Hello,

Well it's been almost 2 months since the last blog entry. So much for keeping that up to date.

I am now in Auckland with Mark and we have another 6 days her before we fly to Australia. Here's a little update on what i have been doing since the last blog.

Mark arrived in Queenstown on 10th September. At that time I was spending all my time either snowboarding or working in KFC. I carried on doing that for a few weeks and we decided around mid September that we would leave Queenstown at the end of the month to go and see the rest of New Zealand. I did lots of boarding until around the 20th September when I had a spectacular bail off of a rail at the remarkables and sprained my ankle.

Around the 20th of September Mark and I purchased a 1990 Nissan Homy 2.7l diesel van for $1,000 NZ Dollars (about 380 pounds). We spent 4 or 5 days fixing bits and cleaning it up and adding a bed in it etc before hitting the road on 1st October. At that time I owned a van and a car in a country I had only been in for a few months. Seemed a bit weird considering I have only ever had 1 car before.

Colin and Chris who we had been sharing the house with were both heading off as well. Chris was going to Australia for a week before going to Asia and Colin was heading back to Scotland for the sunshine and hopefully a solution to his aching muscles that had plagued him for a month or two.

Jane and Dave who owned the house in Queenstown arrived back in town on 27th September so it was good to meet them before leaving.

So on 1st October, in a last minute dash to try and sell the car, I managed to punt it off to a guy who worked in a bike shop for $200 (less than 80 quid). I lost $400 on it but it was a bad time to sell as loads of people were selling vehicles as they were leaving town because the winter was ending. I was just happy to get rid of it to be honest.

From Queenstown we headed South with our first destination being Milford Sound. We stopped for the night at a Department of Conservation Campsite right on the shore of Lake te Anau. It was a really nice unmanned and isolated camsite miles from anywhere. This was great until the morning when we couldn't get the van started because we had left the internal light on too long and the battery had gone flat. Anyway, after walking for a couple of km's and hitching to the next town, we eventually found someone with jump leads who drove us back to the van and got us on our way.

We then made our way to milford Sound but when we got there, It was pissing down with rain and you couldn't see 100 metres in front of you because of the mist. This wasn't freat as the whole thing about Milford Sound is the scenery so we didn't get to see that much.

From Milford Sound we made our way East to Dunedin which is right on the East Coast near the bottom of the South Island. In Dunedin there is a strong presence of Scottish hitory and everyone there seems to have a Scottish ancestor. Even all the streets around there have the same names as Edinburgh streets. In Dunedin we went to Cadbury's World where you get to see how and where the Chocolate is made and get a few samples etc. We also had a good look around the city centre and got a feel for the place.

After Dunedin we headed up The East Coast towards Christchurch. We passed through Oamerau, Palmerston and Shag Point (yes that is a real name). Christchurch was a pretty awesome place. The weather was good and we camped in the van beside St Claire beach where loads of people surfed etc.

When we left Christchurch we headed over Arthur's pass back to the West coast before going to nelson and Picton where you get the fery to the North Island. Nelson was a really nice coastal town with loads to do. We managed to squeeze in some go-karting there as well. Weather was also awesome. Out of everywhere I have seen in New Zealand, it was probably one of my favourite towns.