You won't believe it!!!!

Hello again everyone, we're trying to be a bit better with blogging more regularly so that you don't have as much to trawl through each time! We've done a few bits since we last blogged, but not too much, so we'll just jump right in, to a hopefully relatively short post for once!!

SUNDAY 22nd July

Last time we posted we were due to go to the Tamiki Maori concert and hangai (a meal where the food is actually cooked by being buried underground with white-hot rocks and lots of water to create steam - it's the traditional Maori method of cooking). We got picked up at 19.00 and driven out of Rotorua to the re-created Tamiki Maori Village. On the way, our driver gave us the low-down on Maori customs etc and explained how we would need to behave during the evening. When we arrived we all collected around the entrance to the village. We had elected 'chiefs' how stood at the front. Just after arriving our presence was acknowledged by one of the villagers sounding a conch and then the warriors came out of the village and did war-style dances and generally acted slightly intimidating towards us. One of the warriors then left a peace offering on the ground to see if the invitation would be accepted - one of the chiefs did indeed pick up the fern leaf offered and after the warriors had re-entered the village we were allowed to follow the chiefs. Once inside there were traditional Maori dwellings, although we couldn't go inside any of them, there were villagers dressed in traditional garb outside of them, doing or talking about traditional activities of the Maori people. Steve and I felt we didn't have enough time to wander around the village and ask questions etc, as we were only given about 10 minutes for this and were then being called over to the meeting house to watch the Maori concert. During the concert, we watched them play games (which were used to improve flexibility in the use of battle weapons), sing Maori songs, use battle weapons, dance and also do the Haka dance too! It was pretty good really and Steve was snapping away, so we've hopefully got some good photos to explain it all better when we get back! We then went to the dining room and had non-traditional Maori food cooked in a traditional manner (hangai)! It was really nice and we were able to eat as much as we wanted (so you can imagine that Steve made sure we got our money's worth)! We also got to see how a hangai was constructed and used, as they had a 'sample' one outside. The evening ended with some singing and also some children from Tahiti (where the Maori believe they originated from), performing some traditional Tahitian dancing.

MONDAY 23rd July

We didn't manage to get up for ages today, as we hadn't gone to bed until 00.00! So once we'd finally managed to drag ourselves out of the hostel, we walked to the tourist information centre to see about going to Te Puia - it's another Maori cultural village, but there's also geysers there and nature walks, as well as other bits and bobs. However, we had to change our plans, as the ticket price had doubled to $50 each, so we felt it was too expensive, especially as we'd already done something similar. So instead, we walked for an hour to the Skyline Gondola and Luge! It was so much better than the one in Queenstown! First of all it was cheaper and second of all the luge tracks were so much longer and we had a choice of 3, rather than just 2! So we bought 5 rides each and raced each other a bit. We were fairly ruthless at times, but Steve managed to win 3 times and I only managed 2. By the time we'd finished on the luge, we had to head back into town, as we still needed to buy dinner and go to the laundrette - both of which were at least 30 minutes walk from the hostel! So we didn't get back to start cooking dinner until about 19.00 and we were pretty tired!

