Dear all!

How we have neglected you! Actually, we haven't been able to find a decent enough net connection until now to upload photos and blog - but here we are, and do we have some stories for you this time!

We last left you all in Wellington, and we then proceeded to catching the Interislander ferry across to the South Island. The journey itself was beautiful as we cruised through picturesque sounds in the sunshine. We decided first to head north to the Abel Tasman National Park as we had heard it was very beautiful and it did not disappoint! You cannot even drive through Abel Tasman as there are NO ROADS so we dumped the camper at Motueka and caught a sea shuttle from Kaiteriteri up the coast. WOW. Stunning golden sandy beaches every few hundred metres, and lush mountainous forest as a backdrop. You could hop on and off the sea shuttle wherever it took your fancy, and we even got up close to a seal colony en route!

We did eventually decide to disembark at Bark Bay and hike back 2 and a half hours to Torrent Bay through the rainforest. A beautiful walk and an even more beautiful beach to chill out on and wait for the boat back.

The next day we set off down the coast through Westport and Greymouth and ended up at Franz Josef. Here, the highlight of the place is the amazing 30kms glacier in the southern Alps. Here we decided to push the boat out, and do a 'heli-hike' up the glacier: We got picked up in a helicopter and flown up the glacier nearly to the very top, where all of the most stunning ice formations are. The Helicopter dropped us off where our guide 'Tai' was waiting and we set off (with pick, and crampons) on a 2 hour hike. Do not be fooled however. This hike was pretty hard going! Graam bravely ventured through a sloping cave - after being told by the crazy small japanese guide it would be safe to do so (he promptly trotted off and left us to it!) but Graam did make it out the other end (we have a SUPER video of it, and will upload when we get a decent connection!) The blue ice was beautiful and learning how to hike on compacted ice was very 'interesting' even though Linds nearly disappeared through a never-ending hole! Photos just don't do it justice - and the sun apparently was 7 times stronger up there, even factor 50 could not save Linds!!

After this amazing experience, we headed towards the infamous Queenstown, stopping for a night in Wanaka to have a super corn fritter brekkie. (Ruth you would have been proud - no gluten to be seen!)

Queenstown is brill! The extreme sports capital of the world, and Graam and I have indulged oursleves fully. We started with a bit of White Water rafting on the 'Shotover' river. A grade 4 river with a wicked drop at the end (see piccies for utter fear on Hargs face) and a brill 400m dark tunnel to negotiate!! However this was nothing compared to the journey THERE! We were in what we can only describe as a clapped out old school bus, dragging 4 rafts behind us, as we wound our way up and up and up the single dirt track, hugging the mountain. At one point our 'leader rafting dude' kicked the door open and said check out the view - and which point Linds gasped 'THERE"S NO ROAD!' as she looked down a sheer drop to the glistening slither of the river below!!!

The next day - onto jumping off a cliff. LOTS of fun first thing in the morning, after climbing the peak in a gondola, we followed our 'pilots' further up on foot until we could climb no more, strapped ourselves in, and jumped! Paragliding is awesome fun, especially when the pilot decides to 'put some Gs into it' as he said, and started turning and doing tricks on the way down! All very amusing! The view over Queenstown however was breathtaking. Again, video clips will be uploaded when we get a chance!

Now we are preparing to take our last journey southbound tomrorow, to Te Anau and then Milford Sound which is in the Fjordlands. Supposed to be the best scenery of the lot! After we'll wind our way back up, probably through Dunedin and up to Christchurch on the 8th.

Bye Bye for now! Hope the snow has started to melt a little back home?! Thanks once again for blog messages! Keep 'em coming. Now we will finish with Graam's newly found favourite phrase - SWEET AS!

Linds n Graam xxx