Well, it's our last day in New Zealand and is pissing down with rain and blowing a hoooly outside our cosy internet cafe.

I think we left you last as we were sitting in Auckland waiting for a coach to Wellington. You'd think as we'd booked it weeks ago over the internet there would be no problems... how wrong you'd be! 10 mins before the coach was due to leave, Rosie looked at the e-ticket... booked for the 14th of... March!... not Feb!!!! after paying full whack for another 2 tickets, we managed to jump on the coach just in time, much to the amusement of a few of the passengers on board :).

So we got to Wellington and hopped on the ferry across the Cook Strait, some pretty awesome scenery as we came into Queen Charlotte's Sound.

We've spent the last couple of weeks travelling around the south island with a company called Stray, basically a hop on - hop off coach trip which has taken us from the Abel Tasman, down the west coast, to Queenstown and back up to Christchurch from where we are writing to you now.

Our first couple of days were pretty relaxed in the Abel Tasman National Park. Where most tourists go tramping or long energetic walks around the countryside, we on the other hand, aren't like most other tourists, considering a long and energetic walk a trip to the local corner store for a tasty hokey pokey ice cream! :) We did hire some mountain bikes... only to cycle to the nearest beach... hehe. Whilst on our biking 'adventure' we stumbled across an old pirate ship which used to belong to Jacques Cousteau (there's some history for ya!)! turns out... it's been converted into a coffee shop... where we indulged in yet another ice cream. This is pretty much the same story for the rest of the south island.

We jumped on our bus heading for the 'blink and you'll miss it' town of Barrytown. Along the way, feeding tame eels and avoiding being spat at by lamas (or shamels as our guide liked to tell us (a mix between a sheep and a camel... apparently they even constructed a purpose-built platform for the sheep to do his buisness... hmmm)). Barrytown, or rather a pub in the middle of nowhere, showed us a good time as our bus all dressed in fancy dress, danced on tables and one girl proceeded to fall off the bar... unlucky :)

Our next stop, Frans Josef was, in a word, incredible!! our one full day there consisted of an ealry morning helicopter ride onto the Fox glacier, followed by an exhausting yet rewarding 3/4 day hike up onto the Frans glacier, and to top off a brilliant day we threw ourselves out of a perfectly land-able plane. We can quite honestly say that this was the best day of our lives... thus far.

The skydive was brillant, partly as our instructors were awesome guys, throwing us out of the plane simultaneously, and pulling our chutes so we were spinning around each other, walking on parachutes and doing the 'spiral of doom' - check out the video on facebook. It was a completely euphoric feeling, especially as Rosie could see laina plumetting through the clouds at 200kph, wow!!!

Still buzzing (and aching) from a fantastic day, we headed south to a small town called Makarora, where our mischievious antics were directed at Remo and Matthew (a couple of guys from our bus) in the form of rocks under their mattresses and other 'suspect' liquids under their pillows.

Onto Queenstown... party town, enough said really. After a couple of nights in Queenstown, we were ready to leave and headed west, to Fiordland, and Te Anau. After visiting Milford sound ( the super touristy and most visited Fiord) on a wet and miserable day, we were lucky enough to have brilliant blue skies for our cruise over lake Manapouri, across the Wilmot Pass and onto the much less visited and grander, Doubtful Sound (named as Capt Cook was 'doubtful' whether there would be enough wind in the Fiord to enable him to manouvre his ship... intersting fact for you there).

Our boat travelled to the mouth of the fiord, to see our first glimpse of the Southern Ocean, and through many of the passageways, passing under waterfalls (collecting our own water to drink - albeit looking slightly yellow in colour (due to the tannins in the plants for all you geographers out there! ), seeing dolphins, seals and some 'apparently' very interesting birdlife ;).

After a fleeting one night visit back to Queenstown, we headed north to Lake Tekapo, which overlooks a beautiful turquoise (lots of minerals in it!) lake. After another relaxing day, we decided to reward ourselves with another self-indulgent evening at the 'not-so-local' spa which uses local mineral-rich lake water.

So this brings us to our final destination, Christchurch, where after a lovely sunny morning strolling around town, the weather has turned, as have we... indoors, in anticipation of our flight to Fiji tomorrow morning!!!

Our month in New Zealand has exceeded all expectations. It has gone by so fast yet writing this blog, we have managed to pack in so much! It's just a shame we don't have more time to spend here. But onwards and north-wards...

Untill next time...