Hello All,

Greetings from Queenstown.

Since there has been quite a while since my last entry I had best fill you in on what's been happening.

I am now living in Queenstown, in a place called Sunshine Bay. I share a nice house with 3 others, Sara, Jesse and Tom. Sara makes jewellery as well, and we do the craft market together on Saturdays.

I have not managed to find a job yet, but it allows plenty of time for skiing and snowboarding, which I am enjoying loads.

Rob and Carly, one of James' classmates and his girlfriend, came down to visit, along with James, and we had a great time. We went white water rafting, luging, and on a trip to Milford Sound. The white water rafting was great fun and the river was swollen above its banks due to high rainfall, so the rapids were really good fun. We looked like right idiots in our wetsuits, but it was worth it to go. The luge was good fun as well, it was on top of a high mountain, with great views of the town below. I was up on two wheels at some points, which was a bit scary, but really good fun. That night we also saw a Maori culture show, which was great, James and Carly got picked to go up and do Poi on stage which gave me a good giggle, and I even managed to get a video clip ;-) We went to a bar that serves your cocktails in teapots which was a new experience but also a good laugh.

Unfortunatly we had booked to go jet boating but this was cancelled due to bad weather, me and James have rebooked for Monday, and i'm really looking forward to that!! We had a Ferg Burger after the rafting, which is a must if you ever come to Queenstown, it's the biggest burger i've ever seen in my life :-)

The trip to Milford Sound was also affected by bad weather, but we could still make the most of it! The high rainfall meant there were lots of waterfalls all over the mountains and it looked great. We saw some glorious scenery, on the coach on the way there, which took 4 hours but was well worth it. There was then a 2 hour boat cruise where we saw Mitre Peak, waterfalls, the Tasman Sea, Seals, and rainbows. I also saw an alpine parrot, which was quite unafraid of people so I was able to get quite close. James and Rob went under one of the bigger waterfalls, I played it safe and stayed in the warm boat, it was freezing!!! We stood out on the deck in very high winds and nearly got blown overboard!

Me and James are going to go skiing tomorrow, and then jet boating on Monday, and I am really looking forward to that :-)

Anyway going to sign off for now, but I shall put up some photos for you to see.

Love Laura xxxxxxx