Hi all,

So yeah....from Christchurch we made the windy (and windy) drive to the bottom of Mt.Cook. Very weird to see snow and mountains from a mainly beach dominated tour so far! Spent the night there in our luxury Toyota Corolla (!) bit chilly...woke up with frost on the windscreen and my entire wardrobe on! haha :) So at about 8am - all kitted up we began the climb..made our way to Sealey Tarns (alt. approx 1700m) pretty tough work up as u might or might not imagine! Way down was a lot easier! Awesome views from the top :)

Next up was Dunedin, lovely town - full of university students. People surfing on the beach, managed to find a well equipped gym for a very reasonable price as well! Visited the Otago museum before we left, funny because they had displays of all cultures from Egyptians to Greeks..

A quick skirt across the south coast was next: Curio bay for dinner, Invercargill for about 20minutes to go to the toilet, and rested in Riverton for the night. Early rise the next day for the drive to Milford Sound, quick stop offs at McCracken's rest (see photo) and Te Anau. Made it by 4pm - played some yahtzee and had a good look around, magnificent scenery! Settled inthe pub to watch the rugby - Natal Sharks beating Otago! :) Went on the boat cruise in the morning to the coast and back - great trip (not just for the free muffin). Another hike to the Key Summit - not as tough as Mt.Cook but still quite testing, first use of the outdoor 'naturist' shower just secluded behind a tree in the car park!

A short drive to Queenstown followed..a bit chilly here. Went out for a few beers in the evening and randomly saw a couple of guys from the Oz Experience! Not the first time - a small world. On to Lake Wanaka for lunch, played around in Puzzleworld. Made it to Fox Glacier by nightfall. In the morning hiked up to the front, took some photos and came back down. The next day we went on a guided hike on the Franz Josef glacier, one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world and one of 3 that start below 1000m! So waterproofs, crampons, gloves etc. went on and we were gone for about 8 hours - really good fun!

Drove to Westport that evening, a mitsubishi driver almost managed to drive us off the road and almost ran out of petrol..not for the last time either! Did our laundry in the morning, and heard of the tragic deaths of 6 students and a teacher in the Tongariro National Park on a kayaking trip - very sad..

Got pulled over by an undercover police car, as i didnt stop at a stop sign! It was pretty hard to see but didnt argue - got let off any punishment :) On the drive to Abel Tasman National Park, stopped off at the Nelson Lakes N.P. for a quick run and naturist shower, in the evening treated ourselves to fish and chips at Motueka. The next day involved a 4 hour, hike including a river crossing and a 1.5hour run back - that almost killed the both of us! Saved by lots of sweets and water at the end, and a brief respite half way back when we met Anna, a German girl from our Whitsundays trip in Oz! Strange.. Amost ran out of petrol again on the way to the ferry back to the north island. Ferry got into Wellington at bout 2am - so straight to sleep the other side!

A massive thank you goes out to Corrina and Saffron for taking care of us again! Saffron took us out for the night and attended her boss's leaving do (!) with free alcohol :) and went out after a reverse bungy! Crazy night! Also magaed to pick up some money off vouchers for later trips! U guys are too good to us! Thanks thanks thanks!!

Met one of Matt's clients in Lower Hutt for lunch on the way up to Tongariro N.P. Another really chilly night! The next day we traversed half of the famous Tongariro Crossing and climbed - and I mean CLIMBED Mt.Doom from the Lord of the Rings movie - snow, ice and steam coming out of the rocks at the crater, had a very quiet and tranquil lunch next to the active crater and pretty much ran back down on loose gravel!! Bit cut up by the bottom but awesome fun!

Drove to Taupo that evening and paid for a steam bath with shower at a leisure centre - awful standards of lifeguarding - even worse than LLC! haha! Massive Lake here caused by a a single eruption apparently! Had breakfast overlooking the lake and drove to Waitomo Caves to do a spot of Black water rafting - abseiling - zip-lining - swimming - caving..all those crazy things u can do underground!! Definitely and experience - pretty glowworms in there also..

So now i catch up - residing with Jean (one of Matt's client's sister) and John (husband) in Rotorua. Amazing to sleep in a bed and be cared for soo well! Don't know what we would do without these brief havens :) Thanks guys for looking after us!

Right..so that's more than enough for now - off to see some geothermal stuff :)

See ya