I'm currently in Christchurch, and it's my last night in New Zealand. Last time you heard from me I was about to set off to the South Island, so I will pick up form there. We jumped on the Interislander Ferry in Wellington (31st), and it took roughly three hours. It's quite famous for being a rough cross-over, but it was relatively calm! It took another few hours to get to Christchurch, where we would be spending New Years eve. A few days before we had all decided to get matching T-shirts, with a group picture on the back. Thus, we all where wearing the same t-shirt for the New Years Eve Party. It was awesome!!! Had a great time. We stayed at the hotel bar the whole time (which was an ale house, so I was happy), and this may sound boring but it didn't matter where we where because there was 50 of us, so we bought the party with us. A brilliant way to bring in '06. The next day we headed for Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier is a beautiful place, but is on the west (wet) coast of New Zealand, thus it is very wet!! It rained like hell, and bought me back to my days in good old Scotland. I didn't manage to actually see the Glacier though, but I'm sure it's awesome!! After Fox we headed down over to Queenstown. I couldn't wait, because Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand. The lodge we stayed in there was very good, and had the best Hotel bar I have ever seen. It was cheap, had an open fireplace (in the middle of summer, but we needed it!!) and the best view I have ever had a few beers in front of. We then headed up above the town on the Gondola (cable cart) to have dinner, and a few beers. The next day (03/01/06) I was fortunate enough to jump out of a plane (tandem though) from 12,000 feet!!!! What made it even better was that I was one of 3 that were able to jump that day. Everyone else got turned away as the weather turned unfavorable. Skydiving for me was such an in explainable experience. I find your mind can't actually comprehend what you are doing, and I thought I was suspended over a map of New Zealand with a huge fan in my face. Quite unbelievable!! I have to say it is the best hangover cure I have found to date!! After Skydiving I did a canyon swing..... this is the worlds largest swing, and you basically swing over a canyon. I personally found this scarier than the skydive, as you are actually falling down the side of a cliff, and get what they call a "ground rush". Basically you think you are going to die, until the last second you don't. the blokes that run the show are a good laugh, and try to scare you as much as they can. They will tell you to jump, then stop you and tell you your harness isn't on correctly, and on and on until the hardest of souls are crapping themselves!! There catchphrase is "even my s*** was scared". Check out the website, and especially the different ways you can do the swing http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/ (I did the Pindrop). After the Canyon Swing, I did river boarding. This is basically where you body board through rapids down a river. Awesome fun!!! I always wonder if there will be another time in my life where I will jump from a plane at 12,000 feet, jump across a canyon, and then body board 5kn through rapids all in one day??? Although I was exhausted from my days activities, I found the energy to go to the ice bar. This is a bar that is made of Ice, and the temperature is around -5C inside. As part of your entry fee you get gloves and a big jacket. It was awesome, and even your drinks glass and the couches you sit on are made of ice. You can only stay inside for half an hour though. Supposedly as it is so cold inside, your body somehow won't let you get drunk, thus you keep on drinking. The problem is though, once you get outside, back into the warmth, the alcohol hits you, and a lot of people fall over. Bloody good fun if you ask me, but the Ice Bar obviously deems it unsafe and thus only let you inside for half and hour. The next day (05/01/06), despite the sorest throat imaginable I was lucky enough to go white water rafting down the Shotover River. This was awesome, and more exhilarating and dangerous than I ever imagined. A highlight of the rafting was towards the end, where you raft through an abandoned miners tunnel. This means for a minute or so you are rafting in the pitch black!!! Once dry I headed to do my first bungee jump......my heart starts racing just thinking about it. I opted to do a Thrillogy, which meant I could do all three of the Bungee jumps in the Queenstown area. Two of the jumps had a freefall of around 50m, and one of them had a freefall of 143m. For some reason my first bungee was the biggest. Nevis... and its' 143m drop. You basically jump from a fixed cable cart in the middle of a canyon. Thus you have to get a mini cable cart to get there. Even on this mini cable cart I was scared. Once you get to the platform, a section of the floor is actually glass, so you can actually see vertically down! This gets the heart racing even more when you actually face what you are about to do. One great touch though is they blast out Mettalica and Rammstein, so it really gets you pumped up! Once you actually jump, you seem to drop forever, and you can barely breath!!! Like skydiving, it is a completely unexplainable experience. I think this is something to do with the fact that this is the only way you can get this experience without dying. If that's not enough, I went straight from the Nevis bungee to the Ledge bungee. This is atop the Gondola which takes you pretty much directly over Queenstown. There where two main differences between the Ledge bungee and the Nevis Bungee: Nevis was 143m, and Ledge was only 34m. You weren't strapped by your feet on the Ledge, just a traditional harness around your waste. These might sound like two less exhilarating differences, but were actually two quite welcoming ones. After you've thrown yourself off Nevis, you could actually relax by the time you get to a mere 43m drop. I also liked the fact you weren't strapped by your ankles, so you could actually take a run up and throw your self of the platform!!!! This was a great jump, and I nailed it. Kicked it in the but!! I was sad to leave Queenstown despite I barely got chance to breath. But before I left, I had to complete my Thrillogy. The last jump was Kawarau Bridge Bungee. This too was around 50m, and was and ankle strap bungee. Kawarau Bridge Bungee was actually the world's first commercial bungee sight, so it had to be done. You can check