Hey Guys!

Hope you are all well! We are having a proper adventure out here! Isn't it nuts to think we're on completely the other side of the world to you all???

Anyway, our last blog was in Nelson, a large-ish town on the north of the south island. Its also the place in New Zealand that gets the most sunny days. We have actually been really lucky with the weather ( touch wood ), its not exactly shorts and tshirts weather but its nice to see this spectacular scenery in the sunshine. It was cool staying in a hostel above a pub, unfortunately we couldn't really afford to take advantage of it (boo hoo), but we did take advantage of the free beer tasting!! Even Fin drank it! Well, except the last one. We were able to try five different types of beer all locally brewed. I can't remeber the names of the ones I liked, mostly because her accent was really strong and they pronounce "e" like "i"; so a pen is pronounced "pin". Anyway, I think the name of it was Speights. Does that sound right?

Nelson is home to three National Parks, one of which we kayaked through and another, Nelsons Lakes, we visited on the way to our next stop. As the name suggests, there was a large lake and we saw our first glimpse of the Southern Alps. After some lunch and a walk around, we began our journey down the west coast. The west coast is kind of seperate from the rest of New Zealand. Everyone's a bit crazy and they live by their own rules and they take the mick out of everyone, especially the English which is pretty funny. En route to Westport, our next stop, I did a three hour horse trek. I was the smallest there so naturally they put me on the biggest horse, Max. It was by far the best way to see the scenery and we went through the river which the horses loved. I was so high up I didn't need to worry about getting wet! I even did some cantering which I haven't done for years and I was really enjoying myself until Max had a psychotic turn and I almost lost my leg to a tree. But I survived (and stayed on which is an accquired skill) and had fun.

We left Westport early the next day and stopped to do an invigorating morning walk along a coastal path. We could see more seals on the rocks below and yet again the scenery was fantastic. Be prepared to hear a lot about the scenery! Our next stop was Lake Mahinopua, where we stayed in an old pub totally in the middle of nowhere. It was run by Les who, at eighty four years old, is New Zealand's oldest publican. He gave us all a hearty welcome and was surprisingly sprightly- no doubt due to surrounding himself with a hundred youngsters every few nights. Needless to say, there were no other amenities nearby and that night Les and our bus drivers cooked us all a steak dinner with potatoes, veg, pasta etc. It was the best meal we'd had for a while and we even got some of Les' famous venison stew- yummy!

Later that night, we had a fancy dress party in the bar. The theme was "bright and tight" and the idea was to come dressed in all the colours of a rubix cube and then swap clothes with people so that by the end of the night you were all in one colour. Not wanting to lose any of our own clothes, we bought some stuff from a charity shop and made good use of some brightly coloured pipe cleaners! A good night was had by one and all.

Another early start this morning (along with a few hangovers) took us to Franz Josef, home of the fastest moving glacier in the world. Tomorrow we are doing a full day hiking trip on the glacier which we are really looking forward to. Apparently we can even swim in the lake at the top of the glacier if we like- Fin probably will but I'm thinking maybe not!

Anyway folks, thats all for now. We'll be in touch in another couple of days.

Love from Sian and Fin xxxxx

P.S. Don't forget to leave us messages guys! It makes us sad when we have nothing new to read!