So...our adventures continued in Queenstown and we managed to pack in an array of fantastic activities. With the arrival of Ian (who arrived on a diddy little plane full of pilot explanations of where he grew up, played, learned to fly etc..bless!), Becky and Stacey, we managed to form ourselves a nice little possy along with Dan and Dave of course which made it all so much more fun. Then it was time for our BOB groupy to depart ways from the Disco Lodge backpackers... except Cheryl for a a short time who stayed to clean the hostel kitchen for her accommodation...hmm...this lasted 2 days due to the state of the staff accommodation and the interference with having lots of fun!...after all how could she miss out on the group scrummy dinners everyone was having at the Black Sheep Lodge?! So what was there to do? Luging. We were hot at this...sorry boys you suck! Cheryl has managed to increase Liz's competitiveness somewhat...actually she is now MEAN!! This personality development continued on the ski slopes where Liz insisted on taking all of us poor beginners to the top of the icy big mountain and then wondered why we were getting stroppy....maybe thats because it HURTS Liz, but being a pro and all you wouldnt know! So feeling confident of skiing (after self teaching and lots of falling over) Cheryl decided to try her hand at Snowboarding, which it has to be said she rocks at...oh yeah! (except when Liz insisted of taking her to the top of the mountain again...WHY WHY WHY did I let her do it again? because yep, you guessed it I ended up head down in a ditch next to a very steep cliff and had to be rescued by a French guy as Liz zoomed down the mountain....see MEAN!! Moving on....(I do forgive you now Liz, not sure about the others though!)...The extreme sports continued with Liz and Ian taking themselves paragliding, Becky Hangliding, and Cheryl doing a 2nd Nevis bungy jump...now why would Cheryl do two bungy jumps? Thats right because she won it..in a bar..doing a horizontal bungy....in her bra (her bra on show that it not only in her bra because that would be rude!) You go girl, we were all happy because not only did she win a bungy jump but also a $100 bar tab - yey!!!! So...after all this excitment we headed down south for a bit of recooperation. After not being picked up by our Stray bus, we sat back and let Ian drive us to Te Anau and Milford Sound. Uh oh Ian...you naughty boy....flashing lights behind us now how fast were you going exactly to get sprung by the hiding Cop car?! (dont worry parents it was only 18km over the limit!). Milford sound was beautiful and where better than to have a little picnic before heading back to the ranch at Te Anau to collapse in front of the fire. After a couple of days of separation time in preparation for our next 3 month stint in eachother's pockets, and Ian's sad departure, we were back on the stray bus. This time it was a little transit with just 7 of us. We still managed to come last at the bus quiz....we are worried that our brains are shrivelling from too much fun and lack of intelligent thinking! Day one took us to the farm where we got to pet a deer(!?) and sheer a sheep (we also rock at this....check out the pics!). Our sea side stop off for NZ fish n chips was well deserved. Day 2 we drove through the Catlins to go Yellow Eyed Penguin watching...we saw 1! well done us! Next stop Dunedin the 2nd largest city in the South Island (we now know this one from the bus quiz!). Via the long flat Canterbury planes we headed to Christchurch for Liz'z birthday...yay. Of course we could not let the big 27 pass without a celebration so we headed off out for the evening with Taxi and Turbo (stray drivers) to see a kiwi Dub band (mix of regae and drum and base for those who dont know...think oo-o vit-a-lite advert!) called the Black Seeds which was just fantstic. Naturally this was followed by some classy carving of the flashing dancefloor in Boogie Nights....oh yeah we can dance........ As Liz's birthday was on a monday.....we were out alone in what appeared to be a deserted city. No fear....we had each other and went for a lovely candlelit dinner for 2 follwed by some rather yummy cocktails...in the hope that it would help us fit all our worldly goods into our backpacks better. Well...here we are at Auckland airport waiting to board our flight to South America....wish us luck.........xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo