PictonHi Folks!

We went out on our last night in Queenstown for Elaine's birthday, we went up to their apartment and had a few drinks and her mum had cake and stuff and we had a few rounds of our new favourite kiwi drinking game. We went out to a pub but It was pretty busy and we knew we had to get the bus the next morning so I went back early as I didn't feel too good and Craig stayed out a bit longer. We met a guy Dave from Fraser burgh who was mental and harder for everyone to understand, even us lol! We also found out that the day before there was an accident on the river in Queenstown where a group of Chinese tourists were on the Jet boat witch is kind of an adrenalin speedboat ride when it tipped over and one woman couldn't get her seat belt undone and all the people were trying to tell the guide she was still in the boat but due to language barriers they could not make out what they were saying and when they brought the boat up an hour and a half later she was dead in the boat, its horrible. We were maybe going to go on it but I'm bloomin glad we didn't now!

The next day we took our Magic bus to Dunedin which was good as everyone was hungover and Mary had the left over carrot cake for brekkie! When we got to Dunedin Della, Mary and I went to the Cadbury's chocolate factory, it was awesome, the tour was not very good but we id get to see a tonne chocolate fountain and get some sweets. The have way more than us here, they have desert chocolate with Cadbury's chocolate with brownie and cheesecake and stuff inside mmmmm!! At night we had fajitas for tea and watched a few films. Dunedin is a nice wee town, it is Gaelic for Edinburgh and has all the same street names and it is laid out similarly, it's main streets are Princes and George Street and the streets off the back are all like Stafford, Moray etc, our hostel was on Elm Row! They even had a statue of Rabbie Burns!!

The next day we took our bus to the steepest street in the world and walked to the top, it was a 2.6 gradient!! We were knackered but it was cool. After we had a look on the round boulders on the beach, well most people did but we ate black pudding and I chased around after a chocolate Labrador!

We got to Lake Tekapo and went to see The Church of the Good Sheppard and there was also a statue of a dog but it turned out it was just some famous guy's dog and not a Grayfriar Bobby type thing. The place was beautiful our hostel was on the lake with a nice view over the water to the snowy mountains, I think we have finally found somewhere we think is prettier than home, although not the same obviously! We had a nice leisurely day and Craig and I went and played in the park, they had an especially good seesaw! At night we just had dinner and watched a couple of films!

The next day it was up early to get to Christchurch, some of our tours ended here so we had to say bye to most of the people we met which was quite sad as it was a good bit banter! We went and picked up our campervan which is quite a hole to be honest but it will do and Craig showed me how to drive an automatic! We had a bit of a scare at the cash machine as they freeze lots of money as a bond and I hadn't realised and thought one of my banks was somehow empty! We had a look at the cathedral which is more like a suburban church at home and booked our ferry for going back north. We then decided to get out as it was full of weirdos and we much prefer thee smaller places. We drove as far north as just before Kaikoura and found a campsite. On the way up we managed to get a chip in our windscreen which could result iin financial meltdown but we are hoping to lie our way out of it. It was amazing, right on the sea and when we walked out to have a look there were seals on the rocks just over from us and then we looked down and there was one like 2 metres from us it was awesome so we decided to stay there. We spent the best part of two hours in the dusk light trying to work out how to convert the back into a bed and then trying to make spaghetti bolognaise in the dark on an outside gas stove which was entertaining for anyone who was watching but we got there in the end. We had some help from a dvd though that also showed us how t put the key in the ignition just in case you had hired a campervan and didn't know that much lol! The bed was not actually that bad but at night when we went to the loo we could hear the seals but not see them which was kind of eerie!

Today we got up and made the drive into Kaikoura to go swimming with dolphins but the trip had been cancelled due to rough water so we decided to haul it up to the Bay of Islands which is at the top of the north island as we wanted to go there anyway and we didn't want to waste a day doing nothing for it to maybe just be cancelled again the next day. So we changed our ferry and booked our trip with dolphins which is actually cheaper and for three more hours so kind of ablessing in disguise then we made a fry up on the side of the road and I dropped a bag of crisps and we got surrounded by seagulls instantly. We also stopped at another seal colony, I swear I have seen more seals than dogs here! I have also decided that I want a seal when I get home instead of a dog but Craig says he doesn't think so! We drove up through the countryside which is lovely, their main motorways are like our back country roads, really scenic and small. There are lots of lambs and calves just now which are so cute, there is 11 sheep to everyone one person in NZ so they really are everywhere. We got back to Picton at teatime and made our way to the Flying haggis yet again and bought two tins of Bru then our pal behind the bar directed us to a good chippie which was a match made in heaven for our Irn Bru! We are now on the ferry going to Wellington and hoping to find a campsite pretty soon after we get off as it will be abut 11pm. When we were getting on the ferry a guy asked us abut a water disease, have you been swimming, tramping in streams etc and we were like no, no, no etc and then he asked if we had been walking on water and I laughed and said no and Craig just looked at him and was like No, so we were both staring at him I was like "Walk on Water" he was like "Oh aye", what a donut lol!!!

We only have a few more days in NZ and we are getting used to the costs and climate and it has been so much prettier in the south island so we are going to be quite sad to leave.

Hope everyone is well at home.

Lots of Love

Eva and Craig xxx

P.S Aunty Betty, you never told us you had opened a liquor store chain!!