Kia Ora (Hello) to you all,

Well days and places are flying past, before I let you in on our last few days I would like you all to know that our journey planner on the home page lets you know where we will be next.

WEDNESDAY 20th FEB

The afternoon we arrived in Dunedin we pitched our tent in the caravan park, we took a wander throught the city and it was really weird as all the streets were named after back home.

Princess st and George st were the main streets, we found a Musselburgh Rd, Portobello, Wardlaw Street etc. Dunedin is the gaelic name and sister city of Edinburgh as Scottish settlers were first to arrive here. We took time to look around the towns architecture, there was also a Robert burns statue in the street.

THURSDAY 21st FEB

We got up and headed for the world's steepest street, we didn't know this was here but it was something you got to see and climb as it's famous. We walked up it as taking our little car might have killed it off. We headed out to the Otago Peninsula's that you can see from Dunedin. You will hear these words alot from me on the New Zealand trip, Amazing or Spectacular as most things we have saw are. We drove into the Peninsula's via the top road through Musselburgh and stopped at view points along the way. A little sheep decided to play chicken in front of our car, was very funny.

We went to go to the only castle in New Zealand called Lanarch Castle. They were charging at the gate ridiculous fees to see and take photo's of the castle, so we decided just to buy a postcard instead as we have the best one in Edinburgh anyway so why pay for something i can see for free every day.

On our Peninsula journey we came across Portobello bay where a massive Fur Seal was laying on the beach. We managed to get within 5 meters of it and got some cool pics as you will see. We went further to the end where we saw Sea Lions from 1 meter again we are very privileged to see such wonders.

At night we went to the famous beer Brewery called Speights. The tour was really cool and I haven't been to something like this before so now after seeing how you need to make beer on a hot summers day I will now appreciate it even more than i did before.

Speights is South Islands main beer and New Zealands most famous, all set up originally in Dunedin. Once the tour was complete we had some tasters at the end. There were 6 tasters and Charlotte managed to find 4 she liked and I only liked 3, so much for Charlotte not being a beer drinker!!!!!! You'll laugh at the photo's.

FRIDAY 22nd FEB

This was a big drive from Dunedin right across the Island from east to west and eventually ending up in Te Anau. Charlotte and I had to share the driving. There was not a lot to see before Te Anau as it was mostly farmland, we didn't have time to take a more scenic route down through the south of the Island called The Catlins. However the road worker's decided to confuse us along the way with a diversion that took an hour out our travels and nearly had us driving back to the place we came from!!

When we reached the out skirts of Te Anau the Mountains were picturesque and breath taking. That night we were booked into a cabin after 4 nights camping it. Nice to get a bed for a while. We headed into town to our cruise to the glow worm caves at lake Te Anau.

The trip was interesting the caves had been a story by the Moari people for centuries but the tales got lost and the place never found until one man took 3 years around the lake (shows you how big it is) and came across water swirling towards the lake from a mountain. When we got there you can see why it took him 3 years to find it. Once we got through the trees a guide was waiting to take us into the caves.

This was here it comes SPECTACULAR, we had to duck and dive and wind through the caves, the caves were created by the water carving through the rock of the mountain. We had to go 200 meters inside the mountain, we couldn't take photo's due to preservation of the sight. We had to get into a boat (14 of us), no lights at this point so in complete darkness and head quietly and slowly into the main grotto. To explain what it looked like is very hard but imagine a clear night and thousands of stars, but the stars are not white they are blue!!!

What an experience, the glow worms were lit up everywhere, they do this to attract insects to eat them. After an eventful day we went to bed.

Saturday 23rd Feb

We got up for our 3hr drive to Miford Sounds, this is the most remote place in New Zealand and there is only one way in and out via Te Anau. Milford Sound is Glacier mountains caused by the iceage and they keep growing in size due to earthquakes in the area.

The drive to Milford was vert scenic, it was raining bad that day so we couldn't do a climb to a summit, but we did manage to stop and a few viewing spots, including Mirror lake, one of our photo's will show you that when you take a picture with the lake you get a clear as day reflection back, just how pure the water is.

Due to the rain the tall Mountains were flowing with water nicely, every crack had water falls running from it, amazing. We had to go through a tunnel carved through a mountain face called the hommell tunnell. This was 1.2 km in length with a really steep decline. No lights in the tunnel so all headlights on.

There is nothing in Milford sound apart from the cruises out into the lake area. We spent the night in the only lodge there and for the first time we went into a dorm of 4 people. 2 other guys were in it, strange sharing and strange for both of us being in a bunk bed, C in the bottom and me up on top!!! Stop it I know what you are all thinking!!!

Well it will be the first and last time we dorm it, not that it was bad just it's not us, but we can tick that box and say yeah we did it!!! That night the storms were really bad, I thought the river next to us would break it's bank's or even worse the roof off our cabin would blow off!!! One of the guys brought in all our shoes from outside as we would prefer the bad smell than them being blown away.

Sunday 24th Feb

We got up nice and early at 7 for our cruise at 8:30 (You got free brekkie if you went at this time), We headed out to into Milford Sound lake and what sights we saw. Due to the storm the night before all the waterfalls were going mad, even new ones were there, our skipper said we were really lucky.

We saw the top of Mitre point mountain which most people can't see due to weather and also dolphins and Seal's in the river and rocks. The cruise took us out to the entrance where it met the Tasman Sea. Folks you need to get and see this place, new word FANTASTIC!!! The skipper put the boat under a waterfall so I ran up to the top deck and stood under the fall,

Yeah I know I am going to be 30 this year and it's time to grow up, who says so not me!!!!!!!!!!!! We got back from the trip at 11 and our road travels were taking us to our nesxt destination Queenstown where we...................................................................

Will continue the journey stories in the next few days.

Oh Yeah, I know my hairs red but it was the cheapest hair dye on the go and all I cared about was the grey hairs as I am now growing it to see how mad it gets. Don't have to be smart when your a backpacker but I promise you all no nose piercing or anything too over board, just the hair!!!!

Loved chatting to you all

Bye for now Iain and Charlotte

P.S. Congratulation Dad on your new job, I hope this makes you happy as happiness is the most important thing in life and we only have one shot at that!!!