Following on from Wellington, Alex and I caught the ferry over the Picton, taking about three hours. From Picton, we went straight to Nelson, a small Town where we stayed for a few days. The most notable thing here, was that Alex and I were asked for ID to get into a 16 rated film at the cinema. I thought the lady was joking, however she made us produce some ID; I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - I shall on the positive side. Our next town (heading down the West Coast) was Greymouth, stopping of to see some seal colonies along the way. This pleased Alex, as he's a big girl and loves this kind of thing, I'd rather have stayed on the bus. We also indulged ourselves in a brewery tour at Monteiths (NZ's most common beer), looking at how beer is made etc... then there was the inevitable beer tasting afterwards, whereby we had 20 mins to drink all the beer we could; we definately got our money's worth. Onto Franz Joseph we went, home of the Franz Joseph Glacier. This thing was enormous. We spent a day hiking up the Glacier, Ice-picking our way through the center with no real destination in mind. The Glacier itself is one of only two ascending Glaciers in the world, getting bigger each day. It's situated between two mountains, therefore it's formations change daily; meaning that no permanent route can be made by the tour guides. Alex and I were almost killed (well not quite), as a tour guide dropped his pick-axe down the step side of the Glacier. It was heading straight for us at speed, but we were able to catch it; not the best omen at the start of the eight-hour hike. This was a good experience none-the-less. En route to Queenstown, we stopped at Mirror Lake, which was much more impressive than the Mirror Lake I saw in Yosemite. then we stopped off at puzzle world, a confusing place. I've come to understand that I'm not the logical thinker I once thought I was; only god knows how I became a detective! The drive down the West Coast of New Zealand's North Island is voted as one of the best in the World, and I couldn't disagree. Alex and I met up with Andy and Paul in Queenstown, having not seen them for about a month. I'd go on to spend almost two weeks here, as it's known as the adventure capital of New Zealand. I had loads of fun here. A freind of mine (Matt) had previously told me to have a teapot at The World, I didn't have a clue what he meant. There's a bar called 'The World' where teapots are the fashion - yep, that's right, loads of youngsters drinking out of teapots. Oh, and then there's The Fergburger, New Zealand's finest, a must have when visiting Queenstown. We started our skiing / snowboarding the following day. Andy and I had booked up for two x three days on the slopes, with a five day in between; Alex and Paul would be doing the first set of three days with us. I tried skiing the first day, so had a lesson in the morning and then though I could take to the slopes by myself. A silly silly move, I found that the only way I could slow down was to purposely fall over; still I managed one run without falling, objective met...! The following two days I tried snowboarding, and love it. I couldn't grasp the concept of it at first. With skiing, you have two feet to give you an element of controlled balance. With boarding, both feet are strapped in, so if you lose balance, you fall, there's no compromise. I'll admit that I was more than a little scared when hitting the slopes on the board for the first time, but I thought that was the best way to learn, by putting myself in the deep end. I couldn't get enough, I loved it, despite the falls (even the best have fallen) and didn't want to leave. Luckily, the slopes were open late that night. Then it started to snow, a great sight when catching the lifts up to the top of the mountain. I have to mention a few people who I hung out with whilst in Queenstown, including the three American lads (Jon, Andrew and Shaun), a great bunch of lads who I shared good times with over the two-week period. Then there's the Irish girl's (Sinead, Nula, Ailish and Laura), who Alex and I'd met in Nelson; they contributed to the good times also. Paul would be leaving us to go to Perth the following day, so that called for a night out. It turn's out that Alex has a distant relative who own's a mexican restaurant in Queenstown - this was the obvious choice for dinner. We went to a karaoke night after food, Paul and Andy took part, with Andy winning the top prize, a free skydive - the boy done good. The following night I treated myself to an evening at the Casino - taking Sinead along with me - we lost : ( Oh yeah, we rented a car for a few days with a couple of lads from Surrey, to take a look around at our own pace. Whilst Andy was driving, the Police pulled him over. He came to my seat, so I suggested to Andy that he have his driving license ready. The officer said to me 'no, it's your license I want - you weren't wearing your seatbelt'! I was a little embarrassed whilst he went off to write up a ticket. I was joking with the others as to how much the fine would be, I guessed that it'd be around $75 (30 pound - which is what I think it is back home). He came back to me, stating that it was $150 ??? Come on, 60 pound for not wearing a seatbelt - I didn't pay it. After Alex and Paul had left Queenstown, Andy and I took up on Simon's offer to stay at his for a while (Simon is my friend Matt's older brother who moved to Queenstown about seven years ago). Simon (and his wife Liz) looked after us well, Simon cooked us a roast dinner, the first I'd had since I've been away, it was goooood, despite it taking Simon about three hours to cook. That wasn't the only meal he cooked us, he also plied us with beer, and took us out for a night with his friend's; We're both grateful for his hospitality. Another three days of snowboarding allowed me to fall deeper in love with the sport, to the point where I'd like to make it a yearly thing. My Coccyx (that tailbone thingy we have) isn't in the best of shape, even some two weeks later, which is indicative of how many times I fell over. The day we were due to leave, Andy and I went to the Nevis Bungee Point, the fifth highest in the World at 134 meter's. I was a little nervous about it, however there was no going back. It wasn't too bad, and didn't make my stomach churn as I thought it would. We picked up our four-berth campervan that we'd decided we would live in for the remainder of our five days in NZ. It was clear that this was way too big for us. I drove first and ended up scratching the side of a brand new car whilst trying to park - it's a good job that we took out full insurance (with no excess); which isn't compulsory in NZ. We drove to Dunedin, and spent a night with Moritz, a German lad we'd meet in Fiji, doing Karaoke. It was good to see Moritz again, and we tempted him back to stay in our campervan for the night. We also drove to Kaikoura, a Town best know for whale watching. Due to rough seas, we weren't able to do this. We met Alex here and so he jumped in with us to Christchurch, where we'd be catching our flight to Aus. After a couple of chill-out nights in Christchurch, off we went to Aus. I should add that I seven-balled Alex at pool whilst there, something he'll never forget....ever! So I'm in Australia now, in Cairns where the weather's great. We've had barbie's on the beach and replenished our tans. I've been away for four months now, with eight to go. My first four months have been hectic, so I'm looking forward to relaxing for a while. Andy and I have booked our flights to India (leaving on 19th Sept - from Brisbane), where we will spend five weeks; I'm particularly looking forward to visiting Varanasi. We'll return to Aus (Melbourne) in late October, then we'll slowly make our way to Sydney, where our friend Leon will be flying out to see us for Christmas and New Year. We're looking forward to Andy's birthday this Monday. We've met a good bunch or people out here, so times are good. Olivia should be in Cairns soon, so it'll be good to see her also. From here on in, I'll have my monthly blogs posted by the last day of each month. Take good care... xPx