Crikey!!!!!! What a 2 weeks this has been!!! Since our last blog, we have visited the Steve Irwin zoo and been to New Zealand for our Milford Sound trek and cruise and they were both awesome!!

First off, we had to get the bus really early to the Steve Irwin zoo as it was the only one and the return bus was 7 hours after that!! I didn't think we could make the zoo last 7 hours, even if it was the Steve Irwin one but it turns out we didn't have to as 30 minutes into the journey the bus broke down!!! We were just watching a DVD on the zoo and the bus starting conking out and green liquid was coming out of it. So we pulled off the road at 9.10am and he called for a new bus at 9.30; I don't know why it took him 20 minutes to call for a second bus, the leaking green liquid was a pretty big giveaway that we wouldn't be using that bus for the rest of the journey!!

So despite calling at 9.30am for the replacement bus, it showed up at 11am!!! We got to the zoo around 12pm which meant we had the more realistic time of 4 hours in the zoo and it was the best zoo we've ever been to!! It's huge and the animals have so much space to roam about in, especially the kangaroos and wallabies, who were one of the best attractions!! We bought roo food, which was little food pellets and bits of corn and brought it to 'Roo Zoo'. There were loads of grey wallabies just hopping beside you and soon as they seen the brown paper bag they hopped right up to you because they knew they were getting fed. They just ate right out of your hand, no bother to them!! We took loads of photos of them as it was such a novelty to walk with the animals as opposed to Belfast Zoo, where you can't even see half the animals!! One of the best animals had to be the Sumatran tigers!! They put on a great show. There were three of them, including one huge male and 4 keepers were in the huge enclosure with them just petting them like cats!! The keepers had them doing all sorts of tricks; one of them leapt from a log about 12 feet in the air for a piece of meat, it was really cool looking. These tigers also loved milk so they were standing up and responding to the keepers for cartons of milk. One of the keepers brought the biggest tiger up to the window for his tricks and then lay him down with the rest of the milk so you could go right up to the window for a photo and he was only about 1 foot from us. They are such beautiful animals, my favourite type of tiger; we got a couple of close up shots of him which you should see from the photo album!! There were some pretty big and mean looking crocs there too and they were so old, a couple were born in the 20's!!!

Of course, there was a huge focus on Steve Irwin and his family but a little to the extent of it being a bit much! Although it was great to see him all over the zoo and his programs playing at a make shift cinema in the zoo; it reminded you how odd his death was considering some of the things he did but it was good to see the family stills has as much to do with the zoo. Steve actually took over the zoo from his parents in the late 90's I think so it wasn't exactly new to him but he expanded it so much, it's a totally different zoo!! So a fun day was had by all and you really do come away thinking about conservation!

Then of course, New Zealand!!!!!! We were only here for one week to do the trek and the overnight cruise, so we only seen Queenstown and Milford Sound, but we come back in July to explore the rest!! We have completely fallen for New Zealand, it is a totally spectacular country, absolutely beautiful and we didn't want to leave!!!

Our first experience of New Zealand was the plane landing in Queenstown; as we were descending to land and we came below the clouds and suddenly this massive mountain range surrounded by a blue/green ocean is all the eye can see. It was absolutely stunning!! We caught the local bus into Queenstown and this little place was gorgeous. It reminded us a lot of a ski resort. It was very low and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Our hostel turned out to be lovely; real mattresses with real duvets and proper bed clothes like you would have at home!! And 2 pillows!! They were super comfortable! The kitchen was just like a kitchen at home and the hostel provided free spices, and all utensils and cleaned it very regularly. We got free internet and free phone calls to home!! The showers were proper big rain fall heads and we felt in the lap of luxury!!

The whole attitude of backpackers here is different too. You can actually leave your things sitting for 5 minutes without somebody trying to swipe them! We were talking to someone about how food goes mysteriously missing from your bag or shelf in hostels in Australia and she was telling us when she was in Australia, someone actually stole her pizza that was cooking in the oven!!!! lol She came into see if it was ready yet, and it had disappeared!!! She thought she was going mad, trying to remember if she did actually put the pizza on but some scamp had stolen it from the oven while it was cooking!!lol We thought it was hilarious!!

