hello,

I have just finished my whistlestop tour of NZ. wish I had more time coz there is a lot to do here and its a fantastic looking place. I've crammed loads into just over a week thoughso i'm glad about that.

Started in Christchurch which is a nice town its got a very British feel to it. Not a huge amount to do but its got lots of bars to keep people entertained.

I joined the Magic bus tour and went off through stunning countryside to Kaikoura a few hours north. Kaikoura is a tiny little place (just one street) but is pretty busy as lots of people go there to see whales and dolphins etc. I went on a whale tour and was very lucky to see 5 sperm whales and two pods of dolphins it was fantastic and i managed to get a couple of photos of whale diving! sweet.

Next day we went off to Nelson, through more stunning mountains etc. it rained in nelson and i cant remember what i did there, nevermind.

the next couple of days were spend going to Franz Joseph (it takes forever to get anywhere in the south island) we stopped at greymouth and did a brewery tour. I think the idea was that if you were ratted then you wouldnt realise what a crap place it was! but the beer was nice.

We arrived in Franz Joseph the next day all very tired and hungover. The major draw to Franz is the Glacier, i wanted to do a helicopter drop on the top but the weather was too bad (it rained 264 days there last year!) so i opted for the regular glacier walk insted. It was awesome, saw great sights some pretty scary cravases etc, great photos too.

Went to Queenstown next. Queenstown is the adrenaline capitol of the world and is a really great party town. I went jet boating, a bloke basically drives a speed boat at a cliff and turns away at the very last minute! very exciting and i also did a bunjy jup, cant believe i did it but there was a group of us so i couldnt chicken out. Of course we couldnt just do any jump it had to be the biggest in NZ. Nevis is a 134m drop from a hut attached to zip wires in the middle of a valley. It was the most scarry and stupid thing i've done in my life. never again.

Next stop was dunedin where we ent to the cadbury factory (rock and roll). And we then went on to Lake Tekapo and stayed in a lodge on the lake. I took an air safari which flew me all over the southern alps got a close up view of mount Cook and was on a high for the next couple of days i think it was possibly the best thing i have done so far.

Im in fiji at the mo and the internet is pretty good so i'll try and and get some pics up.

tara