Hey all! Finally found a Global Gossip! Yay! But distressingly found out that someone hacked into my MSN account and has been sending spam emails to people... sorry about that and I'm working on fixing it, tho at the minute I can't actually access my email so sorry if you've emailed me... I'll not be able to reply for a while! Anyway, back to the travels!

Our free day on Sunday that we had in Taupo turned out to be pretty good! I relaxed and faffed about online. I found out that Nikki and Helen, two of the greatest people I know, from the Sydney to Melbourne trip were arriving in Taupo later on so we met up and went for a few drinks and such and generally just caught up! There wasn't a moment of silence between us and it was great to see them, unfortunately it just wasn't for long enough! Not much else to report from that day!

Monday we left for River Valley. We met our new driver, Guido... he's no Mangee but he's pretty cool! So sarcastic tho lol. We went to do a bit of grocery shopping (I've got so much food with me now...) then got to Tongariro National Park where we had the option of doing a 2 hour loop walk to a waterfall... it was pissing it down so we just spent the best part of an hour looking around the visitor centre! There are 3 active volcanoes in the area and one, Mount Ruapheu moved to a Grade 1 level, meaning that some activity was noted! How exciting!! And also, Mount Doom, Mount Ngauruhoe in real life, erupts every 25 yrs and is well overdue to blow!! Very exciting indeed! But no activity today! After lunch on the bus we drove a short way to a walk to Tawhai Falls, one of the filming locations of the little known trilogy Lord of the Rings! That was pretty cool, tho I think they filmed from the other side of the pool... but it was Henneth Annun in the movie.. pretty cool! The scenery on the way to River Valley made me think that we may as well have just been driving through Fermanagh!!

Tuesday we left River Valley after a very lazy morning and made our way to the Capital! Along the way we stopped at Bulls, a very strange little town with funny signage... their Police Station was called Const-a-bull for example! It was mainly driving today and we made it to Wellington early evening. I pretty much fell in love with the place even tho it was dark out! Its placed on a major faultline and has little earthquakes quite often! Infact I found out that during our time in New Zealand, there has been 4 earthquakes in the North Island alone!! Pretty cool I reckon! We did a little shopping then made dinner... cowboy supper!! Delicious!!

Wednesday I woke up in a foul mood, and was a little homesick... nothing major, I put it down to an imbalance in hormones, not the fact that I'm desperate to go home... no offence anyone!! We got on the ferry to Picton in the South Island, a 3 hour crossing in rough conditions... I was looking forward to it a lot!! As I was prone to sea sickness, as you all know, I was moved to the middle of the boat, the family area with kids running about all over the place... you can imagine my mood!! But we got over there safely with no sickness either! Our first stop was Blenheim winery where I almost bought some bottles of rose coz it was amazing!! But I didn't lol. We got to Nelson late afternoon and got settled in. It was a gorgeous hostel and I got a 2 course meal for $12.50! It was bloody delicious!! Then we just chilled and watched TV! Very exciting!

Thursday we got me some comfort food of sausage rolls and a Wendys Mega Choc shake!! Sooo good! We headed to Nelson Lakes National Park and the views over Lake Rotoiti were amazing! Postcard perfect! Janet and I did a 45 minute walk which really only took us 20 minutes! Then we just sat on the pier and soaked in the scenery! We made it into Westport, excited to find a cinema, and after mum had txtd me telling me she saw Sex and the City I was doubly desperate to see it, unfortunately the cinema was a one screen cinema and was showing The Bucket List! Damn, looks like I'll hafta wait till Queenstown! We went for fish and chips for dinner and the fish was Rig. I ordered it then Janet asked wot it was... BABY SHARK!!! I quickly cancelled my order and settled for chips with a horrified look on my face... and the chips weren't even chippy chips! Not impressed at all! Then we just watched a few movies, Donnie Brasco and The Man Who Sued God!

Friday (yesterday) brought us to Lake Mahinapua. we left Westport and made the short drive to Cape Foulwind and did an hours walk around the cape. It was a pretty nice walk tho quite hilly! But we were rewarded at the end with a glipse of wild seals sitting on the rocks! That was pretty cool for me!! Once everyone finished the walk we headed to Punakaiki Rocks which were quite cool and shaped like stacks of pancakes and there were blowholes there too which were pretty spectacular!! We walked around there for about 30 mins then had some lunch on the bus (rain again). Then we finally made it to Lake Mahinapua and met Les, the owner of the Poo Pub! WE had a great (vegetarian, they had steak and venison) dinner then went and got ready for the P Party! A fancy dress party with a theme of anything beginning with P! I got dressed as a party! Complete with tablecloth and plates! Janet went as a present for my party! It was hilarious, such a fun night out!!

Then today we left and made our way to Franz Joseph, without really stopping much! Our only stop was the Bushmans Centre... a very weird little museum about deer hunting and pretty much the needless killing of animals! I didn't enjoy it that much but it was full of practical jokes like flick a light switch to see an endangered bird and it squirted out water... stupid things like that lol. Then we got to Franz Joseph and we signed up for a Heli-hike on the glacier tomorrow morning!!

Love and miss you all xxx