TUESDAY 24th July

Today was quite cool. We were collected at 07.30 and taken to Waitomo, where we took part in black water rafting. First of all our guide took us around the back of the centre to get us fitted into wetsuits - I think he was being a bit kind to me at first, as I got stuck part way into my first wetsuit and had to get it exchanged for a slightly bigger one, but because I'd been pulling so much, I manage to wear a layer of skin of of my knuckles, which was rather painful! So when I was mostly into my second wetsuit, Steve and the guide had to literally bounce me into it by grabbing the wetsuit and then lifting me up and down! So once we were finally kitted up in wetsuits, jackets, shorts, boots, wellies, gloves and helmets we hopped in a van and got driven to the caves. Our first task here was to find a tube which we snugly fitted into and then we had to practise entering the water by jumping. To do this, we had to stand on the edge of a platform, with the river behind us, hold the inner tube around our bottoms and then jump backwards into the water and blimey that water was cold! After this we had a short walk to the entrance of the cave, where we had a safety chat and then we were off into the cave system! We did a mixture of walking, floating in our tubes and jumping to get around inside. Our guide had made me nervous, as he kept saying we were jumping off of waterfalls - but it turns out that they were just tiny little blips in the water really, so I managed to do them with no problems! So we made our way through the cave system and spent quite a lot of time without our lights on so that we could see the thousands of glow-worms on the roof of the cave, which looked like little glowing stars (even though they are actually slimy maggots and the shining in their bottoms is a result of a reaction which occurs during their digestive process - nice)! We also had lights out when it came to finding our way out of the cave. This part was pretty disorientating, as everything was just so pitch black and all you could hear were people paddling, but with no sense of direction as the sound echoed around! But we made it back out to daylight and had a short walk back to the van, which took us to the centre, where we were able to get out of our kit and have wonderfully warm showers! There was also complementary soup and bagels waiting for us inside the cafe, to help us warm up. After getting warmed up, Steve and I took a 30 minute walk down to the road to the Cave Museum (we had free entry, as we'd done a black water rafting trip). It was an OK place to look around, but between us, we already knew most of the information on display, so it wasn't the most informative of things to do! But it was nice to wander around and then we sat out in the sunshine and got surrounded by hungry finches, who seemed to be expecting food from us and were pretty brave at coming up and exploring the table etc! Soon enough the bus arrived to take us back to Rotorua, so we collected the people who were doing the longer trip from the centre and headed back for the evening.

WEDNESDAY 25th July

We got absolutely nothing done today! We got packed up etc first of all and then had to wait until 10.50 for the bus to arrive and take us to Auckland. We had a few stops on the way and finally made it to Auckland at about 14.30. We got dropped off fairly near to our hostel, so we waddled there with all our backpacks (which are getting heavier every day I'm sure) and then found out that nobody could check us in until 16.00, so we sat around chatting and having a cup of tea whilst we waited. By the time we were checked in and sorted out, it was too late to go and explore Auckland, as everywhere would be shutting and also it would have been getting dark very soon. So we sat in and got comfy by the fire playing Scrabble and Monopoly!

THURSDAY 26th July

Well, what a day today?! You will honestly not believe what you will shortly be reading (lucky we have photographic proof hey), but we''ll start off with the mundane stuff first! We had to catch the bus at 06.45 this morning, but they ended up running really late and so weren't there until 07.00 and then we didn't leave until about quarter past! But anyway, we then had 4 hours being stuck on the KiwiExperience bus with some real plonkers, so it wasn't the best journey in the world! But luckily we arrived in Paihia eventually and went to a booking office to pay for some activities we're planning to do whilst here - we'll be horse-trekking on Saturday, but the thing you won't believe is that we also got booked in for a SKYDIVE today! Yes, that's correct and about 20 minutes after arriving, we got picked up by some people from the skydiving centre, who drove us a little way out of town to the airfield. It turned out that the prices had been jacked up quite a lot more than we expected, so they gave us some extra discount off of our jumps and we decided that I should have the DVD and photo package as well! The other thing was that we could only jump one at a time, so Steve volunteered me to go first (thanks), so I got suited up and fitted into my harness, with one of the guys videoing what was going on. Then we had to go out to the plane and my jumpmaster talked me through the position I needed to use whilst in the freefall etc. By this point I wasn't feeling too bad, but was pretty scared, but we got loaded into the plane and my jumpmaster began to strap me to him. We spent ages circling around, as another plane had come in to land on the airfield so we had to wait for them and then all of a sudden they opened the door we had to leave through and the wind was rushing in and it was so scary! Panic began to flood over me, but before I could even think of protesting we had been launched out of the plane and were free falling towards the Earth!!! I just kept my eyes fixed on the cameraman, to stop me looking down, but I can say, without a word of a lie, that I in fact screamed for the entirety of my freefall (about 45 seconds), I also managed a couple of weak smiles, but it was flipping horrible - all those people that told me it wouldn't feel like you're falling are complete liars, I could blooming well tell I was plummeting at a fair rate of knots! Eventually the chute was released and that was a totally bizarre sensation for a while, but then relief swept over me as our descent slowed down considerably! My jumpmaster got a bit adventurous and tried doing some stunts etc, but I screamed for him to stop as it was freaking me out! Before I knew we were coming in to land and I was tucking my legs up and then making contact with the wonderfully stable, solid ground once again! I was in a complete daze afterwards and I still can't believe I've actually done it!!! The video is so funny, especially the exit from the plane, as you can tell I'm terrified and I'm pulling the weirdest face!
Steve's being too stubborn to write about his skydiving experience, as he feels it's the same as I felt. So I presume he was feeling pretty nervous and scared before hand, but I know he couldn't have chickened out, as the shame of him not being able to do it, when I had, would have been too great! He really enjoyed it though and felt the adrenaline pumping as it got to the point of exit. He gave a few excited cheers of delight on the way down (rather than screaming in blind fear) and was pretty chuffed when he touched down again! So we finally managed it, after thinking about it for so long and having had our plans so rudely scuppered in Taupo! Now, we know no-one will believe that I, of all people, have done a skydive, so we're including some of the digital photos from the skydive in this blog for you to all marvel (and giggle) at!

