After defrosting the van and ourselves we hit the Cardrona valley and headed to Queenstown on the Crown Range Road. The Townace did us proud driving like a dream through the snow. When we got to the top of the mountain it was still snowing so we got and admired the view as well as a quick snowball fight to make up for all the snow we have missed at home! When we arrived in Queenstown it was grey and cloudy, we parked up and meet up withVicky and James who had been to Milford Sounds. We all head in to Nzone and I book up a skydive for the next day at 10.30 - all v scary!!! We all wonder around town for abit and then camp up at some camp site and all share fajitas - Amazing. All is going well until nick and nick sneak of to use a shower in a campsite and when we get back to a practically empty site we managed to bump into James and Vicks parked luxury campervan! But luckily there's not much damage!!! I wake up to the clearest day ever so every hope that the dive will be cancelled has gone out the window. I can hear James and Nick shouting at me to come out and look. Unbeknown to us we have camped right by the skydiving site and they where watching loads of different coloured dots falling from the sky - some how this didn't make me feel any better!! I originally book a dive for 9000ft but when I got there they persuaded me to fo the 12000ft. I sat and watched the video and began to feel v scared! Luckily there was enough room on the bus for Nick, Vic and James to come with me - I was the only person there with a support team. After 15mins of watching people falling out of the sky my name is called and I meet my skydive instructor who's called 'Scotty' and looks remarkably like Steve Erwin. We have a 5min safety instruction and the next thing I know is im walking to the plane. It takes 12mins to get to 12000ft and all the way up im thinking - I wish I had listened to what I have to do!!! I am the first to go and am right by the door. One minute im in a plane and the next I am falling out - v fast. It's a 45 sec freefall and apart from the fact that my cheeks are flapping around uncontrollably it is unbelievably amazing!!!!! Once the parachute is released I take in the breathtaking scenery of the snow capped Remarkables, lakes and as I get closer I could clearly see Nick in his yellow jacket!!! Scotty does as few 'corkscrews' and we land safe and sound. I was really lucky because I had the best day ever to do a skydive - undoubtedly a highlight of the trip. We head back into town and all go on the Skytower Gondola which has really good views. We all get 5 rides on the luge which is a track that you race plastic buggies down. It is brilliant fun - although I am the slowest nearly every time! We stop and have a hot chocolate after and watch a bit of a Maori concert which is really good. We camp the night at Twelve Mile Delta which was a filming location for Lord of the Rings. After another freezing night Nick and James wake up and try and bit of fishing (try) We treat ourselves and book into a campsite and spend the day using the facilities and then and 8.00 me Nick, Vic and James head into town to the Minus5 ice bar. We get kitted up with matching coats and gloves and get in the bar. Its quite small but really cool (literally). Everything is made of ice - even the till is covered. We all order cocktails- I have morning frost, everyone's are really nice apart from James's that mings. Its soooooo slippy and cold to hold your glass and I cant help nibbling mine every time I take a sip! Next day, after reversing the van into a wall, we say a final farewell to j&v because they are heading beck to the north island. Me and Nick have a Lord of the rings day and do a tour of all the local sites starting with Kawarau River which has the first ever bungee (over the next 2 days we visit 3 times because Nick kept considering a bungee and we meet J&V twice!) We go to Arrow town which unexpectedly turns out to be one of our favorite places on the trip. Its quite small and really pretty especially because its autumn and a really sunny day. We wonder around and find the place where Arwien helps Frodo across the ford. We head back over Skippers Canyon and then head to Glenorchy where Sarumans Tower was filmed with the Dart valley behind. As it is gettong darker we head down a dirt track for about 15mins to Kinloch to camp. We try and make a quick get away in the morning (we hadn't paid) and the battery is flat (bad karma) 4 hours later we head to paradise and then back through Queentown. Hope everyone is good Lots of love Nick and Nick xx