Hello again from the Land of Zeal! The South Island is indeed incredible! Having left Nelson we were on the road to Kaikoura and got to go Whale watching! The weather was fairly awful and so we weren't sure we would get to see any but luckily we managed to catch four even though the average per trip is two! Nothing can really describe the sheer size of the creatures and no photo can truly represent it - just massive! Back on dry land we stopped at a winery! Excellent! Given that we were in the marlborough region it seemed only fair to taste the local wines! Even the white was delicious! We still had a long drive to Christchurch so we didn't stick around too long and by the time we got there we just grabbed some food visited the customary Irish pub and hit the sack!

The next morning we had another tour of the city - I think I preferred it to Auckland - it had more of a homely feel about it although that is probably because we were staying right next to Gloucester St!!!! Classic! After lunch we headed further south to a sheep station called Flock Hill. I had seen sheep dogs at work before and everyone has seen Babe but with that backdrop in the middle of the Southern Alps it was something else! We had a total tour of the station before a delicious lamb dinner! There was a bar onsite and so an amazing night was had by all! The owners and workers were so friendly and we certainly all danced the night away!

Next stop was Fox Glacier - sadly for the whold day it poured down and by the time we got there quite a few of the activities were cancelled. I was in some way pretty grateful for the break and had a really long sleep which was certainly needed!

Next stop was Queenstown, the adventure capital of NZ! More skydive options and the original bungy! Again I said no thank you! But I did try the Shotover Jet - we sped through a rather narrow gorge at 80kmph with countless 360 spins thrown in and were within cms of the rocks almost the entire time! It was awesome! That night we headed to the Ice Bar which was really cool! We were suited and booted in eskimo coats and uggs and crazy russian style hats! You could only stay in the bar for 30mins but again the cocktails were cheap for us so that was no problem! Later on we went to Frasers bar next door and had flame shots before dancing to the tour song on the bar! Such good fun!

The following day with pretty thick heads some of us had chosen to go horse riding. The view from the breakfast room over the lake was amazing - even feeling as we did we could still appreciate it! Our trek took place in Paradise - the genuine name did it no diservice! We got to see lots of the LOTRs sigths and my horse Oscar had actually starred in the films! It was so peaceful and being that close to a celebrity was great! That afternoon Caroline and I took a gondola up to the look out point over Queenstown - the views again were incredible! Back down in town we went to Fergburger and had the best burger or my life! We headed back to the lodge for a few wines and some sleep after a very busy couple of days!

Today was my favourite day! We made our way through the Firodland National Park to Milford Sound. No matter how tired you were there was no way you could go to sleep as you would miss far too much! Every photo stop we made was breathtaking. We got to Milford in the afternoon and sailed into the most incredible scenery I have ever seen. You could see waterfalls and lush greenery everywhere. Our boat was alone for the trip and so the water was so still it almost felt like we were the first people to ever explore that area! We stopped in a little bay and got to go kayaking. As we were on the water two wild dolphins popped up and were jumping and swimming all around us for hours - even the guide said he had never seen anything like it so we were so lucky! Once we had paddled back to the boat we decided to go swimming! It was by all accounts only 12deg and you certainly felt that as you got in but great fun jumping off the boat into the water! We sat out on the deck for a while that evening and it was refreshingly silent - absolutely freezing but so relaxing!

The next day was the last full day of the tour which was really sad as we had all got on so well! We went to Lake Ohau - one of the most unpolluted areas in NZ. Again we got there pretty late but just enough time to prepare our bin bag costumes! Clare, Steffi and I were sharing a room and came as Animal Farm - I was a zebra so it was the imaginative version! We had a great night together and some of the costumes were amazing! We all got out of the bin nags and jumped into the hot tubs - I was a prune by the time I got out but it was incredible! The sky was so clear it was magical!

We pretty much just drove back to Christchurch after that but even though it was the end of the tour there were still quite a few people from the tour who were still going to be around! Most of us were booked into Base hostel and ironically I was sharing a room with Gemma, Caroline and Clare! We explored Christchurch by day and by night and spent a brilliant couple of days together. I'm so excited about going to Asia but I've had such an wonderful time in NZ and fallen in love with all things kiwi that I really don't want to leave! It's just a shame that it's probably the country the furthest away fro the UK! Typical! Ah well - Rugby World Cup 2011 anyone?!

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