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Hello we have finally found a computer and the time to write! We have just looked and think last time we wrote on here was March, when we were in Wanaka! So from Wanaka we headed south via a one night stay in Alexandra to a little village called Clydevale near Balclutha about an hour south of Dunedin. Our new job was miliking 480 cows for our new hosts Stephen and Judith Ray, we had our own house on the farm and it went really well. We got up to allsorts on the farm, i spent the first week rolling re-seeded fields whilst Anna got to grips with the cows! Whilst on the farm we got an endless supply of free milk, beef and pork.The bosses Stephen and Judith were really good and reallly laided back which made the 3 months so much better. One of the mornings we set of early to get fed round and then we spent the rest of the morning jet boating up and down the clutha river! Apparently a friend of a friend of Stephen's worked for the company that built the jet boat and they wanted to test it with a load of 14 people before it went to its buyer in Asia so in we stepped! As we got to the beginning of june it was time to dry the whole heard off (stop milking them as they are close to calving) and move all the cows to there other farm 12km down the road where they could be wintered. So on the following tuesday after fencing all the neighbours gardens off we set of down the road with 400 cows! it was brilliant to see they stretched for about 3km but slowly but surely they walked straight down without any incidents, i think they probably knew the way!!We spent our last week helping out at the other farm and fencing then before we knew it the three month were up, although Stephen and Judith did ask us to stop and work for them permanently! So we packed the car up on the sunday morning said our goodbyes and headed off to the south west!
On our weekends off we had explored all the east coast right from Dunedin ( NZ Scottish capital) right down to Invercargil and Bluff, NZ's lands end! Passing through the Catlins, were we had the electric window inciedent! The first time we went down it was a red hot day so Anna decided to open the window unfortunately it wouldn't go back up, alll the mechanism just dropped to bits, so we got this sorted out and thought no more about it, so the following weekend we set off down and on the same bit of road i opened my window and it did exactly the same!!!!!!!!! But anyway touch wood we have been ok since and the car sailed through its mot!
So we headed from Clydevale to a town called Te Anau were we stopped for three nights in our little log cabin it was great 20x20 feet with a bed, a sofa, a little kitchen and a pot belly stove to keep it all warm and it was right on the hillside looking over lake Manapouri. On the Monday morning we headed off by boat to see a place called Doubtful Sounds in the Fiordland National park. We set off at 9.30am and sailed accross lake Manapouri to a land locked hydro power station, from here we went by bus over the Wilmot Pass and then boarded a much bigger boat the Fiordland Navigator and spent the afternoon sailing throughout then glacier formed sounds. We then sailed back and then went for a tour of the power station which was underground and access was via a 2km underground tunnel. We then sailed back and arrived back in the harbour for tea time! A day later we tested our sea legs again and went to a place called Milford sounds and went out to see it on another boat trip which was really good, this one took us right out to sea which wasn't really what you would have called calm!! The Milford sound was more dramatic than the Doubtfull sound but both were really good trips althought the road to Milford was an experience! So after all that sailing we headed of to Queenstown which is supposed to be NZ adventure capital, were still reserving judgment on that one! We are actually stopping in Arrowtown, a small gold mining town just outside Queenstown. On the first day we headed back to Queenstown and headed up the mountain side on the cable car to view the whole town from above this was really good with the views and then we went for a ride on the luge! it was a right laugh i ended up goin on it three times and Anna twice! We spent the rest of the day looking round the town even finding a shop that imports sweets from the uk! Whilst here we went a day walking out into the hills and then last night we spent it proping up the bar in the local English Bar ' The Tap'. So we have filled the car up given it a wash (it's first one it 8 months!) and tomorrow morning were heding off up the west coast and to the Glaciers!
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