That's all for now though, there's nothing else to fill you in on for the moment. We'll try and update the blog a bit more in these last few weeks, so you don't have too much to read at once! Can you believe that it's less than 3 weeks until we're home now?! It's just crazy, it's gone so fast, but then when we think about all we've done, some of it was just so long ago! Anyway, we can't wait to catch up with you all again soon and share all our photos etc! Missing you all loads.

Sammy - Thanks for the congratulations! We're really glad things are going so smoothly as well, and we can assure you that the camera has been on override for most of the trip (we've even had to buy more films, even though we came with just over 50)! I did indeed manage to get my Harry Potter book - I got it on the 21st as soon as it went on sale and I finished it on the morning of the 22nd (I would have finished it in one day, but we were waiting around to see if we could skydive in Taupo), so I'm reading it for a second time now! We'll definitely have to meet up when we get back, Steve's really looking forward to catching up with the chinwagging you've been missing out on!~

Mum - The Maori evening was really good, I'm not sure what my expectations were, but it was certainly fun. Like I said in the post earlier, it would have been nice to have had more time to explore the village, but even so it was still worth it. Glad Teresa managed to get all my stuff, Steve called on Sunday and she said she'd be collecting things that day. Glad the garden is shaping up so nicely, it sounds as though there's been a positive hive of activity going on - I can't wait to see all the changes when we get back! Glad you're enjoying your time off of work and that you're managing to prioritise things to do etc. Thanks for collecting things for me, that's really good of you. I'm glad I have some time to get myself sorted out as well before having to get stuck into it! We've heard and seen about the awful storms, glad yóu've not been affected, sorry to hear about Liz 2's place though - hope it gets sorted out ASAP for her. Liz and Emma have gone to Rome have they, when are they back, hope they have fun. It's been a real disappointment with the KiwiExperience bus and we are certainly hoping that coming back and doing it campervan style is on the cards! Yeah the film was quite good, but I agree that they missed too much out - the movies are never as good as the books though are they?! I really enjoyed the last book, I hope you're enjoying it too (if you've not finished it already). By the way, I hope school's been rreceivingall of the postcards I've been sending from Bear and we hope you enjoy the skydiving photos! Can't wait to see you in just over 2 weeks! Missing you all so much, send my love to everyone.

Click on photos for a bigger picture

"Blissful ignorance - we haven't even left the ground yet!"

"Sitting on the edge - no fear?!?!?!?!?!"

"Freefall begins - shear terror and panic set in as I plummet to Earth!"

"What have I done?! I want to get back in the plane!!"

"Yes I'm loving this! ... Honestly?!?!"

"I have absolutely no idea what's going on, is it nearly over?!"

"OK, so am I smiling and enjoying it, or is it just the wind gushing past me, making me look as though I'm smiling?"

"Yay, I can see the ground, it's almost over, I can almost touch it!"

"Woohoo!! I survived! Now, that wasn't so bad was it?!?!"

