventure....... We've only been here for a couple of weeks but we've done soooo much already. I'll start by saying we both absolutely love it here, dare i say even more than Oz. We landed in Christchurch on the south Island after a pleasant 2.5 hr flight from sydney, picked the car up (a little toyota yaris) which is like complete luxury to us compared to the vans we were used to! Our first hostel was the old country house, I cant really call them hostels here because the standards of them are so high, really clean, small, freindly affairs, and most are set out like a country lodge or log cabin, and generally cost around 30 GBP per night for a double room. Christchurch was amazing, just like a country village in England, the main part being cathedral square which is beautiful. We took a ride on the historic tram and had a ride out to lyttelton while we were there. Next on our whirlwind tour was mount cook and lake tekapo, the pictures we've taken of this place don't really do it justice... something to do with the glaciers and rocks getting ground up on the river bed give an amazing milky blue colour to the lake which has an historic chapel next to it, very picturesque. While we were here we also took a drive out to mnt cook - the highest mountain in australasia 3500m, again breath taking scenery and snow capped mountains, from here we did a walk of about 2hrs which took us right to the foot of the mountain. Got some great pics. We drove the 400Km down to dunedin the next day and had two days here, this is one of the biggest ' cities' on the sth island even though probably still a tenth the size of donny, we took awalk around town , did a walk down to a place called tunnel beach with unusual rock formations in the sea and obviously a tunnel leading to the beach that some guy had dug 100 yrs ago so his family had quick access to a nice secluded beach. We also took a drive around the otago peninsular which was great, a road right next to the sea and really winding again with gr8 scenery, Amanda loved driving that bit, but she loves driving every where here but thats probably due to the gr8 scenery, nobody else on the road oh and she doesn't have to do much reversing ha ha.... from here we had a really long drive across to the milford sound , here we stayed on a deer farm in a log cabin for 30 pound so cheap and with amazing views. we had to get up really early the next day for a 2 hr drive to the sound but it didnt matter as it meant we had the roads to ourselves and missed all the tour buses. The cruise itself was really good, we even had 2 dolphins join us and it wasn't raining which was quite unusual as they normally have 6 - 8 m a year which is quite alot as london normally gets 750mm a year. After the cruise we headed upto Queenstown, this is an adrenalin junkies paradise, its a small town of about 8500 ppl, built around a massive lake, we took a gondola upto the top of the mountain and had a go on the luge twice the scenic one then the advanced... but you could have paid to jump off the top and parachuted back down, there's also speedboating , horsetrekking, kayaking, sky diving, white water rafting, you name it, its done here.At night we went for a buy one get one free curry (yes you heard correct Amanda ate, and enjoyed a lamb passanda), after we went to the -5 deg bar, a bar which is totally made of ice even the seats and glasses are ice, it was 15pound to get in with a free coctail but we could only stay in for 30mins due to the tempreature, still a unforgetable experience. We really like this place everything you can wish 4. from here we drove upto the franz joseph glacier to do a half day hike on the glacier the night before the trek we had a little walk out through some woodland and just after dusk we could see hundreds of glow worms lighting up the trees quite magical, There was a group of 40 of us, on the hike the next day, that got split down to 10 when we got onto the ice. The walk lasted for about 5 hours and we got thick coats and boots, socks and crampons ( ice picks that strapped to our boots) , the steps are carved out of the ice by the guides and we got some really cool photos when i borrowed the guides ice pick and slung it over my shoulder for a picture of us , bit like scott of the antartic, well kinda.From there its been sightseeing basically and we really are having a gr8 time. we catch the ferry to the north Isalnd in a couple of days but its goig too fast,

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