Hi everybody from Christchurch! New Zealand is a fantastic country and the last few months have been amazing! We have spent ages here and there are still loads of stuff to do. One thing is for sure, we are definitely coming back to this part of the world again. We started off in Auckland which was a really cool city. After such a long time out of civilisation in polynesian islands it was a welcome return to see starbucks and get a decent cup of coffee - sad but true i'm afraid! We boarded the Kiwi Experience bus and made our way up north through the Bay of Islands to Cape Reigna which is the very north tip of New Zealand. From there we headed South, back through Auckland and to Rotorua. This was a geo thermal area and we spent the time here relaxing in the hot pools of the Polynesian Spa. After that, we continued down through Watimo, Taupo and River Valley. We hiked around the Tongariro National Park where they filmed a lot of Lord of the Rings. From the photo you can see the mountain they used for Mount Doom, except it was covered in snow when we were there. Our final stop in North Island was in the capital city of Wellington. This was a really nice city to chill out in before making the boat trip across the Cook Strait to the South Island. South Island was really cool and the scenery was absolutely stunning. We travelled down through Nelson and Westport where we did jet boating - really cool going down a river at 60mph and doing 360 degree spins. Our travels continued down along the west coast where we ended up at Les' hotel in Lake Manphua. - some dodgy hotel run by some dodgy old geezer who let kiwi experience organise a very dodgy fancy dress party - Ronnie - you know what I'm talking about as you did it last year and won first place! I even saw you're the photo of your group on the wall of the bar! There are some photos of me from that night but they will not be making it anywhere near the website! Our next stop was the Franz Joseph Glacier which was amazing. We did the Heli Hike which involved a 15 minute helicopter ride up to the top of the glacier and then being dropped off, putting on ice talons and going for a 2 hour hike round the glacier and through ice caverns. The photos of the expedition are amazing. It felt very James Bond standing in the middle of this glacier watching the helicopter come back in to pick us up!! The best and most unique thing I have done to date! The rest of our travels took us down to Wanaka (an anagram of the average Kiwi Experience passenger) and onto Queenstown. This is where they invented the bungy jump and we happily watched crazy people jump of the bridge as we sipped on our café late. Next stop was Dunedin which is the most Scottish city outside of Scotland. It was really weird being so far away from home and yet walking down streets which were all named after back home. Down to the very bottom of South Island and New Zealand and we saw rare seals, sea lions and penguins all in their natural habitat which was cool. We finally parted with Kiwi Experience in Christchurch which is the most English city outside of England - very bizarre. Next we are onto Melbourne, Australia which will be really cool. Need to pick up our working visa and start earning some much needed cash for a wee bit to replenish the travel fund. Hope everyone back home is doing great! Best wishes Paul