Hello! And apologies again for the long silence, I have had e-mails from several people chastising me for the length of time since I last wrote - so sorry everyone! As you're about to see our days have been pretty full, and as Kiwi often take us "off the beaten track", internet access isn't always great.

Last entry I was about to head off to the East Cape for 4 days, which was absolutely fab :-D The East Cape is a predominantly Maori area of NZ and had a completely different feel to the main Kiwi Ex circuit. We stayed in very small hostels and were always welcomed as guests rather than customers! In fact, I was told several times in different places, "you're part of the whanau (family) now, make yourself at home!". One of the stops we made was a tiny village called Rangitukia where we stayed on a farm. We were allowed to try our hand at bone carving, and went for 2 horse rides - one of which was to see the sunrise. We were in fact some of the first people to see the sun as Rangitukia is the first place the sun rises in the southern hemisphere. The scenery was stunning, and we were given free rein (no pun intended) to gallop up and down the beach which was just fantastic :-) On the last evening we stayed on the beach just outside Gisborne and were treated to an amazing bbq with crayfish, mussels and a traditional maori raw fish dish - suprisingly tasty! The following morning we went stingray feeding, which was just magical. The rays were enormous and came right up close, pressing against our wellies and sucking fish from our hands!

After our East As Adventure we rejoined the main circuit and headed off to River Valley - another lodge in the middle of absolutely stunning scenery on the edge of the Rangitikei river. The main activity here was whitewater rafting - absolutely brilliant fun with mostly grade 4/5 rapids. Unsuprisingly we got thrown several times, but it was all good fun (although being hauled back into a raft by your lifejacket is the most un-graceful thing in the world...)

From RV we headed to Wellington (which was suitably breezy to live up to it's nickname of Windy Wellington) where we spent the night. We then had an early start to catch the ferry across the Cook Straits and and heading to Nelson where I spent the weekend with my friend Miranda's friends (everyone following this?) Andrew and Bex, and their 3 children Ruby-Ann (7), George (5) and Henry (3). Despite the fact that I'd never met them before they welcomed me with open arms and I had a great weekend (I love kiwi hospitality!). On the sunday afternoon we all went out to Cable bay, a really beautiful sheltered area with lovely warm water and sunshine! The only downside was the sandflies, who took rather a fancy to me, swarming round my legs and completely ignoring everyone else! Aparently Maori legend states that they were created by one of the godesses who was concerned that parts of NZ were becoming overpopulated. The sandflies come out in the afternoon to remind people to go home and discourage them from living in NZ's beauty spots! I learnt my lesson though, and when I went kayaking on monday in Abel Tasmen National Park I was armed with max strength bug repellant... The kayaking was brilliant, if tiring, and again the scenery was stunning. We were even fortunate enough to see some seals playing about in the waves :-)

Leaving Nelson we started our journey down the south island's west coast. One of our stops was Cape Foulwind where we saw lots more seals and what we THINK was a kiwi chick! It was small, fat and brown with a long beak, and we'd all like to belive that's what it was if nothing else! Unfortunately it was hiding under bushes and although I've taken some photos I'm not sure you can see it, so I lack hard evidence I'm afraid :-(

We're now in Franz Josef, a tiny town famous for it's glacier which we're off to climb tomorrow! From here we head to Wanaka and then Queenstown, before heading south to Dunedin. Hope you are all well and enjoying the British winter :-p Needless to say the weather over here has been beautiful (until this afternoon, it's now drizzling...) As usual this has been very long - so congratulations if you've made it this far! Love to everyone, and do send me your news! It's always lovely to receive emails (even if I can't read them very frequently...)