I've had an interesting journey from Te Kaha to here. I didn't actually leave when I was expecting to as the bus was full so I stayed an extra night and luckily met some very nice ladies from America who had a car and were travelleing back round the East Cape. I offered to be their guide in return for a lift which they were more trhan happy to do. We went back to the place where we saw the sunrise and this time I did the horse riding which was really good fun, made better by the incredible scenery - I hadn't thought too much of this place until the horse ride. We headed back to Gisborne where I watched whale rider after visiting the place it was filmed at.Good film actually - it does a good job of getting across some aspects of Maori culture. We spent a night in Napier - the art deco town of the north island. The Americans didn't agree that it rivalled Miami. I took a bus to Wellington and stayed at an awesome YHA hostel where I met loads of people one of whom is a teacher in a place called Timaru and has offered me a place to stay if I should care to visit her! I really liked Wellington, it was a very pretty city, especially at night. It was an arts festival too and I luckily got a bit of time to check out an exhibit in one of the galleries called 'Cezanne to Picasso' - which perfectly describes the exhibit. Its not often you like every picture in one room but here I did - the owners of this collection are very lucky. I had to rush to the South Island to meet up with Natalie and the others so I only spent one night in Wellington but I reckon it's the sort of place you could waste a lot of time in if you have it! The ferry crossing on the Cook Strait was pretty horrid - the waves crashed over the 7th floor deck that I was on and there were many people being sick all around me...urgh! Pulling into South Island all I could see were the Marlborough Sounds - which are stunning, especially in the morning as the sun rises over the mountains. The South Island is indeed as promising as everybody says (so far!). I met up with Nat in Nelson but I left her at the hotel the next morning as I went up into the Abel Tasman National Park for a full day kayak trip. WOW! It was such a good experience - the sea was an incredible blue-green colour and the beaches were amazingly golden. Some of the islands had black beaches on them which is where iron from the granite hills surrounding the park has been mixed in with the sand. Very cool to see. I also saw seals - they're very cute, especially the little pups but if you get too close they can be scary! It was such a nice place I returned the following day to do a walk inside the park which provided more stunning views and was well worth the effort! We then travelled to Westport which was fairly non-descript but where we picked up 14 new passengers. This being their first day we decided to play a trick on them and bet on who would be the first to get annoyed about it...! I won and got a jug of beer! Poor Tracy! We went to a place just South of Greymouth last night and stayed at 'the poo pub' where we had a fancy dress party with the theme 'heroes and villans'. We had an hour in Greymouth to find a costume but all I could find were boxes... so I purchased some silver wrapping paper and went as a robot! It turned aout to be a very cool costume and I won 3rd prize - a free photo and dvd pack with a bungy jump in Queenstown. I'm in negotiations with some people who actually want it as I have no intentions of making myself feel like I'm going to die! So now we're in Franz Josef and I hope to go on a full day hike on the glacier tomorrow - we went and looked at it from a distance today and it's really beautiful even though it's tipping down with rain. It is possible that we won't go though because there has been some serious flooding over the last few days :( I may have to hang around for a day or two otherwise because it is supposed to be an incredible experience.