We had to get up early for our flight from melbourne to christchurch as our flight departed at 08.30. An uneventful flight was followed by an uneventful couple of days in christchurch. Although c'church has a lot of character there isn't a lot to do there. Onour 3rd day in NZ we got on the kiwi bus and travelled to Wesport on the west coast, which is a small little place. We jetboated here as it is much cheaper to do it there then in queenstown and the ride is 3 times longer. That night we just got to know the others on our bus in a small local pub. The next day we moved on to a place further down the coast which began with a M but can remember the name of the place. Here we stayed at a pub run by a man in his 80's, here we had a 'poo party' which involved dressing up, the theme was bad taste, so i went as a terrorist - pierre & ryan went as chavs. The two people who got the best dress prize and won a free canyon swing dressed as a priest attached to a school child by a piece of string. This was a really good night much fun was had by all.

Onto franz josef the next day, booked our full day glacier hike, which was cancelled the next day due to bad weather conditions, so we bookeda half day for the following day when the weather was glorious. We had to wear crampons on our feet to stop us slipping on the ice. It was a really good experience with some breathtaking views! That night, was onto wanaka, where ryan & pierre sydived again, it didn't due to lack of money but they said it was amazing and pierre's video looks really good. After picking up the skydivers it was onto queenstown, where we watch a dvd called 'secrets of bungy' and booked our bungy jumps. One of our group jumped off the bridge at the booking office (which is the place where the first bungy was done) i felt sorry for him because he had 50 people watching him from the lookout. We booked the nevis as it is the second highest bungy jump in the world 134m. Nevis is more than a bungy the whole experience is pretty terrifying, we had to meet at the shop in q'town at 2.00, hang around for 45mins, then there is a 45min bus journey which turns off onto a dirt track and goes up a mountain then stops at a kiosk where you are giiven your harness. Then you get in an open cable car which takes you out to the highwire, you're in a massive canyon it's very hard not to look down. Then people start to jump from heaviest to lightest, i was about 8th person up so i had a bit of a wait. The thing i was most worried about was the jump, as if you don't jump the correct way you can really hurt yourself - witlash etc. But when it came to the crunch i was fine, the man walks you out to the edge of the ledge then counts down 5-4-3-2-1 BUNGY then without thinking there i was plumiting towards the little river. After 8 seconds when you bounce you think to yourself 'oh is that it?' Its over in no time! Awesome though an amazing adrenaline rush, but i probably prefer skydiving.

The following night we had a three legged pub golf night organised by Ginny our bus driver, a good night which is basically a pub crawl whilst attached to another person. The following day we rose early and got up to the slopes for a days skiing. Awesome to be skiing again but its early in the season here so its very icy so there were some tericky patches but i didn't fall over once! Bit of a pro ... me! The following two days the slopes have been closed as there was rain which melted the snow but hopefully tomorrow!

It was all go go go go as the next mrning we went to Milford Sound which is about 6 hour drive from queenstown, people say not going to Milford Sound when in Nz is like not going to see the pyramids when in Egypt & we had seen loads of pics of the place which looked incredible so we felt we had to go there. When we arrived we walked onto a boat which took us up the fiord, the boat also had a buffet to which i sorely abused, i ignored comments such as "obscene" but i was a hungry boy! The boat ride was about an hour with running commentary in about 3 languages, after this we were taken to an underwater observatory where we could see the sea from a different perspective and not much else.

We managed to ski one day in Queenstown although we booked 3 days, quite a few people from our kiwi bus were on the slopes that day which was a good laugh. Ryan & I tried to teach Pierre how to ski - never realised how much patience you need to become an instructor, but he had picked the basics before he had a lesson with a "professional". That meant the rest of us could tear up the slopes, the pistes aren't as good as the place ive skiied in europe but was still a great day and absolutely loved being back on the slopes!! In one day we pretty much did every slope there was at the resort, which is quite small but the only in the region that was open. The rest of the days were spent longing for snow, the night we skiied there was rain which melted the snow then there wasn't a frost the entire time we were there so they couldnt even use the snow machines which was a huge disappointment especially as we only got an $86 bar tab as a refund. One day we ice skated as a large group, i dont think ill ever be good at ice skating. Another day we went luging which is when you drive a go kart type 'vehicle' minus the engine down a race track which is on a slope. The time i did there were 7 testosterone fuelled males in competition which inevitably lead to crashes as victory was paramount. I was thrown out of my luge in an out of control 180 degree spin which left me with some grazes.

Whilst in Queenstown a place called fergburger became our home, they did the most INCREDIBLE burgers i have ever experienced, v large portions with NZ prime beef, every burger was just out of this world and there were so many to try!