Now, just wait until you see the DVD as well - i't's so amusing, yet so toe curling to realise I really did throw myself out of the plane!!!

Too many activities to fit into a sensible title!

Hello again everyone - we can't believe how busy we've been since we last posted on the blog, which does unfortunately mean there will (as usual) be several reams for you to all plough through, we hope you're not getting too bored hearing about all of our antics! Well, we suppose there's nothing for it, except diving straight into telling you what has stopped us from posting sooner, so here goes!

FRIDAY 13th July

Right-e-o, we started off today by getting packed up and jumping back on the KiwiExperience bus, which took us over to Christchurch again. It was quite strange going back and knowing our way around the town etc, almost like going home in an odd way! It was a pretty long journey and despite the fact that we only had a short breakfast and a couple of loo breaks, we still didn't arrive in Christchurch until late in the afternoon. When we arrived Steve hopped off of the bus at 'Base' (the hostel where everyone else was staying) and bought us a couple of tickets to go to the Tri-Nations rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and South African Springboks tomorrow night! We were both pretty excited about it to say the least! We then got dropped off at our hostel and set about making ourselves hot drinks and trying to get a bit warm, as it was freezing cold!

SATURDAY 14th July

We had a fairly easy day today and spent most of it pottering around the town. We started off at Christchurch Cathedral. It was a beautiful Norman-style building and although it wasn't as imposing and grand, it was certainly very reminiscent of Durham Cathedral. We then headed over to the Christchurch Arts Centre, where there were loads of shops and galleries with local goods and crafts on display and for sale. It was nice wandering around, but also disappointing, as there were so many things we wanted to buy, but they were also just so expensive! We then went to the Art Gallery, it didn't take too long to get around as it was pretty small, but they did have some really good exhibits. We both especially enjoyed the photography exhibit. We then wandered over to the Museum across the street, which was incredibly eclectic. It had about the Neolithic, the development of Maori culture, 1960s Adelphi (?) Penguin study in Antarctica, history of transport, history of clothes, dinosaurs, a bird gallery, East Asian artifacts and even an Ancient Egyptian Mummy! Just shed loads of stuff, it was really good. With another short stop at the Arts Centre, we headed back into the main part of town, where we did a little bit of shopping to find a wool jumper - I've been wanting a real New Zealand wool jumper for ages and so we finally managed to get me one today, yay!
So after all of our wanderings we found something for dinner and then waited for the KiwiExperience bus to arrive to take us to the Jade Stadium. We finally got to the stadium and found our seats and then it all began to happen! I have to admit that the atmosphere wasn't as electric as I'd thought it would be and people didn't cheer and get that excited etc during the match, but it was still enjoyable. At least the first half of the match was really uneventful and so a little dull, but the last quarter was just amazing and so much fun to watch, it was just incredible and we had so much fun!

SUNDAY 15th July

Today we were taken to Kaikoura again. We arrived just before lunchtime and so in the afternoon we ended up Dolphin watching, which was surprisingly good! Steve and I were almost the only people not going diving with the dolphins, which we ended up being very glad about! The diver's (well, they were actually snorkeling) kept having to get in and out of the water, literally every 5 minutes, as the pod of around 300 dolphins just kept moving so quickly away from them! Whereas Steve and I got to stay warm and dry and also enjoy seeing a lot more of the dolphins, as we had a better vantage point! We saw them doing amazing things like somersaulting, back-flips, tail-flapping, swimming at incredible speed and loads more as well! It was so much fun to watch and we've hopefully got some great photos of them, although it's really hard to time it right! After that we didn't do anything apart from potter around at the hostel for the evening!

MONDAY 16th July

Today we went for a really nice coastal walk. We walked around the peninsula and the walked along the beach. On the way we went past bird breeding colonies and also came within an incredibly close proximity to some very huge fur seals! We also looked in lots of rock pools, with Steve educating me about the marine life. Eventually we could go no further along the beach and so had to climb up onto the cliff top, which then took us back towards the peninsula. The views from the cliff top were amazing, you could even see the point in the ocean where the continental shelf suddenly stops and the sea floor plummets down - the ocean abruptly changing from a beautiful turquoise to deepest blue! It was generally a beautifully sunny day, albeit a little chilly too! On our way back around the peninsula, we stopped at a little road-side place to have some very tasty mussels and scallops, before making our way back towards the town and the hostel.

