golly where do i start!? btw, how cool is the new STA web design thing, very futuristic!! i think i last wrote when we were in Rotorua, which was quite a while a go! ok, well after that we went further south to Lake Taupo. Really big lake! the was the location of my skydive!! wahey! it was so awesome, apart from the horrible feeling i had on the way up that i was about to jump out of a plane. my guy kept telling me how high we were, and i just really didnt want to know! unfortunately i was going to be the first to jump, so i was sitting on the floor the whole time pressed up against the door! when we reached 12'000 feet, the guy just slid the door open and within seconds we were gone! it's so bizarre to think back on it, because i dont really understand what happened! but yes, i am still laive, and that all that counts i suppose. although, it was in the news that about a week after i did it, there was a guy who jumped at the same place n neither of his parachutes worked properly and all he got was a broken ankle!! lucky hey!?

the day after that we did the Tongariro Crossing, which is apparently one of the best day walk in the world! its really very obvious why! its an 18km trek, which goes up and around a volcano, and you walk past thermal pools in the mountains, and the last past of the trek goes through rainforest! it was so amazing! for the forst 4hours, we were trekking up Mount Doom! anyone watch lord of the rings?! it was like we were actually in Mordor! the scenery is so barren, its really quite scary. i stole some Mordor rock! oopsy! is that going to be a problem trying to get through the airport?! it took us 6 1/2 hours in all, which was pretty good! im very impressed with us!

our last day in Taupo we went to a bit of National Park in the area where some thermal ppols ran into a cold river, it was so weird! because you'd be sitting in a freezing cold river then all of a sudden a big wave of boiling water would wash over u!! odd!

Our next stop was Waitomo. famous for its caves! so we went black water rafting in the caves, sitting on rubber tyres. we had to jump off waterfalls into the dark, and saw loads of gloworms!

Then we went to a place that was in the middle of nowhere, i dont actually know the name, it's just called River Valley. the river is called Anduin, or some spelling like that, and its the bit in lord of the rings the first one where they're in the boats and they see the massive statues of the guys with their hands out. but that obviously isnt there in real life! and here we went White water rafting! we did grade 5 rapids, plus the river was really low from the lack of rain, so we were bouncing off rocks! i think this is the most fun thing weve done the whole time we've been away!! absolutely amazing! (see the pictures!)but there was a girl who split her lip open on the back of my helmet when we were going over a big drop, so i dont think she enjoyed it so much!

then it was on to Wellington! this was a nice city, we didnt do a lot tho! i say city, i really mean large village!! Then it was over to the south Isalnd to Nelson! It was so cute! had a few strrets of shops and a really pretty beach. which the receptionist told us was only a 20min walk, but actually took us an hour, and we walk fast! dont ever believe receptionists! this was the location of our big fiasco!! well, we had booked all our buses all the way to Queenstown, we thought we were being really organised because its the height of summer and all the buses are packed full! but, actually forgot to look at our date sheet! so on the evening of the 23rd, we discovered that we were actually have supposed to have left that morning, and oh we did panic! we were told by a very 'helpful' source that there would be no space and we wouldnt get out of Nelson for another week! I was so upset at us being so stupid! so we woke up at 7.30 the next morning to track down the bus driver and badger her to let us on the bus! turns out 4 people didnt show up so there was plenty of space! crisis over!

the next few days down the west coast we stayed at each place only one night. First stop was Westport, this was cute, spent most of our time on the beach having a bonfire! really nice because we got to get to know everyone we'd be spending the next few days with, all of us drinking and roasting marshmallows! MMM! then Lake Maufhekwnryi3o, i dont know what that one was called. this was the randomest place in the world!! it was a building on the side of the road, which actually had beds in the back, and a pub in the front! called the Poo Pub! not sure why! but anyway, we had a fancy dress party, our theme was Bad Taste. it was very fun! From there it was onto Franz Josef. Here most people did glacier walks, or suchlike, but at the time we couldnt afford it, so we went kayaking on some lake, dont know that name of that one either! lol im not very good am i! but yes, it was so nice! had the whole lake to ourselves. (see pictures!) although i dont think i have the arm muscles yet to cope with 3hours of kayaking!! our last quick stop was in a little town called Wanaka. this was very cute too. actually, most places in New Zealand are very cute!

then we arrived in Queenstown! we spent all of day 1 lookuing for jobs! i think we actually walked the whoooole city/town. i dont know what to call it anymore! so by that afternoon i was sick of it!! the next day Hannah went and did a bungy jump. i of course being too smart, and not wanting to severely injure myself! but unfortunately she came back unharmed, and saying how fun it was! lol! if u have no money to spend on activities in Queenstown, all u end up buying is alcohol! which i think is worse!! that's all people do! ooh apart from Crazy Golf! we did that one day too! i completely kicked Hannahs arse!! mwahahaha!!! golfing legend yes i am!

ok well i have no internet time left now, leave me messages! hope all is well!

bye bye xxxxxxxxxxx