Arrived in Nelson late afternoon on the 22nd and just stayed in the hostel, deciding what we wanted to do while we were here. Sat 23rd - Took a walk around Nelson markets which were really cute. Small stalls with lots of jewellry, arty things and free nibbles!! Had a look around the Christ Church Cathedral then walked to the Centre of New Zealand! Up the side of a small mountain...was quite tiring but had great views at the top where we could eat out lu...

Left Wellington this morning...early drive for me to the ferry port! Borded the ferry at 8.30 and after a quick bite to eat...i decided to try and sleep. We heard that the ferry was quite a bad crossing but luckily i slept all the way through until 15 mins before we had to get off! Landed in picton just before noon and stopped off for some lunch and a walk around before heading off to Nelson for a couple of days.

Left Napier for Wellington on the 19th via Palmerston North and Masterson and arrived in the evening. While Beth and Ellie sorted the room, Rita and i drove around and around and around Wellington's one way street system trying to find a place to park the car. Eventually, drowned by the rain, we arrived back at the hostel just in time for dinner :) Weds 20th - Today we went sightseeing in Wellington City which was fun. After a walk round the shops (just...

Drove to Napier today, small town on the east coast, famous for it's 'art deco' buildings. Beth and I went to the National Aquarium of New Zealand and then did an 'art deco' walk around the city. Back at the hostel for the evening where we all attempted to do a new zealand jigsaw (even Ellie helped!) After failing and becoming bored we turned out interests to the skydivig dvd's and zorbing pictures which had us in fits of laughter...again!!

aarrrggghhh!! i did the skydive and i'm still alive!! Well arrived in Taupo and booked our skydive for saturday at 1 o'clock. after not sleeping all night (even after a couple of glasses of wine!) woke up to saturday to so much cloud in the sky that i didn't think we were gonna jump. Well 1 o'clock came and as predicted, we couldn't jump. then we just kept rebooking all day until at at quarter to three, they called us and said they were picking us up in...