Ok where was i..... Oh yeah! sunday 16th April Milford Sounds we woke up early and set off by 7.30am, this is because its quite a long way out, about four hours there and four hours back, so we loaded up the car and off we went. it was a lovely day when we set off, which was great because miford sounds is the famous picture you always see of new zealand, its the mountains with the reflection in the water, anyway as we go nearer it satrted to rain and did not stop all day. when we got there, you guessed it, we got some lunch and booked our boat trip around the sounds. the weather was pretty bad, but it looked pretty amazing on the water, the cloud was really low and colours were really dark and moody, it looked great, i got some good pics on my camera although it looks completey different to the famous pics of the place, it does look really cool. I got all wrapped up and got water proof on and headed for the front of the boat in a true, brittish style battling the weather kind of way, but i loved it, the captian did a running commentry and drive is straight into a water fall (it was coming from the glacias), no warning and i got even more soaked, but it was fun. after the trip we headed back to queens town, to get in and out of milford you had to go through the rocks in a tunnel, it was quite scarey because it was so steep. we didnt get back to queenstown till late and again we ahd to find some more accommodation, we were pretty lucky and got back in firdt motel we had been in and had a good rest. Mon 17th April (easter mon) Franz Joseph After a morning of the two girsl doing a bungy and a horse ride and me just taking in the atmosphere, we set off to Franz Joseph, which is where th glacias are, the drive was rpetty long and we didnt get there till about 8pm sp most of this day was spent driving, we only manged to kill to possom things on the road in the dark, which was scarey enough (i heard them crunch under the wheel, but three weeks driving and only got two thats not bad going!) we had booked in a motel shallet thing so we eventually found it and got settled. Tues 18th April Franz and Nelson we got p pretty early cause we wanted to book a helicopter ride over the Glacias, so we went into town and they were still running and they said we should do it as soon as possible casue some bad weather was coming! so we booked it and before we knew it i was sat in the chopper, headphones on, belted in and we took off, i've never been in one before and it was brilliant, i thought it would be screy but it felt pretty safe, we flew over the town and then over the Franz Joseph Glacia, it was amazing, i really didnt know what to expect, didnt even know what one was, apparently there are only four like it in the world and i saw the two here Franz and Fox Glacia and the other two are in south America. im gunna try and out a pic on web site for you, it was out of this world. we stopped at the top and we got out and took some pics. on the way back the pilot let me go in the front, it was brilliant, e laughed at me when i screamed as we set off on this mounatin, it was amazing (im gunna have to find some new words!!!) then we landed and had some breakfast before setting off the long journey to Nelson in the North. It was about 7 hour journey and again we got there in the evening, we were all shattered by then and just had an early night. wed 19th April Nelson, Picton ferry and Wellington after checking out, we had a wander around nelson, it seemed a nice place, it had some beautiful bays to the north. we spent a bit of time there and set off to get out 7pm ferry from Picton. As advised by the local guy from the internet place, we stopped in a place called Havelock along the way, it is the best place to eat mussels in New Zealand. so we stopped and went to a restaurant called mussel boys and had a bowel of the green lipped mussels with wine, galric and herbs! all i can say is that they were the biggest mussels i've seen, they were huge, and very tastey (i can see ben pulling his face now...he he) after a walk around the harbour there we carried on our journey to Picton and drove through loads and loads on winery's, it was lovely. (wish we had stopped for a taster, but we didnt have time) we arrived at the ferry port and checked in and drove pir little car on the ferry, which was surrounded by cattle trucks and lorries, which was fun. The ferry was very basic and i drunk a lot of tea to make the time pass by, it took three hours to get to wellington and i couldnt wait to get of, as all i could smell was sheep an cows, nice, i couldnt stop sneezing! once off the feryy we found our hostel in the centre of wellington and unloaded our car and just chilled out, it was nice to know we were stopping in one place longer than one night. to be continued again....... love and miss you all Lou Xx