Hello!

Well, I hope you are sitting comfortably, as it has been a busy week or so, covering Wellington, Nelson, Abel Tasman, The Glaciers, Queenstown, Milford Sounds, Dunedin, Otago Peninsula and Lake Tekapo! Those that are familiar with New Zealand will know that this is basically a big loop around the South Island.

Last time I came on here we had just got to Wellington, which now seems like years ago (yes, a week travels fast when you are having fun!). Wellington, well what can I say? If I had to some it up in three words I would have to say 'wet', 'quirky' and 'drag-queens'...I will explain!

I am not sure if Wellington is always a vibrant as it was when we arrived there, or we were just lucky. We arrived to see the Pacifica festival, which is a fantastic little event where all the Pasific Islands come to their park and put on traditional dances, and food. This was topped off by our time at the top museum in New Zealand 'Te Papa', which happened to be celebrating their 10th anniversary on the day we arrived. Te Papa is a fantastic museum in its own right, (and free!!! whey!) but on the day we arrived they put on shows from Indonesian dancers, to the National Orchestra and all topped off with 'Queens of the Whole Universe'. This seemed intriguing, so we thought we would mosey on down to watch it. Only to be confronted, with about 50 full grown men, dressed in the most outrageous drag costumes I have ever seen! They pranced around the stage dancing and singing for about 2 hours, I managed to catch Miss Mexico's flower in her hair (I just felt sorry for the bloke next to me that caught Miss Mexico's flower in her crotch!).

After this gender-bending evening we said goodbye to the North Island, and headed over to Nelson in the South Island.

Nelson (and the close by Abel Tasman), are definitetly in close competition for my favourite places we have been so far. Nelson if a fairly unassuming little town that just happens to have a beauitful national park on its doorstep. We spent some time walking up the coast of Abel Tasman, and found it to be in total constrast to the rest of the west coast with beautiful beaches and blue lagoons. All of this tempted us to jump in the sea, which was a bit of a mistake it was bloody cold! We had a good evening out here, and met some lovely fellow travellers that were stuck with us then through to Queenstown!

Moving on from Nelson, our Magic (or not-so-magic) bus broke down, leaving us stuck by the side of the road. Our replacement Magic (or not-so-magic) bus then got lost, leaving us for 2 hours! Not one to miss an opportunity, we took time to sunbathe. Eventually we moved on via Greymouth (which is barely worth mentioning) to the Franz Joseph glacier.

Well, I am fairly certain that this place was geography heaven for Tom (although he will kill me for saying it, he wasn't too happy about my geography comment in the last blog!), I have got to admit it was pretty fantastic. Although I may not understand how it really works -despite Toms efforts- I can appreciate a bit of 'Geography-in-action'. I went for the Glacier walk, and Tom went for the Glacier hike as I was too much of a wuss for all that cramp-on malarky. We have been extremely lucky so far on the South Island as the weather has really held out, and the glacier was just picture perfect. Tom came back suitably exhausted from his hike and we moved on via the fox glacier down to Queenstown.

Queenstown is one of those places were you approach it saying you are scared of heights, and 3 hours later you find yourself attached by a rope, looking down on a 50 metre drop, standing precariously on the edge of the bridge with a kiwi asking you if you would like to be 'dunked' in the water. Its is a very 'toursity' place but the excitement is like a fever, and its completely addictive. Tom and I decided to go Jet-boating which was pretty cool. You travel at fast speeds through canyons in about 4 inches of water, and every now and then the driver spins you 360 while even the burliest of men scream like girls. All this adrenaline and Tom psyched himself up to doing a bungy, and so three hours later he found him self as the afore-mentioned, jumping of 'The Ledge' bungy, and has the t-shirt too prove it! In fact our driver said, think of it as a free bungy and a very expensive t-shirt!

From Queenstown we took a coach down to the famous Ffords of the Milford Sounds. This was a fantastic journey, travelling a distance of 60km, but on 240km of road as you twist in and around mountains. It rained the whole time, as this is one of the wettest places on earth, but we were told that Milford Sounds is best in the rain. I don't know what it is like in the sun but it is stunning and eerie in the rain, with sheer rock faces looming in the mist, and spectacular waterfalls falling from the rocks. It was a long and expensive day, but well worth it and an example of how sometimes in New Zealand you can feel like you are on a whole different planet!

Moving on to the east coast of the South Island we came to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula. Dunedin itself was originally a Scottish settlement, with street names from Edinborough and some stolen architecture. Its is a very studenty city with a buzzing nightlife but not much else so we spent the day on a wildlife safari out on the peninsula. This Safari is run by a conservation company and takes small groups of people to see the diverse nature that habitates the peninsula, it took us too see the Royal Albatross, the endangered largest bird in the sky, also to the breeding ground of Penguins and nearby Sea Lions and Seals. It was a fantastic experience we were within touching distance of these amazing wild creatures, and the seals all had pups playing in the rock pools! I have to admit, I was tempted to just slip a penguin into my bag and take it back with me, but I think someone may have noticed and I really wasnt sure how I would get it though customs.

So moving on from here we came to Lake Tekapo (where I write from). It is a very tranquil place, not far from Mount Cook, where we stay for today only, before we move onto Christchurch tomorrow.

I added lots of photo's a few days ago, and have added some more today. I promise they weren't photoshopped it is just impossible to take a bad photo in New Zealand!

I hope eveyone is well, sorry about the rambling on and probably heinous amount of grammatical errors, I'll try better next time.

Take care, next time I am on here we will probably be in Sydney!

Lots of love,

Liz and Tom xxx