TUESDAY 17th July

Today saw us arriving in the capital. Initially we made our way to Picton. Once here we had to wait for the departure of the boat and so had just over an hour to spend at the ferry terminal. We waited at the cafe and treated ourselves to a coffee whilst we waited. I was a bit nervous about the ferry crossing, as it can be very rough, due to the incredible strong winds the area is prone to, but luckily for us, the water was like that of a mill-pond today and the crossing was smooth and uneventful. Once in Wellington, we got checked into the YHA and then popped to the supermarket for a few supplies, but ended up treating ourselves to a takeaway curry, as it was on offer if you bought it through the hostel!

WEDNESDAY 18th July

Today was spent exploring what the capital has to offer. We started off at the Te Papa (or National) Museum. This was a really great place to spend several hours and they had 2 sections which were particularly brilliant - one about Awesome Forces (the forces of the Earth) and From Mountains to the Seas (which had a particularly good section about marine life). So we had a nice time there and even stopped to do a survey at the end, which then entitled us to a free hot drink from the Museum Cafe! We were then going to go to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, but it was closed, so instead we found ourselves at the Shed 11 photograph gallery instead. We then began to wander through the town and made our way eventually to St. Paul's Cathedral and then Old St. Paul's. Old St. Paul's was really beautiful, it looked like an old country church from the outside, but inside it was carved from wood and was just incredible. we also made our way up the old tram to get to the top of Mount Victoria to be able to walk around the botanic gardens for a while. Finally, we decided to make our way back to the hostel, as we were getting sore feet from walking around so much! So we grabbed some bits for dinner and didn't do a lot else!

THURSDAY 19th July

We were on the move again today and went to Taupo. Stupidly Steve and I had signed up to each do a skydive on the way. So before getting dropped off at our hostels we stopped at the skydiving centre to get booked in for a specific time etc. Thankfully, we found out that we couldn't jump that day, due to the poor weather, but got booked in for the next day at 10.00. We were then all dropped off at our hostels and left to our own devices. Time was getting on and Steve and I popped to the supermarket for some bits and there wasn't a lot of time to do anything else that evening.

FRIDAY 20th July

To my relief, today dawned with rather miserable weather and so we were re-booked for 12.00 and then 2.00, before they cancelled it altogether and booked us in for 12.00 the following day! So we didn't do anything in the morning, as we were just sat around waiting to see if we go the go ahead. Once it got cancelled, we decided to go for a walk to Hukka Falls, past all of the natural hot springs. It was a really nice walk, even though it got a bit drizzly at times. The views over the lake were lovely and the water, as ever, was an amazing turquoise-blue and so clear! We met a family on the way, who couldn't find the falls and it turned out that they had walked over it, without even realising! The Hukka Falls, are more like a rapids system than a huge vertical waterfall, so we think they got a bit confused about what they were seeing (they seemed pretty miffed about it all though)! So we got to the falls and took a few photos, before making our way back to the hostel again. On the way back we passed the Taupo bungy site and Steve suggested that if we couldn't skydive, then maybe we could do a tandem bungy instead!

SATURDAY 21st July

An incredibly exciting and also disappointing day today! First of all we headed into town to see if we got acquire a copy of the new Harry Potter book! We ended up finding out that we couldn't purchase it until 11.01 (due to it going on sale at 00.01 GMT we presumed). So we had to potter around the town for a while to amuse ourselves before we could actually buy one! It was all very exciting when I finally managed to get my hands on my very own copy (finally)! I was already to start reading but we had to make our way to the hostel to see if we had the go ahead for skydiving. Scarily enough when we called we got the all clear and so had to wait for someone to picky us up and take us to the centre. When we arrived we were shown footage of other people skydiving and were talked through what would happen. As they'd been on hold for some of the morning, we had to wait around before we could get kitted up, but finally they started to call us over and we climbed into bright orange jump suits, tandem harnesses, found hats to fit and clipped on life jackets. We then had to wait around some more for our jumpmasters to get ready etc, but in the end they decided they had to put us on hold again and we got re-booked in for a 15.00 skydive! So we took of all the gear and got dropped off at the hostel to wait and see if we would get the go ahead later on, but in the end, they cancelled jumps for the rest of the day! Having got so close and psyched up for the jump, we were both rather despondent about the whole thing! Luckily I had my new Harry Potter to get stuck into to take my mind off of it and ended up being over half way through before we went to bed!

