Dear Readers!

Well we are now in Christchurch, we've given back the camper (sob) and are waiting for tomorrow morning, 4am to catch a flight to Oz and meet the other double trouble! But what a few weeks it has been since Queenstown!

So many highlights and so much which we could not catch on camera as we were either not allowed (we'll explain in a sec) or we were out to see on a kayak (again, read on).

So, after Queenstown we wound our way further south to Te Anau, a pretty stopping place before motoring to the BEAUTIFUL Milford Sound. There are heaps of boat tours which are vying to take you out on the Sound but we decided to go for one of the smaller boats to get a more 'intimate' experience. We were so lucky as it rains 300 days of the year in Milford (up to 9m a year rainfall!), but the day we decided to go, it was amazing hot weather and not a cloud in the sky, which made the views utterly spectacular.
Milford is apparently not even a 'Sound' but a "Fjord' - for the geography boffs among you (you know who you are...there's more than 1 of you!) - as it was formed by a glacier instead of a river. Either way, mega cool high mountains either side of the sea water and waterfalls everywhere you look. Also glacial capped Mitre Peak in the background, AND..... dolphins!!! The Cap'n of the boat was cute, and turned off the engines so that they'd come close and they sure did! Got some great photos and footage of them chasing the boat as we drove off. Everyone went crazy. Definitely cool.

After Milford, we decided to cross country and head towards Dunedin. A nice city, and not as cold as everyone makes out. It is apparently the 'olde' name for Edinburgh and you can see that the city has some scottish charm (but doesn't look much like Edi in our opinion!) We then wound our way up the coast to stop and look at the crazy Moraki boulders before staying overnight in Oamaru. Much better than we were expecting as the town has a really quaint victorian quarter which is still a 'working' centre with penny farthings on the street and horse drawn carts etc.
The highlight for us however started at 9pm when we made a trip to the blue penguin colony and watched the rafts of penguins come in off the shore!!!! AMAZING!! The tiny little blue penguins are Sooooo cute and when the first one in the raft emerged onto the rocks, he waited until all his crew were also ashore, before waddling them all to their little 'houses' up the bank! While we were waiting for the penguins, we also managed to spot some whales circling about out to sea - probably waiting for a penguin snack!!! WELL COOL! We could not however take photos as the penguins would get frightened so this one will have to remain a memory.

After Oamaru, we decided to continue up the coast and head out to Akaroa. Only 70kms south of Christchurch, sticking out on a peninsula all on its own, and we were not sure what to expect but it was so beautiful it took your breath away! The peninsula is in fact the result of several volcanic eruptions (!) and the Akaroa bay being one of the volcanic craters filled in by the sea. The sea was as blue as i have ever seen and the little town itself was where the French first settled when arriving in NZ. How different it could have been! We decided to chill out there for a few days after an amazing scenic drive. Again, we saw lots of posters advertising tours to swim with dolphins. We were really up for doing it, but then we realised that if they were not too far out to sea - we could KAYAK! We did (Graam did a LOT of the paddling, bless!) and after 90 mins of sweat, and Linds clicking stones together like a wierd dolphin-catcher, they finally came over to play!!!!! At first my heart jumped into my mouth as I saw, with not a hint of sound, two dolphins come out of nowhere and drift under the kayak, just under my feet, as if to check us out. They seemed happy enough, so called their mates over too, and in the end we had about 8 little Hector dolphins (worlds smallest dolphins) circling the kayak. Linds was quick to strip down to her pants and jump in!!! QUALITY!!! What an amazing experience.

Finally we made the short journey to Christchurch, packed our bags and waved a fond farewell to the camper. What a super little home it had been for the last month. We are staying in a really cool hotel in the centre of the city which has amazing mod-cons and a very funky vibe, but as of tomorrow 4am, we fly off to Oz!

Watch out Aussie, Graam n Linds are coming, and they're on a roll!!! Sweet As!

Graam n Linds xxx