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Friends!
Hello and hope you are all well and looking after yourselves in our absence. Here is our next update which I'm sure you've all been eagerly anticipating:
After a 3 & half hour ferry across to Picton we began our South Island adventure with a scenic coastal drive to Christchurch passing hundreds of seals basking on the rocks. Christchurch is a nice quiet town with a few very old english-looking buildings, pretty botanical gardens and a nifty little museum which provided us with entertainment and shelter for a couple of hours out of the rain. There were some cool arts and food markets and we got to see a funny street artist (named Hefty Jeff) which was very entertaining. At night the whole city gathered for the free coca cola christmas concert which was pretty cheesy but im sure good fun for a free family night out.
Our next coastal drive down south to Dunedin provided another photo opportunity at the Moeraki Boulders -perfectly spherical boulders lying about in the surf, impressive i know and apparently one of the top 30 things to see in New Zealand. Dunedin was very cold and windy and nothing too spectacular as far as the town goes. But, we only had to drive a short way to the Otago Peninsular (a sort of island attached to the side of Dunedin) where we got do some great coastal walks, and saw albatrosses and got to walk amongst the massive sea lions asleep on the sand.
Next onto Queenstown, which involved another beautiful drive through the countryside past an amazing river where they used to mine for gold and filmed some of Lord of the Rings. Queenstown is a picturesque small alpine town with a beautiful lake and surrounded by mountains. Really pretty and lovely atmosphere! from here we also took the 3 hour drive to Milford Sound. the drive itself was spectacular (again!) and we got to stop off at the Mirror Lakes to see the reflections of the mountains in the water. Milford Sound too was incredibly stunning, and most people take cruises around though we just settled for the photos from the pier.
ANOTHER scenic drive next up to Franz Josef, a tiny town in between the hills and mountains where we stayed so we could do the glacier walking. This was a great trip and we got trek the ice with our spikey boots (not the technical term) with our pick-axe wielding guide.
Our final stop of the south island was a small town in Nelson (the place that gets the most sun in NZ) and true to form, we had 2 beautiful sunny days here. Our full day we took the hour drive out Abel Tasman National Park and after an unsuccessful search for a parking spot on the coast line we finally found another entrance and took a short version of the walking track along the coast before dark. A beautiful place and we would love to go back and spend more time there.
Now we're back in Wellington after the ferry back up north and we're enjoying the generous hospitality of Katie and Kris again until we leave early tomorrow for the 3rd NZ v Pakistan cricket test in Napier.
Hope alls well in the UK and look forward to hearing any news from you all. We should get another little blog up before christmas but if not we'll be wishing you all festive cheer etc.etc.
Love to all,
Katie and Steve xxxxx
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