We arrived in the south island on the interisland ferry and the views were fantastic, lush green hills surrounded with a backdrop of mountains in the distance. The first stop on the south island was a vineyard in Marlborough and the wines were fantastic. That night was spent in the Abel Tasman national park at Old MacDonands farm where we went on some lovely walks, had a BBQ and stayed up until at least 10pm(well we are getting old!) The next day we stopped in Barrytown, which is as backward as it sounds, mullets are only worn by the modern and fashionable class of Barrytown, the rest stick to the traditional bowl on the head haircut. While we were here, we spent a day bone carving and dragging giant rocks back from the beach (Nicky thought she had struck gold, or rather greenstone. It was in fact just a big rock worth about what every other rock on the beach was worth.(hey it was Serpentine actually- and in the same family group as greenstone, even Rusty the local greenstone identifier wasn't sure if it was greenstone)) Anyway Nicky found a rock. Following the crazy lifestyle of Barrytown, we headed off to Franz Joseph where there is a massive glacier, we went on a ¾ day guided trip up the glacier. Nicky got scared, very scared, she was walking like a penguin on roller-skates, she was convinced that at any moment she would be swallowed up by one of the enormous crevasses(hum, well apparently the week before we went on the trip two experts killed themselves by falling down one of these crevasses and I'm not used to wearing funny spikey shoes and walking within a foot of, or stepping over giant fatal crevasses.) Anyway, the next day or two were the funniest as she had been so tense for so long, that her muscles were no longer working and she was walking like a duck with a limp and was totally incapable of walking down hill, it gave me hours of amusement. Next stop the adrenaline capital of the world Queenstown, the perfect place to go and bungy jump, skydive, ski, jetboat or watch live kiwis guess which one we did, very extreme, although I did end up doing the Haka at a Mouri cultural show, and I think that they were very impressed and thought I was a natural, Nicky has a video of it, and it shows the all blacks up as amateurs. Later we went up the Gondola and went down the hill in a luge, which is basically a skateboard with handlebars. Again I think I impressed all the locals with my skill and finesse. (of course you did Ben). The following day it was back on the bus to Te Aneu at the gateway to the Milford Sound fjords. A night in a luxurious self-contained flat and a Chinese takeaway made us feel much less like we were poor travellers, especially as the rest of our travelling companions slept in their 40 to a room dorms, with snoring, sleep walking/talking and all of the other dorm horrors (which we have been careful to avoid if at all possible). The following morning we went on a boat trip across the sounds and despite the rain the scenery was beautiful, with waterfalls, seals and mountains rising out of the sea. We then spent a night in possibly the coldest place on earth, Invercargil, which may possibly hold the record for the most boy racers per sq mile anywhere on earth. If it doesn't have blacked out windows or blue neon, it isn't driven here! We spent our day 'Kev Car' spotting and had a competition to see who could spot the most Kev cars, it wasn't a hard game, so Nicky bent the rules slightly and shouted out Kev car to the Mopeds and Vans with trailers as well. One moped rider couldn't believe the attention that we were giving him and looked behind to see if we were pointing at him, on realisation he beeped his horn at Nicky and me, like a proud moped rider. W had now reached the most southerly point of the south island and we were now going to make our way up the east coast of the island before going back to the north island.