we arrived in picton after cruising through the marlboro sounds.....and then drove onto nelson where we had a tour of the wine factory.....and of course wine tasting! onwards we drove to wesport...an old gold miners town where we had a manic hour to find items for our fancy dress party that evening...the theme was to think of anything that was the initial letter of your first or last name....for example hay chose to dress up as a Hawaiikan/cross/maori......! and i chose a gangster....was great fun finding stuff to wear....i managed to find an awesome machine gun that fired silly string......and we made hay some poi thingys that the maori women throw around in circles....which was funny as the technique is pretty hard at first....and hay nearly wiped some people out!! we'll get these piccys on soon as they are really funny! the party was held at thee oddest pub ran by thee oldest landlord in the world.........................an 80+ year old who was a right looker for zz top....by the name of lez!!! the pub was a 'typical old west coast pub'..........i'd say! it was just like the old wight mouse inn...in chale with everything and the kitchen sink hanging from the ceiling.....and the old vectis tavern in cowes! was a really good night...it was pretty much just the whole kiwi bus in there that night! next day everyone was totally hanging......and i mean hanging! plenty of people sick that morning!.........also to add to the sickness we were then taken to the oddest place called the 'bushmans centre'...............where we watched the craziest video of the deerhunting nutters of new zee.......and how they hunted to kill, then moved on to hunt deer to move them around the country.......by ways of jumping onto them whilst chasing them in helicopters........and then tying their legs together and lifting them across the country by helicopter!!!!! RIGHT O! and it wasn't just one at a time either........try ten deers bundled together! NUTS!! we also fed dead mice to eels....and saw really smelly possums..............eeeewwwwwwww!!!!!!! i think everyone was sick after that visit! moving on....................next place to stop was at franz joseph, the fastest moving glacier in the world the first day was literally a 'we're all hungover....lets do nothing day'.........so time to do washing, watch telly oh and soak it up in the hot tub!! which was all preparations for our glacier hike early next morning!!!! we were all kitted out in the company's 'waterproof' trousers, jackets, socks, boots, talonz, hats and gloves......already the day had started with "that fine rain that soaks you through....." so we had just tackled the rock and river before entering the glacier......and we were all totally soaked right through.............WATERPROOF MY ARSE! so already there were a couple of moaners....but not me and hay....cause we are double hard....n......that! we climbed up the glacier wearing our talonz............how cool! and like real explorers we discovered a new crevasse which we named oscar! we spent the day trekking through caves, crevasses...and over bridges...............it was AWESOME!!! a real unique experience........although we were all glad to change out of our drenched clothes and drink hot chocolate to warm up our freezing bones! the next day we are off further south again.......to wanaka....passing mount cook on the way and try to catch the mirror reflections on the lake but unfortunately there are a bunch of early ducks messing about.......so quick photo anyway as its still a really beautiful photo op.....oh yes we are slowly turning into david bailey 1 and david bailey 2............................................. we arrive in wanaka a really beautiful town with picturesque mountains over looking the lake......its beaut! we all have a lazy night in watching the pirates of the carribean.....on sofas with duvets...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! off we go again and arrive in queenstown..........wow! this town is even more beautiful....the mountains are more dramatic and we have an awesome night out as this is one of the last places that the whole bus will be together.....so group photos......and lots of drinks later....! the ski season hasn't started just yet which is a bummer as we had hoped to give snow boarding a go down here.....so we get up at a ridiculous time in the morning...around 5:00am to the milford sounds......this is really stunning.......after everyone falling back to sleep again on the bus....we wake up to thee most beautiful scenery in new zeealand............mountains everywhere and then after driving through a mountain! we catch our boat and sail through the sounds....a place that even capatain cook first missed! as you come out towards the sea....its quite easy to understand how the mountains close up to disguise all the valley behind...... back to queenstown and we catch up with my old friends from thee isle o wight!! rachel and rob are both living and working out on the other side of town in a really stunning house with thee most amazing views!! and another night on the town with them which is probably one of the best nights out in new zealand....their friend george...who "dosent like to go out often"...................er yeah right! gets himself involved in a bit of a dance off!!!!! with a capoeira dancing black brazilian!!! and pulls out thee funniest dance move..... the caterpillar!!!!!!! (just imagine how a caterpillar moves...!!!) so stunned was the brazilian...i think you could definatetly say "HE GOT SURFED!!" "OH ITS ON!!" (south park for those who arn't exactly sure what im talking about!) ha ha ha!! one of those "wish i had a camera" moments! i think we all blamed the teapots in the world bar for that night.....yes they serve drinks in china teapots and little shot glasses!!! the next day was another "we're all hungover lets do nothing day".........and rachel and rob looked after us as we all watched anchorman......a really funny film....kady you should watch this! hay went out and tried hang gliding with harry.....looked awesome! i unfortunately saving my money to do another sky dive......watched the video after...think hay did really well considering her fear of heights.....GO HAYLEY! really sad to leave queenstown and say goodbye to rach and rob....we were on our way back up to the north.......next stop christchurch......seemed like a nice enough city....although we pretty much chilled out here after queenstown! there were 8 of us sharing a room and all set our alarms....to get up at 6:45am....but all overslept and woke up at 7:10am in a manic panic to catch our bus at 7:30.....................was probably a really funny sight seeing us all running down three flights of stairs with shoes and jumpers half on and carrying pillow cases......yeah......turns out after that the bloooming bus was late anyway!.......................more sleep on the bus and we arrived in a lovely little town called kaikoura....the snow had settled heavily on the mountains behind the town.....beaut pictures! and we even got really close up to a bunch of seals chilling out on the rocks in the sun......we were hoping to go swiming with the seals but the sea was really rough and no whale watching or dolphin swimming was going ahead either....GUTTED! the town used to be famous for its whale killing industry....but not any more thankfully.....we also missed by a day the surf competition......BUMMER! so everyone made their own fun by playing footie and drinking wine! this being our last stop on the south island....the next morning the wine didnt seem like a good idea anymore as we were all back on the ship to the north..........ooooooooooohh it was a rough day on sea!! arr harr me harties!!!! yo ho ho no rum for me please! another night in wellington.....then onwards to taupo where this time i jumped from 15,000 ft..............OH MY GOD!!! HOW AWESOME???!!!!! totally makes all the difference just that extra 20seconds of freefall.........we plummeted so fast outta that plane that snot was spread all over my face!!!! ha ha ha!!!! a quiet night again you'll be pleased to hear pee pole......and then a farewell to our austrian friends and off to rotorua and a big farewell to all of our friends we have pretty much travelled round new zee with "and the there were two again..." well actually there were three as we had our scottish friend james to keep us company..... and back in auckalnd we are now again......and reunited with our kiwi travelling friends....all in time for the big game of england v paraguay!!! yes another big night out as the game was shown live at 1am!!!!!the next day we had a brief break away to the town of thames where we met an old isle o wight family friend cindy! who with nic, rea and david have emmigrated here ten years ago.....thames is a lovely old mining town, cindy is a primary school teacher there in a really cool little school which also has its own swimming pool! we were really looked after .....sunday roast!! and a grand tour of the area and to the coromandel ranges which is also stunning.....a big thankyou to cindy,nic and rachel and rob for making us feel at home and looking after us!!!! we miss you already.....expect to see you back on thee isle soon!!! now we are back in auckland for the 5th time!!!!! but not for long as we are waiting to catch our flight to fiji around 8am tomorrow morning woo wooo!!!!!!! so will speak soon........sipping a cocktail on the beach.........yeah!!!! ciao amigos! .......i mean.......take it easy bros!!!!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxPEACE!!!XXXXXXXXXXXX