Hello all, I'm at Franz Josef Glacier, which is a town as well as the fastest moving glacier in the world (a metre a day). I am in another hostel, which costs only NZ$20 a night but you do have the added excitement of a lounge smelling of both mice and cats - is that possible? Never mind, don't have to sit in it - especially as the nightlife around here is exceptional. If you want to walk up to the glacier in the dark it's 5km and it's been pouring down or snow...

Hi again everyone! I have a bit of time to waste so thought I would write a blog about what we've been up to since I last wrote. The weather here can't decide between whether it wants to be sunny or raining - so it's one of those 'jacket on, jacket off, jacket on' times! I'll have to start by telling you something extremely funny that happened last night. Lydia and I had just come in from her dance practise and we were both really tired. I decided to just flop ...

Hi folks, Have had an awesome day today - to use a good NZ word. Been to Milford Sound which is where the picture is, though it wasn't quite as blue skied as that. It took all day to get there and back but it was excellent. Up at 6.00 to catch a 6.45 pre-dawn coach to MS. The coach driver (Vale, he said his name was) was great and once we got past Te Anau he spoke all the way there, which was about two hours, telling Maori legends and telling us the history of t...

Good morning! I'm not in a rush this morning so decided to write a proper blog about our time here so far and what we have seen of New Zealand. We've been here for about 6 days I think, and feel like we've been here for weeks and weeks - but in a good way! New Zealand is a really beautiful place! On the drive up here it was basically just hills and sheep, and the little villages looked like something out of old England or the setting for the film 'The Notebook' ...

Well, the night with the old lady went well - in fact she made me a coffee. The night was interesting - minus 6 outside, but like the inside of a toaster in Lydia's sleeping bag. I kept stripping off layers but still felt like a crouton this morning. The naked Bus was full of people with lots of layers on. It's a no-frills bus company and boy it shows. John the driver likes Abba but mercifully God intervened and snarled up his tape after the third go through (&...