SUNDAY 22nd July

On the move again this morning and it was a really short journey, of no more than a couple of hours to Rotorua. We had a couple of sightseeing stops on the way, to see things like bubbling mud and to pay for a Maori cultural evening (which Steve and I are going to later on this evening). We then got to the hostel and before doing anything else I finished devouring Harry Potter (I think that's quite impressive finishing it in 2 days - at least now, no-one can spoil the ending for me)! Once I'd finally manage to put my book down we headed into Rotorua. We made out way to the Lake and went for a bit of a Lakeside walk, seeing a traditional Maori boat, carved by hand in 1989. We made our way to the Rotorua Museum (which used to be a bath house for people to take the cure). The museum was OK and we spent a while there, but it seemed to lack something and wasn't that inspiring or that extensive, so we weren't there before long. We headed back towards the hostel, having to stop to buy toothpaste on the way (as Steve managed to lose ours and so we weren't able to brush our teeth last night or this morning - yuck)! At the hostel we looked into doing a skydive here, but it's much more expensive, so we're going to wait and see if we can do one somewhere else before we leave (I'm not sure if I'm crazy considering it still)! Since then we've been employed by posting to you all (it's taken quite some time already)! We're looking forward to the Maori Cultural evening and are hoping it'll be as good as our driver made it out to be!

Well, we think that's about it for now. We have a couple of days in Rotorua, on one of those days we'll be doing a day trip to Waitomo to go black water rafting. We're feeling a bit down about the KiwiExperience bus again, but are trying to keep our chins up, we're certainly looking forward to not being on it anymore in about a week's time, although we will be sad to leave New Zealand, especially as so much of it will be left unexplored for us! We're still missing you all like crazy and are getting excited at the prospect of getting to see you all again (pretty soon now)! We're also getting nervous about our photos and stuff, Steve's dreading going back to work and I'm feeling apprehensive about starting my teacher training, but it should all be hunky dory! We'll certainly have a lot to keep us occupied - planning a wedding and planning our first home together!

Mum - Glad you enjoyed our chat (I'll call you in the morning, well it will be Sunday night for you) and have another chat with you all - it's always so nice speaking to you! I'm looking forward to seeing my photographic attempts too, although I bet they'll just be blurred or something! Yup, Steve's afraid of bugs, he maintains it's because he didn't notice them at first and so they made him jump, but I think he's just a scardey cat! Does Paul Harpin remember me then?! What did he say? Has Liz told Miss Haper, or anyone at school do you know? Anyway, really can't wait to speak to you and also hope you and dad have started saving!

Claggy - It was so nice to get your comment, I'm glad you're still reading the blog and haven't given up yet! People probably did think you were a bit mad - but then everyone must have thought Steve and I were insane when we were wandering around with the hugest grins on our faces for no apparent reason! Do you know how Lib and Luce are, as I've not heard from them? If you're in touch with them, tell them I said "hi"!

James - We're sorry we haven't replied to your comments sooner, we hadn't realised you sent us one at first as it was on an older post! We're very glad to hear that you're enjoying married life so much and are very happy for you that you now own your own home, we'll have to pop round at some point! Thanks for the congratulations, it is pretty exciting stuff! I love calling Steve my fiance, but Steve keeps referring to me as his girlfriend still, so I have to keep telling him off and reminding him that I'm not his girlfriend anymore, but his fiance!

