I'm going to be brief because I don't have long on the timer. Firstly, apologies for the late silence. All will be revealed (waves magic wand in mysterious, eery, Trelawnley-esque manner) In Wellington we went to the Te Papa museum and learned about a flightless parrot with an incredible sex drive and lots of NZ history. We walked a wee bit along the harbour, saw the beehive and took a cable car up to some botanical gardens where we wandered and played in the playground (nice pic of Emma grinning her head off) The following morning we climbed up Mt Victoria for some great views (took lots of pics) then got back down again and caught the ferry to Picton in South Island. It was a LUSH ferry. Picton is a desolate town, but there was a bakery across the street from our hostel so we were happy. :) Accidentally we cooked the full 500g of pasta and so ate all of that for dinner (even though we had nibbled only 2 hours before on the ferry!) We passed the evening playing board games. Next day we bought some buns and rolls from the bakery for lunch then caught our Stray bus - a tour we'd be with for the rest of the trip. We've met many... interesting people. From Picton we went to Old MacDonald's Farm in Abel Tasman - a National Park (1/3 of NZ is National Parks). No reception, no internet, great views. Jen and Em went for a morning sail while I contentedly had a lie in then went for a wander and saw... some llamas. Yes. The llamas are stalking me. From Maccy D's that afternoon we travelled all the way to Barrytown aka Barry-no-town aka Barry-the-size-of-the-kitchen. We all had a lie-in, did some washing, watched a film (American Beauty - how WEIRD is that film?) and went to the beach, which we have since christened the 'Forever Beach'. It just went on forever, in both directions, and then some. It was lovely. We rolled up our trousers and within seconds our feet were frozen, but it was too fun playing in the sea and racing the waves and sinking into the sand. The beach was deserted so I took off my trousers so I could go deeper. Almost fell over! Lots of water everywhere, got v. wet and rather chilly :). Then the locals all decided to walk their dogs along the beach. All four of them. So that was okay. We sat down and dried off a bit (I had my trousers on again by now :) and watched the sunset and listened to the wind the waves and the sea. Precious. We then came back, had a warm shower and slightly less pasta for dinner. We broke out the cards and together with most of the Stray group sat around a table in the bar (annexed to the hostel) and played Scum. The catch? All the men were in dresses. The bar has several boxes of fancy dress so with us adorned with tutus and the tuff Irish, Scots and German men in our group men wearing red dresses and bunny slippers we got some good pics! lol. It was hilarious. Early start this morning and we've only just arrived in Franz Josef. Tomorrow we're going for a hike up the Fox Glacier (see pic) so I look forward to that, but apparently it's forcasted for heavy rain. So we'll do fine. :) Also (yay) my cold's all gone! Thanks for all the messages. Lucia set up a message board. All my babies are growing up so fast! :) I'm glad you're all doing well. Ciao with love, Annabel