After a quick last minute packing and bite to eat for breakfast we left for River Valley (a remote lodge in the middle of nowhere!!) We stopped a couple of times along the way for some photo opportunitues and then a long 3 hour trip there and back to a waterfall for a picnic. The walk was pretty nice and we got to see lots of scenery along the way. After getting back to the bus we took one more stop at a ice cream shop.....3 scoops for 2 dollars. Bargain! We were then told after the ice cream that we were about to drive along the windiest road of our whole trip of NZ. Luckily nobody threw up! We arrived at the lodge around 5 and it actually was in the middle of nowhere, just the lodge and a valley. Our accomodation was also quite interesting, a 36 bed dorm. Basically we had 5 mattresses 5 next to each other on one big top bunk, one big sleepover! We made a scrummy dinner of spaghetti hoops on toast and then sat down by the sofas and fires for some drinks and card games!

Next morning was pretty tough as I had to be up for 8.30am ready for white water rafting!! A few people were feeling pretty rough after the night before and not really feeling jumping in a raft to go down rapids! My group was me, Pete, Martin and Andy and I was possible the most alive throughout the trip down the river! After a couple of accidents falling out the boat and floating down the river we were actually quite a good group and managed to tackle the rapids well!! Near the end of the trip we also got to jump off of a cliff into the river, it took me a while to jump but eventually I did it! By the end of the 12km I was pretty tired and my arms were killing, so was glad for a nice crisp sandwhich to fill me up....

It was then time to get our bags together ready to hit the road and head to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We were all pretty excited to be heading to a city for a change.

Lots of love to everyone, Meg and Amy xxxxx