Sorry we're a bit delayed in writing all our blogs, but as you read on you'll realise that we have been far too busy doing more fun things than going on the internet...

After Taupo we headed to River Valley in Taihaippi (spelling?) which was a really nice secluded hostel with a ski lodge feel in the middle of a valley right next to a river - hence the name!! There we went horse riding which was a great way to check out all the scenery as it was just us in the mountains surrounded by sheep and deer... but afterwards we all had very sore bottoms!! We stayed in a 32 bed dorm which actually wasn't as bad as it sounds, and was a lot of fun and felt like we were on a school trip, was a bit annoying having to head to the shack outside when you needed the loo though...

We had a heavy 12 hours in Wellington where we boarded the ferry very early and very hungover. We arrived at Picton on the South Island 3 hours later where we made our way to Nelson.

Nelson is right next to the Abel Tasmen National Park which is a bit of a shame as we didn't have time to go there (nest time!!!!!!!!!!). We did manage to storm up a mammouth hill to get to the very centre of New Zealand however, and watch a beautiful sunset over Nelson whilst very out of breath.

We cruised down the West Coast a few days which is a really stunning drive, with a few stops and some lovely walks... One night we stayed at a place called the Poo Pub where our whole bus had a big fancy dress party and again got very merry!! Vicky won the fancy dress competition as an ant but Rach made a make a really convincing Peter Pan, it was a really good night.

Franz Josef was our next stop and one of our most memorable places of our time in new Zealand. With stinking cold Vicky managed to fit in a skydive over Fox Glacier (apparently the second most scenic skydive in the world- when there isn't any clouds!!). We both conquered the Franz Josef glacier the next day.. Rachelle did a spot of ice climbing and nearly broke her arms while Vicky mooched about taking photos of ice caves! It was an amazing experience never again will we get to walk around on such unique terrain.

Queenstown was our next big adventure stop where we got our hearts pounding with adrenline!! Vicky cashed in her fancy dress comp prize by doing a canyon swing over Shotover Canyon.. the guys had to practically peel her arms off of them to make her jump! Had a night out drinking cocktails from teapots in preperation for the next day when we both went along to do the 134m NEVIS BUNGY! The highest in NZ! We were very VERY scared and felt very VERY sick and spent the whole morning on the toilet.. it was such a relief when we threw ourselves of the platform. And if you don't believe we did it we'll be showing you the DVD when we get back.

We also took a day trip up to Milford Sound from Queenstown where we had a boat trip to soak in the scenery and watch the seals. Unfortunately we didn't spot any dolphins or whales but we saw alot of fish and waterfalls. It was a lovely day...

Queenstown was our Southern-most point in NZ so after that we gradually made our way back up to Auckland. On the way we stopped VERY briefly in Christchurch, our drivers all told us not to stay there for longer than possible as its not the best of cities and is generally described as very English. So seeing as we came to NZ to get away from England and are good girls who do what they're told we only stayed there 1 night - they were right, a multitude of "adult" shops and the New World supermarket was all we saw...

We also stopped in the lovely Kaikoura, which is NE South Island. Here is where we could have gone whale spotting or swimming with the dolphins or seals but seeing as we are on a budget we gave all of that a miss and just took a really nice walk along the beach to a seal coloney where we were still able to get quite close to the seals without them attacking us. Thankfully the weather here was really good, so that night we had some yummy fish and chips and sat outside our very chilled hostel having a few bevvies a rather odd german man who enlightened us on things we really didn't need to know about...

Seeing as we didn't get to see much of Wellington on our way south we stayed there for a couple of nights on our way back up... It was a bit strange not having all of our original Kiwi Crew with us as most of them finished in Christchurch, but we still had Canadian Dave with us so went out to PARTY!! In between nights out we explored the Botanical Gardens which were cool and very hilly so we took the cable car up which saved our breath and we still got to see a really good view of the city...we did a spot of shopping too and went to see the colossal squid at the museum - its eyeballs are the size of a football!!!!!!!!!!

After Windy Wellie we pretty much headed north to Auckalnd where we met up with Bryan, Judy, Fran and Mike again (Vic's cousins). They looked after us, fed us up, and even popped us on the plane to Oz which was a really lovely way to end our time in New Zealand.

What a fabulous country!!!!!!!!!!!!