Temperature: 5-25 °C, bizarrely chilly for a rainforest. Fox Glacier, one of only 3 glaciers globally to cut through a rainforest. The Ice gets as low as 250 metres above sea level to over 3700 metres. We hiked through the jungle and on to the glacier, slipping through crevasses. After eating a good couple of lambs each we went on a midnight trek to look for glow worms. Next morning we trekked through another rainforest to see the reflections from "another p...

Temperature: 15-25 °C, very windy. Highlights : Queenstown, Adrenalin Capital of the World home to 3 bungees, Lord of the Rings trails either by horse or 4 wheel drive, shotover jet which blasts through the canyon, skydiving and the deadly canyon swing. We went river boarding, floating down the glacial melt on boogie boards. Steve decided to embrace his fear, dropping 60 metres then swinging out over a river on the Canyon Swing. With scenery to die for we (y...

Good-bye Australia, welcome to Middle Earth Christchurch and Canterbury Plains Temperature: 20-25 °C, very windy, burn time: 7 minutes With its population of approx 330,000 people, Christchurch has more Sushi places than San Franscisco, more Indian restaurants than London and probably serves more litres of Guinness than Dublin. So we opted for KFC and a bit of Irish dancing with some folks dressed up as Lord of the Rings characters. Joking aside. Christ...

Temperature: 25-32 C Wildlife: urban folk Highlights: Sydney is a great town, larger than we had imagined. We toured the city on a hop-on / hop-off bus which took us around all the major sights. The Opera House is of unbelievable beauty and the Harbour Bridge is...well....worth the $20m? The skyline is beautiful and you can find all major institutions in the CBD. We stayed in a backpackers run by a Swedish family, in the Kings Cross area; to Steves disappoin...

Temperature: 30C and Sunny! Wildlife: Fashionistas, Surf-dudes, and City-folk Highlights: Fantastic food - great Malaysian hawker stall - in Noosa, nice surf breaks, and a very retro style motel. Backpackers and high society are welcome here. Byron Bay is a wicked little hippy town, with live bands (rapper MCs) and bongos on the beach; this is the mecca for the chilled. Here we discovered the famous Aussie burger, with beetroot and pineapple. Nimbin is locate...