Hello everyone, hope you are all well!!!!

Since our last blog we've been in the South Island for 4 weeks, and we've absolutely loved it. It started in Nelson where we took a day trip to hike in the Abel Tasman National park which was a very beautiful place. We were due to stay in Nelson 3 nights but ended up staying 5 due to heavy snow further down the country closing the roads, it was a bit Groundhog Day. However the upshot of this was we met some fantastic people who we continued travelling the rest of the Island with.

When we eventually got the nod to leave, we headed straight for Franz Josef, which is a tiny town with nothing to do apart from the Glacier walk, which we did the full day hike. It was unreal and because of the fresh snowfall was more spectacular than normal, we had to wear crampons so felt like proper moutaineers.

From here we moved on to Queenstown, which was our NZ highlight! We decided to stay a week and bought a 3 day ski pass (after checking we were covered by our insurance!!!) This was absolutely ace!!!! Gems done a bit of skiing before and therefore took to the slopes with gracefull elegance, myself however had to partake in a few tumbles before I got the hang of it. There was a group of us, which made it such a good laugh!!!! Everynight is a Saturday night in Queenstown, so we hit it hard and loved it!!!!!

We moved onto Dunedin with our hangovers, for a 2 night stop. After Queenstown it seemed a really quiet place, so we caught up on our sleep and relaxed.

We then headed for Lake Tekapo, which is beautiful, we stayed in a hostel right on the lake front with amazing views. We went ice skating where we had the rink to ourselves, which is a good job 'cos we were all over the place!!!!

Onto Christchurch, which is our last stop before we fly out. This is the second biggest town after Auckland but only has 200,000 people living here. People say its very English here, but I dont see that connection??? We decided to go upto Kiakoura for a night, so we could go whale watching. Its a really picuresque town, which is very proud of its surrounding wildlife and nature. We spotted one sperm whale, they are massive and also saw loads of seals. This was our last night with the friends we've met and we're sad to say goodbye.

We're back in Christchurch for our last two days of our jorney in New Zealand and because its our anniversary we have really splashed out and are in a double room instead of a dorm!!!!!!

Our time in New Zealand has been ace and we've really enjoyed it. We are looking forward to moving on to Australia this Friday, where in a week we are meeting up with Ash and Amy H in Sydney which we cant wait for.

We love you all very much & keep the messages coming!!!!!

Rob & Gem xxx