Hey guys (or 'kia ora' …bit of kiwi for you there!)

Well as you may have noticed we have not been on the blog for a few days as we have been pretty busy. We are now in New Zealand, the weather is currently amazing we have had clear skies since we landed in Christchurch.

We didn't stay long in Christchurch, well less than 12 hours in fact and we slept for at least 8 of that. Our flight was a little delayed so ended up arriving at our hostel well after midnight. However the next day we got up early and went to pick up our new hot set of wheels, hoping for more garish colours to continue the pattern… so may we now introduce Diana our new car; luckily she is not a garish colour in fact she is the best colour in the world SKY BLUE !!

There was not much to say about Christchurch apart from it is clear that it has recently been devastated and quite a few of the roads were still closed.We are likely to visit again on our loop round the south island so there may more to report then. Once we had picked up Diana we set straight off to the other side of New Zealand following a road called Arthur's Pass which runs parallel to the TranzAlpine railway that cuts across the centre of the country and it's fair to say although the road was very twisty the views were amazing.

We followed this pass all the way over to the West Coast and arrived in a small town called Hokitika which is where we planned to stay for the night. It would seem we got a bit carried away with the camera on the way over (well I got a bit carried away, Katie is glaring at me lol) so sorry for the excessive albums but it was really pretty. Hokitika itself was very quaint and we spent most of the day chilling by the beach before grabbing a few drinks after the sunset and heading to bed. The sun set really late as we were on the west coast so we stayed to watch as it disappeared beneath the sea this was quite impressive as it went instantly dark as if someone had turned off the switch.

The next day we got up early; quite excited as although we had a long drive in the morning, in the afternoon we were set to go glacier hiking in a place called Franz Josef and it was a glorious day - at last some sun to make up for the rain in OZ!

A little bit of info about Franz Josef, it is one of only 3 places in the world where a glacier meets rainforest (one of the other's is Fox Glacier 20 mins down the road!) and at only 400m above sea level is one of the lowest lying glaciers. So although it was cold on the ice we still managed to grab a bit of sunbathing time before the hike. The hike itself was steep but not too tough and we were lead by some very clever guides who clearly knew what they were doing, telling us what parts were safe and what was not.

After the hike we went back down into Franz Josef town for dinner followed by a session in the hot pools, this was included in our hike price and I'm sure it is the only reason Katie came. The pools were filled with water from the glacier and then heated to various temperatures to help with circulation.They had a strange grey colour to them but this is standard for any water that comes out of the bottom of the glacier, as the ice rubs on the rocks over time to produce a kind-of silt made of fine rock called 'rock flour' (which gives the water the grey colour).

Tomorrow we are heading down to a town called Wanaka just north of Queenstown stopping at a few lakes and driving along the coast.It's a long way to go but all through national parks so hopefully it will remain scenic and interesting. We are already big fans of New Zealand it's made a very good first impression. So far so good but will keep you updated with how we are getting on.

Love Martin and Katie

(4 days till Bungee; 5 days till hot air balloon; 9 days till Dolphins; 10 days till Wine region; 12 days to train for walk of death)