The next morning we had to drag ourselves from the lovely comfy beds for our early bus to Te Anau to collect our trek tickets and spend the night before catching the boat to the start of the track the next morning. Even the boat across was spectacular! Huge snowy mountains surrounding you and really feeling like a Lord of the Rings setting!! I can see why they chose here to film!! Magical!!

The first day of the track was really easy; only an hour and a half flat walk to the first hut, Clinton Hut, where we were to spend the night. This walk was really lovely; the forest was like something from a fairy tale. For part of it, everything from the ground up was covered in a green/red moss. The only bad thing about the first day was that we were finished for the day by around 2pm and when you stop walking, it's freezing!!! The hut ranger was in soon after though to light the closed fire, so it was roasty toasty before long!! That night, we got a really clear sky so the ranger offered to take us to view the stars. We all went to the helicopter pad and he showed us all the constellations, and explained what they were about. The whole sky was just peppered in stars and it was class looking; we could see the Milky Way, we could almost make out Mars and all the constellations were crystal clear!! We were definitely feeling at one with nature here lol

Our second day was pretty easy too, although it was much longer at around 6 hours walking. It was flat until the end when we begin the ascent of the mountain, but only a little way before we reached the second hut, Mintaro Hut. We had a really lovely day so everybody reached the hut dry and therefore, in a good mood! The previous day, Matt's trainers got wet so he tried drying them on the closed fire and melted his lace off!! We were the first to reach the hut, and were in front of everyone on the track the whole day, which had one big advantage. Any wildlife that was roaming the track hadn't been disturbed and we were able to see lots of different birds on the way, including a flightless bird call the Weka. It looked like a big brown hen, which is probably why it's otherwise known as a bush chicken!! They hang around the huts and anywhere humans are hoping for food. We aren't allowed to feed them because they then become dependent on humans for food and lose their instinct. Although I did drop a big chunk of tuna from my sandwich one day when stopping for lunch and it hoovered it!!

The next day was VERY rainy and wet!!! Milford Sound apparently gets 8m of rain a year and rains 2 of every 3 days, so this had to be expected but it didn't make for very happy campers, when you were walking 7 hours in wet shoes and wet everything really; but the beautiful surroundings and scenery were enough to distract us!! Toward the end of the day, there was a side track you could take to go and see Sutherland Falls, a 597m tall waterfall; the 5th tallest in the world!! However, we chose to see it at a distance and head straight for the last hut, Dumpling Hut, as we were so cold, wet and soggy!! Even from a distance though, it was pretty spectacular looking. It was named after Donald Sutherland, a Scottish man who was the first inhabitant of Milford Sound. He and this other guy called Mackay were walking the track, which was an established passage at the time, but not a completed track, when they came across a beautiful big waterfall. They both wanted to name the waterfall after themselves and decided who would win on a coin toss. Mackay won and the waterfall they first came across is now known as Mackay Falls. Sutherland was very put out by losing and declared that the next falls be named after him. Lo and behold, they next stumble across a 597m monster waterfall. So Sutherland was chuffed to bits with the newly named Sutherland and Mackay was a bit put out!!lol

This third day was also the hardest of the track, as we had to do the whole of the ascent and descent of the mountain on this day. We should have had the most amazing views from the pass at the top, but unfortunately it was too cloudy, but it still offered a great view of its own; very Lord of the Rings again. At the top, there is a memorial to Quentin MacKinnon, an explorer who discovered parts of Milford Sound, but mysteriously disappeared on Lake Te Anau and presumed drowned. Apparently he went off in a row boat on his own, which he did quite often, but when he hadn't returned after a few days, his crew went looking for him and found his boat on some rocks but no sign of him. His body was never recovered either! There is also a big flat rock on this part of the mountain which overhangs a cliff drop, and you can lie on your belly and wriggle out to the edge and look over down the cliff, 1100m below you!! We tried it but because of the clouds, we couldn't see anything but when you peeped over a massive upthrust of wind hit you in the face. It was really scary but I'd imagine it to be scarier when you can see to the bottom. There is a 12 second drop, which one person managed to experience years ago. A woman was walking and looking all around her trying to take the best picture with her camera. She wasn't paying attention though and she walked right off the end of the rock!!!! Just straight off the end, all because she wasn't paying attention. Another crazy way to die!!

