After 3 flights we finally arrived in Christchurch with Liz on the South Island of New Zealand. We immediately began our sightseeing at the Antartic Centre next door to the airport - where we were caught in a proper -25 degrees storm! Later we visited Christchurch's Cathedral, Art Gallery and Arts Centre (most time spent at the fudge factory!) The next day we took the 4 hour journey on the Transcenic Railway across to Greymouth on the West Coast; it was the most beautiful scenery, especially as it had snowed the previous day. In Greymouth we drove to the Pancake Rocks and strolled along the beach. We then began our drive down the West Coast, stopping at loads of lakes and bright blue rivers. We then foudna helicopter place and went for a flight over glaciers, including one from where Lord Of The Rings was filmed! We then drove past Franz Josef and on through to Fox Glacier where we got to do a half day hike all along the glacier and go into an ice cave! To help get over the half day glacier hike, we decided to get up at 7.00 to walk around Lake Matheson the next morning. The three of us then drove all day, visiting various places including the blue pools, the salmon farm, waterfalls, Wanaka and even more beautiful lakes and scenery - then arrived in Queenstown. It's a really small little town but so pretty - we had an apartment (luxury) on a hill that overlooked the whole town and lake. The next day we looked around the town and Cherry did her bungy! The next day we went to Milford Sound (passing yet more Lord Of The Rings scenery and also the amazing mirror lake). We had a bost ride where we saw dolphins and seals and the boat even went under a waterfall! The next day was our last with Liz so we went out for a meal and prepared ourselves for once again being in hostels and on coaches! After a walk around Queenstown park (and discovering Frisby golf) we met Hattie and Emma for a meal! Back to the two of us we got the Kiwi Experience back up to Christchurch missing the important mountain due to too much cloud. We spent the days walking around (shopping), sitting (and falling asleep) in the huge Botanical Gardens and treated ourselves to the cinema!Kaikoura was the next stop where we whale watched - and saw 4! Then we got on the ferry and headed up to the North Island.

In Wellington we spent the first day 'sight seeing' we visited Te Papa - a six floor museum beofr etaking the cable car up for views across Wellington, walking back down to the city through the Botanical Gardens. We spent the next day shopping (slong the famous Cuba Street) and also bumped into Hattie and Emma again by coincidence. We had the next 4 days in Taupo where we met up with Rachel and Poppy (who did the rest of North Island with us) as well as Hattie and Emma joining us too for the days in Taupo. We spent the next rainy days awaiting good weather to skydive and finally on the last day got the chance. We bought the DVD so everyone can experience it too! Leaving Taupo the 4 of us headed to Rotorua. We spent the afternoon lugeing - the best go karting experience ever as well as doing a bungy swing. The next day us two had an early start to drive to Waitomo for our Black Water Rafting. We got dressed into strange outfits of fleeces/wetsuits/shorts/boots and helmets. Once we had our briefing we nervously headed into the caves with our rubber rings. We floated through the caves with glow worms covering the ceilings and everytimewe came to waterfalls we had to jump down backwards into the darkness! Exhausted we headed home for a long awaited Maori evening. There was a welcome ceremony and performance before we had a traditional 'hangi' where we all ate til we felt sick! We had a thermal pool in our hostel where we could relax the next day. Our last day in Rotorua we spent visiting Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal park. The next stop was Auckland. We visited the Sky Tower which had a very scary lift up to the deck where you could see over the city. We spent the next two days up in Pahia - The Bay Of Islands, up north. We took a boat trip around the islands and to the 'hole in the rock' looking out for dolphins and seals but saw none! Before heading back down to Auckland we all went kayaking - across to a beach on one of the islands which was covered in shell rings. Back in Auckland we up with Tom (who we met in Australia) and his friend Callum and headed to Minus 5 ( the icebar). We got kitted up in a big furry hooded coat, gloves and boots and spent our half an hour drinking our cocktails, looking at the ice sculptures and eating our ice cups! After sadly saying goodbye to Rachel and Poppy we gathered our stuff and headed to the airport to catch our plane to Fiji!