Wow. a whole month in new zealand, and we didnt write a blog at all - kindve sums up just how busy we've been I guess!! It has been one of the best months wev spent travelling so far, aided in this by the hiring of our fabulous Bob Marley adorned campervan!! We picked her up in Auckland, and were soon ( after some stress of constant road diversions just trying to get out the city) zooming along to our first north island destination of Matamata, AKA Hobbiton! We did do ourselves proud and booked on a hobbiton tour, which was actually excellent - lots of photos of the set, and pretending to be hobbits (guess you had to be there, plus we have no shame!). After this excitement, we shot down to Rotorua for some geothermic action, including geysers and mudpools (labyrinth's bog of eternal stench anyone?!). And yes it is true what everyone says, the entire place does smell of rotting egg, as we discovered sitting in the back of the van eating cheese sarnies on the first day - yes, our lives rock.

After smelly rotorua, which is truly beautiful despite smelling otherwise!, we hotfooted it through gorgeous steaming country side to Lake Taupo, sidetracking for more geyser-activity at craters of the moon - a walk through a steamy woody clearing, but pretty cool. A walk around the lake at Lake Taupo was really worth it, as we could look across to the distant volcanic cones of Tongariro NP, aka Mount Doom etc etc. Plus, taupo was also the place where I eventually came good on all my pretravel talk, and jumped out of a plane, fortunately strapped to someone else!! It was amazing - and have video and photo evidence as proof! Also jump was so mjuch fun as I did it with 2 others who we met at the campsite the night before - Jo and Tom, I salute you as fellow jumpers, 15000ft, get on!!

Unfortunately the weather then took a turn for the worse, and our plans to head into the Tongariro NP to do the famous One day Tongariro crossing were severly hampered. Ryan manfully drove the van up mountainous twisty roads in mist and rain, and we there we sat, at the foot of one of the most supposedly beautiful mountains (Mt Ruapehu), just waiting to see if the weather would clear for the walk the next day. Unfortunately it did not, however we trekked up Ruapehu ourselves and got some amazing photos of the volcanic area, (yes, its another Lord of the Rings location, but we had invested in the scenic location book...) and the other mountains Ngaruhoe and Tongariro at the same time!

After this mountainous excitment, we then had a bit of a long haul down to Wellington. The scenery is still great, but all we kept being told is just wait for the south island and the southern alps....and yes they were right!! Even the boat trip across from North Island to South Island blew us away - not only the distance (a whole 3 hrs, longer than to france even!), but as we reached south island we were gliding through Queen Charlotte Sound which is basically smooth water flanked by moutain peaks, all forested and looking amazing for our sunset passing through! The mountains seem to be a constant presence here in the south - we shot down to Kaikoura where we saw loads of fur seals, and even 2 sperm whales when we went whale watching, all framed by the snowy mountains behind us!!

After Kaikoura, we drove up and over the alps across the stunning arthurs pass to Hokitika and the Pancake Rocks, which are actually stunning and definately worth a visit (plus its free!!). After a few days resting in hokitika we set off, once again in the rain, for Franz Joseph glacier. This was a bit of a washout - too much rain meant we couldnt do a glacier walk, and that due to some bad advice by me we got the van stuck in a pile of granite chips, oops. On the bright side though, we met up with a copule who we'd met in Wellington, so just ignored the rain sipping vodka in the resort bar!! We did get to see a glacier the next day though, by travelling down to Fox glacier and braving the rain to dash out in our pack-a-macks and take photos (mine is far superior to ryans, just gotta add that in!).

After the glaciers, we ventured inland to stay at Lake Wanaka, right in the heart of the alps, and possibly my favourite place so far. Everything seemed to be geaing up for the ski season, so we spent a day or so here with Katie and Jamie getting lost in mazes, drinking coffees, making pizzas (he is a chef!) and unfortunately having all our fridge food stolen from the campsite, grr. After Wanaka, we had a long drive to milford sound - again in the rain, but this did mean all the waterfalls were trebled in size and amount around the fiord area! We took a boat trip on the fiord, and despite the rain saw seals and dolphins right by the boat!

Exhaustingly, we left Milford and the rain, and drove the spectacular drive bakc up to Queenstown, right past the fanatastic Remarkables mountians - so often it got to the point where I just stopped taking photos because a) everything was literally that beautiful, and b) i think it annoyed ryan to have me constantly asking him to stop! Queenstown was pricey, but a wicked place to stay. We had several good nights out with Jamie and Katie who we joined there, including one that involved far too much airguitar, and ended with me perched on a rock in the middle of the campsite offering bits of my spring roll to all and sundry (fortunately not too many people around at that time in the morning!). The next days hangover was fixed by spending a fabulous day investigating Deer Park Heights, just outside Queenstown. Though primarily visited for the Lord of the Rings locations, it is actually a brilliant day out as its a working deer farm, and as you drive up to the top you get acosted by donkeys, deer, stags, alpacas, llamas and goats, all of whom you can feed and touch! Ryan thought it would be amusing to let me do the feeding, and with the stags in particular, I think this rivalled my skydive for fearfactor, especially when the stag started headbutting a sheep that was between my legs (stop laughing, its true). The view from the top of the park was brillian, with the remarkables as a background, and seeing mountains for as far as the eye can see. For any Lord of the Rings fans, this is where the battle with the Wargs (hyena/dog things) and legolas, aragorn and gimili took place, and where aragorn was pulled over the mountains-edge. What we discovered up there though is that just to the edge of all these scenes is the abandoned movieset of an old korean prison, pretty bizarre!!

After Queenstown, we headed first to Dunedin, then up to Mount Cook, which was a stunning place and fortunately the weather stayed clear so we could see the highest mountain in australasia in all its glory! Following that, wev now just toodled along to Christchurch (via Ashburton, get in!), where we have to return our van, and head back to Oz - as now we need jobs, to pay for all this excitement!!