After all the debarchary of Wellington it was time to leave the North island. we managed to miss the bus, so after a stressful 30mins of finding taxis and getting to the ferry port we were on our way and across the Cook strait over to the South Island, on the way passing through Marlborough Sounds on the ferry. Once we got over we headed to Nelson, a tiny little town, where we spent the night in the pub taking part in a charity rat racing competition!! Veronique and I actually pretty well, we won a TV and a trip, unfortunately we had no use for either so we re-auctioned them for some cold hard cash!

Next we headed West to the aptly named town of Westport. along the way we stopped off at lake Rotoiti and followed the Buller gorge, known as New zealands longest and most scenic roads, after a night here it was time to head further south to Lake Mahinapua where we stayed at a very interesting place! We had the whole hostel to ourselves and the owner (Les, the oldest publican in NZ) organised a theme party for us. The ceiling of the Bar was lined with random hats which looked as though they had been there for awhile.. Before we got here though we went to nosey at a seal colony at Tauranga Bay, went and saw some rocks that looked like stacks of pancakes (aptly named the pancake rocks, or Punakaiki).

Now after our 80s, superhero from New Zealand with an animal sidekick fancy dress party (we couldnt decide on a theme, so we combinedthem all...) we headed to Franz Josef, stopping off at the bushmans centre, alittle museum and cafe where they show us how people made a living in the New Zealand bushland killing and later on capturing deer, using unusual methods such as jumping out of helicopters to get the beasts! The cafe was particularly interesting as the menu included possum pies, and many other oddities.

Now, Franz Josef was beautiful too, this was my second favourite place. It is up in the Mountians and the home of the Fox Glacier. Its here that I did my Sky dive! the flight up was amazing! we had a 20minute scenic flight over Mount Cook, Mount Tasman and the Glacier, you could even see the sea! Very, very cool! andthen I jumped out of the plane! I´m sure a lucky few of you will get to watch video!

Now on the way from Franz Josef to Wanaka we past Mount Cook, the highest peak in the New Zealand, Lake Matheson for some beautiful photo ops, with the perfect reflecting water and mountianous backdrop aswell as the Gates of Haast (sounds very lord of the rings, doesnt it!) and we stopped at a few waterfalls along the way aswell. Wanaka is a great ski resort but i decided to give that a miss and head straight down to Queenstown the next morning!

Queenstown was party town!!! There were probably more bars than shops! ok so thats abit of a exaggeration, but you get my point. While I was here I decided, for some unknown reason that I would do a bungy jump and not just any old bungy the biggest one in the southern hemisphere (i think, its definitely the bigest one in New Zealand), The Nevis!!! This was absolutely terrifying, though I am glad I enjoyed, but lets just say i´m not sure I´ll be doing it again... Theres nothing like falling 134metres, head first towards the ground to make you appriciate life alittle more though!

Once my 3night nights in queenstown were over it was time to start my journey back up north, this time along the east coast, stopping at Christchurch along the way back upto Auckland. Christchurch was extremely english feeling, apparentely thats where all the poms settled when everyone was coming over back in the day, so there you go!

So that was my time in New Zealand! I had an amazing time as you can probably tell, and now I am in South America! but more on that later. I think its time to eat.

Xxxx