Kia Ora!! I got my Hotmail sorted out, Dad, do you not do any work??? The amount of emails I had in my inbox from you lol. And PS Happy Fathers Day!! Well, I've been pretty busy since I last updated so here goes nothing!

Thursday 12th we hopped on the Bottom Bus to start our Southern Adventures!! Not much really happened on the way to Dunedin... we stopped at a wee village where I had a sausage roll and pumpkin soup for my breakfast! We made it to Dunedin just after lunchtime. Dunedin is a cross between Belfast and Edinburgh!! Crazy! We went to the Steepest Street in the World! Baldwin St and yep its bloody steep! That afternoon we went to the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory... AMAZING!!! We got so many freebies that I'll not need to buy chocolate for the rest of my travels!! Plus it was pretty interesting to learn the ways of the chocolatier... but they were already in the process of making Easter Eggs... scary as!! We went to an all you can eat buffet for dinner, and I ate a lot!!

Friday (the 13th... oooohh!!) we made our way to the Southern most point on the New Zealand main land, Invercargill. On the way we walked to a lighthouse and saw seals lounging about on the rocks below... that turned out just to be a taster for the rest of the day!! Our next stop was Cannibal Bay where we walked along the beach and straight into Hooker Sealions!! Amazing! We got so close, and they're pretty aggressive animals, so aggressive in fact that Jason, our driver, carried a spear which he had to use on a previous trip!! Off we went again, and stopped at Mclean Falls, a spectacular waterfall! The amount of water was crazy, and we walked through rainforest to get there! Amazing! Just before hitting Invercargill, we stopped at Curio Bay where we saw 3 of the most endangered penguins in the world, the Yellow Eyed penguins, and man were they cute!! The day ended well with a beautiful sunset! Then it was into town where we wined and dined ourselves!

Saturday we were back on the road again, this time to Te Anau, and it was a really cruisy day! Some of the peeps on the bus got off and went on a farm tour which included sheep shearing, I wasn't interested so was in the pub from 11.30! Yep, I am truly a Hamilton!! We were in the pub for about 2.5 hours during which I was dreaming of Fiji and trying to make plans!! Once we all finished lunch we headed to McCrackens Rest and I just about resisted the temptation to do the usual picture... Then we sailed into Te Anau, a very small town. So we just chilled, got a takeaway pizza and watched some movies in the hostel!

Sunday (Fathers Day) was the day I've been most looking forward to in New Zealand, the Milford Sound day trip! It was an early start, but it was a full day! On the way to Milford Sound we stopped off at a lot of different places including Mirror Lakes (I personally thought Lake Matheson was better) and the Chasm, a huge rock formation carved by a huge powerful waterfall! We finally reached Milford Sound and boarded the ferry, which was quite big! As soon as we got on the boat we stuffed our faces on the delicious buffet lunch, complete with icecream for dessert! We cruised around the sound, getting up close and personal with the vegetation and waterfalls on the sheer cliffs. Then it got really exciting... el Capitan took us out into the ocean, and me and Sophie stayed on the bow of the boat (to be honest we were too busy singing our hearts out to Titanic to hear the captains warning!), and the big waves came!! It was just like a rollercoaster and my stomach did flips (the good ones, not the I'm about to see my lunch ones) everytime we "fell off" a wave!! It was amazing, we were having so much fun whooping and screaming that the Captain commented on it to the whole boat!! It was good fun! On the way back in we stopped off at the Underwater Observatory, which was OK... I've been to better aquariums, but the idea was pretty cool, a tank going 9m down into the water! There were chances to see sharks, dolphins, and seals... we saw fish fish and more fish lol. Then unfortuantely it was time to head back to Queenstown. It was Sophies birthday so we went out to celebrate! I ended up having a traditional Queenstown night out, complete with Furgburger and a cocktail served in a teapot.... only in New Zealand!!

Today was a long day on the bus and I woke up to discover that someone had very skillfully inserted razor blades into my throat during the night! Without waking me! My throat is killing me... so I've lived on soup and ice cream... not a bad diet at all I reckon! Plus the bus has had peace and quiet coz it hurts to talk!! We really only had comfort stops and food stops (combined) today on the way to Christchurch, but we made it. Its very English, Christchurch, but its pretty nice! Didn't really explore much tho just coz I'm feeling so damn rotten! But hopefully I'll pick up 2moro, its whale watching time!!!

Love and miss you all xxx