out a bit more about these jumps at the following website: http://www.ajhackett.com/ and remember to click on Queenstown. From Queenstown we headed up to Milford Sound. It was quite a drive, but some of the best scenery I have ever seen. You could never quite know where to look, because there was always too much to look at. Ironically we where quite lucky that it had been raining a lot (in rains a hell of a lot in some parts of New Zealand), as there where thousands upon thousands of waterfalls sprouting out from everywhere. It even snowed for us once!! We would be spending the night on a boat called Milford Wonderer, and would be on the sound. They also had kayaks you could take out and explore a bit of the sound with yourself, and kayak up to little waterfalls etc. A bar was conveniently located on board as well. It was a good fun night, actually playing cards and guitar etc, but it's not nice waking up a little hungover on a boat taking a little trip into the open Tasman Sea. I felt a bit sorry for a few people on the cruise though. There where some old hiker/birdwatcher tourists also on the boat that probably thought they were getting a nice quiet cruise on the sound, but instead got stuck on a boat full of us!! I managed to hold up, but there where a few down moments when I thought I would have to give in!!! It was a fantastic cruise, and some of the scenery was more than breathtaking. One of the things I loved about New Zealand is that it is effectively 12 countries rolled into one. In a three hour drive you could watch the scenery intertwine between Scotland, Australia, The Alps, Indonesia and on and on. You can never get bored looking out the window!! From Milford Sound, we jetted back up North to Lake Ohau, and more specifically the Lake Ohau lodge. This was a very peaceful lodge, with fantastic views and good accommodation. Since it was the last night of the tour, a traditional Toga party was the evening's plans. For those of you that don't know what a Toga party is (I didn't either), it's sort of an American University tradition. You basically wrap yourself up in a sheet to look like a Greek king...... It was an awesome night and will try and bring back the tradition to Huntly. Maybe not. It was back up to Christchurch the next day (07/06/05), which was also the end of the tour. The tour officially ended at 3pm, but since 90% of the group was staying an extra night in Christchurch (so they didn't miss their flights) everyone stuck together for one last night in Christchurch. We stayed in the same place we where in for New Years, so it was familiar territory. I actually went to reception to find a picture of myself on the door. I don't now why, maybe they where trying to ban me or something!!!! I booked myself to fly back to Sydney on the 16th, so I had 8 days to go and travel a bit more. I decided to get the bus up to the North of the South Island, and then take the ferry again over to Wellington (North Island). I stayed in the first hostel I could find, then had a few beers with my new room mates and had an early night. I was absolutely shattered form the tour. I was also really weird, as it was the first time in 16 days that I didn't have 46 people to hang out with!!! The next day I took a train up too Upper Hut where I would be staying with my Aunt (Joan) and Uncle (Ray) for a few days. It was awesome to see the again as it was really only the second time (since I can remember) that I have met them. I also got to meet one of my cousins for the first time (Rachael) which as also great. They made me feel really welcome, and cooked me some awesome food! It was also nice to be back in a family environment for a few days, which is quite a contrast to my last 5 months of living arrangements. I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle for 3 days, then headed back into Wellington. I checked into Base backpackers, and saw a bit more of the city. I also went to go see King Kong, and justified this as it was filmed around Wellington. I even sore the boat it was filmed on the next day. One of my main reasons for going into Wellington was that there is this great Lord of The Rings (Cunningham) tour you can go on. So I went on it. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries for the first half of the tour, so I don't have that many pictures. The tour guide was great, and was an elf extra in the movie. He thought he was a lot more though, but it just added to his enthusiasm!! There was actually quite a bit of filming done near upper hut, and I actually revisited some of the places I had been the previous day walking the dog with Ray!! That night I got a little bored, so went to go see another movie filmed in New Zealand: Narnia. I even saw it at the cinema where the world premier of Return of the King was shown. Since it was a pretty big deal, they put name tacks on all the seats were the actors sat. Naturally I planted myself where Liv Tyler sat. From Wellington I flew back down to Christchurch, as this is where my flight to Sydney left from. The flight actually was considerably cheaper than the bus and ferry, and took a hell of a lot less time. Luckily it was a beautiful day, and the World Buskers festival, so there was a lot to see. Christchurch is a beautiful town/small city. It looks very English, and there is an awesome old-school tram system installed around the city. For some reason unknown to me I was booked on a 6.45am flight back to Sydney. Thus my shuttle to the airport was at 4.30am. I then flew/slept my way back to Sydney, to be met with a wonderful climate of humidity. It has rained ever since my arrival back to Sydney, so I have barely had chance to wash my clothes!!!! I have missed New Zealand a lot. It was an awesome country, and I met some great people there. I will go back sometime in the future, and recommend it without question to anyone. I have little time for nostalgia though, as I am still in Australia of which I am equally fond off!!! Thanks for reading this by the way. I got set on a bit of a roll, but I hope you enjoyed reading a bit about what I got up to in New Zealand. I will fill in all the blanks at a later date. I will only put up the pictures relevant to this journal entry for now, as they are explained a lot better. I will put up the rest of my pictures after I have updated my North Island entry. I have sort of shot myself in the foot, as I will have to be more descriptive with my North island entry than I have been!!!!! By the way, the photo is not of Wales Tom. sorry. Well enjoy!!! STEVEN