We arrived into Christchurch late on the 4th November, and spent the next couple of days there before taking a bus to Queenstown. Surprisingly, for the the capital of the South Island and recently declared second largest city in New Zealand, there wasn't all that much to do in Christchurch. After a lazy day looking round some shops, we went to the New Brighton Pier on Bonfire Night for a spectacular fireworks display, and some freezing cold weather-just like Bonfire Night at home!

The bus we took down to Queenstown had a glass roof to see all the mountains through, and took us via Mt Cook. It was a beautiful day in the mountains and the views were amazing. We could see clearly to the summit of Mt Cook, as well as stopping for photos by the bright blue waters of lakes Tekapo and Pukaki.

In Queenstown, we spent time going up the gondola (and down the luge!) as well as a lot of time appreciating the scenery. Our second day there was our trip to Milford Sound-It rained heavily all day! We were resigned to not seeing any good views (certainly not the classic one of Mitre Peak) and thought it would turn out to be a rather depressing day. We were wrong. After a few stops on the way, including one at the amusingly named 'Knobs Flat', where we learned about the Avalanche warning systems and management, before coming up to the stunning entrance to Homer tunnel. Around this area, the heavy rain had created hundreds of temporary waterfalls cascading down the near-sheer rock face-very impressive. Out on the Sound itself (which is actually a Fiord, having been created by glacial activity) we saw lots more of these waterfalls, including one which made an 80 metre drop straight to the sea (and onto the boat at one point) We also saw a seal as well as a couple of penguins on the shore line. The trip was spectacular, just not in the way we had imagined!

The day after was the day of my bungy jump. For some reason Mia had decided not to do a jump herself, so she became my personal photographer for the jump. We were taken up by bus to the Kawarau Bridge-the first commercial bungy jump sit in the world (it turned 20 years old 2 days after our visit) After 15 minutes or so of waiting on the bridge, watching people jump before me, I was suddenly having my ankles bound together in something which seemed to rely far too much for structure on a bath towel (it turned out this was just to make it more comfortable for me) Then I was at the edge, looking straight down-not a good idea. The instructor counted down from three and I jumped into open space. It felt like a good couple of seconds of just falling before a reassuring tug came at my ankles of the cord tightening, before I was bounced back up, and eventually came to a stop before being lowered to a raft on the river below, relieved, but exhilirated.

The video (showing me chickening out of jumping straight out...) will be up here one day...

The next day we made our way back to Christchurch, where once again we did not much for a couple of days-venturing up into the Port hills on another Gondola for views over the city, as well as some more shopping and paddling on the beach, filling up the days until we would get our car and be able to really get exploring New Zealand.