Another 100m above this was the actual top of the mountain and it was so unbelievably bitter cold, and the rain felt like needles on your face! There was a shelter hut here though, thank god. It was such vicious weather, but it only lasted for about 10 minutes after you started descending until the mountain provided enough shelter. That night at Dumpling Hut, there were a fair few aches and pains between everyone; a few twisted ankles and knees. My knee joints were in pieces after the descent but Matt was fine; like a mountain goat running round!!

The next day was our last day of the Milford Track. It was pretty flat terrain but it was still a 6 hour walk so no easy feat! We had another lovely sunny day which made it all the nicer. We got some of our best pictures on this day; because of the cloud cover a lot of our photos don't give you the true impression of the sight we were looking at. We had to catch a boat back to land and stay the night before we did our overnight cruise the following day. We absolutely loved doing the Milford track and are planning to do some of the other tracks when we return to New Zealand; I would recommend them to everyone. While the third day was difficult in the ascent, it couldn't have been that hard as there were 3 men in our group who were doing the track because it was on their bucket list!! They were around 60!

The next afternoon, we went to check in for our cruise and were informed that there were not enough bookings on our boat to justify sending it out, so we were upgraded to the next boat with our own cabin, bathroom and a three course meal that night!! We were well chuffed with that. The boat was much bigger, lovely inside and the staff were great! We left the dock and headed out to view the mountains and a few bays before we stopped to kayak and swim (if you were feeling brave; we weren't). After only 5 minutes, the skipper told us there were bottle-nose dolphins out to our right, and we could see their fins just peeping above the water. Then he turned the boat towards them and when we got close, they came up and started swimming along with the boat and leaping out of the water, right in front of us!!! They were there for around 10 minutes and they were so close to us, we weren't far off touching them. One jumped out sideways like he was looking at us. It was absolutely awesome, a pod of about 25 dolphins swimming along with us and putting on a show!!

Then we stopped at a small bay so we could kayak, which is harder than it looks!! We got tortured by sand flies though so we didn't stay in for too long. For dinner, we were sat with another young English couple; the four of us were the youngest on the boat and it turned out they were upgraded too. It made us feel better about ripping the arse out of the free buffet when they were doing it too, as the smaller boat wasn't a buffet! Then they put on a slide show after dinner telling us a little about the area etc and after that we went to bed early to get up for the breakfast buffet in the morning! Our cabin was along the outside corridor of the ship, so when we opened our door, we were on an open corridor without walls so we had a huge view. When we went to bed, we looked out over the side of the ship but it was so dark, it was like looking into a black hole; it was really strange. There was no distinction between the sky and the water, there were no lights in the distance, there weren't even any stars. We were surrounded by blackness!!

When we docked, we had to get a bus back to Queenstown for the night before we flew back to Australia the next day. We were not happy with having to go back to Australia lol!! We absolutely loved New Zealand and cannot wait to get back in July and explore the rest of it. For now, we are back in Brisbane and have just got another job in a country pub 5 hours south of here. We start next week and the job includes accommodation, food and a wage so hopefully we can save a good bit before we leave in July!! It doesn't qualify us for our 2nd year visa but we have decided against a 2nd year in Australia, especially after seeing New Zealand!! Our options are now firmly opened!!

We've had a fantastic 4 weeks travelling about, without having to worry about work or money as most things had already been paid for. Now we are back to reality for the next few months, saving for the next leg!! It's a hard life but somebody's gotta do it!!!

Lots of love

Nicola & Matt x