Milford Fjord and Queenstown Exploration

Hello again everyone! Sorry we haven't posted for a while, New Zealand has been distracting us too much! We've had beautiful blue skies, barely any cloud and although it's pretty darn nippy (we're lucky when it gets to 4 degrees) it's been wonderful! So, we'll just get on with letting you know all that we've been up to.

FRIDAY 6th July

Today we were generally quite lazy, which was kind of forced upon us. There weren't any other things that we could see nearby in Franz Josef town, but unfortunately to get to Fox Glacier, or Lake Matheson we would have had a very difficult journey on public transport, which would have taken ages and would have been expensive. So we walked to the Tatare Tunnels in the late morning. It was a really pleasant walk in amongst the woodland, with great views of a glacial meltwater lake. When we got to the tunnel, I didn't go that far in, as I would have had to have got soaking wet feet - but Steve being more adventurous ended up delving in further. However, he ended up coming across some bugs, which were a cross between cockroaches and spiders and so he suddenly came dashing out of the cave towards me, whilst letting out a few squeals of fright! Once we'd wandered back to the town, we had to pop to the shop to get some food for lunch and dinner and we then spent the rest of the afternoon at the hostel not doing a lot other than watching a spot of TV, playing with the resident cat and playing Scrabble. In the evening we had dinner and then went to our room to read before bed!

SATURDAY 7th July

Today we were making our way to Wanaka. We went out to the bus and found the driver, who seemed to be in a rather bad mood and told us to wait as he would be pulling the bus up to the hotel for us to then board. He ended up moving it literally 2 feet to the other side of the road and then proceeded to not even check our tickets! Anyway, we were then on our way to Wanaka, but we had a few stops on the way - the best one being a stop at Lake Matheson. We went on a walk around the whole lake, which took about an hour and a half. We stopped quite a few times to take photos of the mirror-effect lake and the mountains behind. I was experimenting with Steve's black and white camera and I'm pretty sure that my photos were better! Especially as I got a very artistic photo of a tree with the Sun behind it, it was great. After we'd finished walking around the lake, we ended up having to wait for ages for people to finish having their breakfast at the cafe. For once we didn't have ridiculously long stops at supermarkets etc, but only had a couple of quick loo breaks on the way!
We still didn't arrive that early at Wanaka, as it was a pretty long journey, through some pretty amazing scenery. Once we arrived, Steve and I went for a walk by the lake - it was really nice and we stopped to get a great photo of the Sun setting over the mountains. We didn't have time to do a lot else and so ended up spending what was left of the evening at the hostel having dinner and relaxing.

SUNDAY 8th July

We left Wanaka for Queenstown today. We ended up making a couple of stops on the way though. First of all we stopped at Puzzling World - which was great fun! There was a huge outdoor maze to find your way around to the four corner towers, which we managed to do (although a lot of kids seemed to find their way around more quickly - we found out this was because they kept going under the fences)! Inside the centre was 4 different zones - there was one full of holographic images, one full of faces that follow you as you walk around (they were actually concave, rather than convex, which at first look they appeared to be), one room was about the illusion of making people look like giants or dwarfs (the trick was used in Lord of the Rings) and the final room was the tilted room, where your understanding of horizontal went out of the window! After stopping there for a while we were back on the bus and heading towards the first commercial bungy jump site. We got to have a tour around the centre finding out about the history of bungy and also were able to do a jump if we wanted or sign up for other jumps in Queenstown. Steve and I just watched a few people jump and then spent about an hour being extremely bored, as all anyone was doing was sitting around and eating! Eventually we were able to get back onto the bus and we finally arrived in Queenstown in the early afternoon. We arranged our own accommodation, as we couldn't bear the thought of staying in dorm rooms with the people on the KiwiExperience bus! Our driver kindly dropped us off at our hostel and we ended up with a fantastic room - we have huge windows that look out onto the Remarkables and it's just completely stunning! After getting settled in, we went for a wander around the town to get our bearings and to also get some food for dinner. We then spent the evening at the hostel and sat in the sitting room to watch a movie.

MONDAY 9th July

Today we went back into the town and our first stop was at Underwater World, which turned out to be a waste of 10 dollars! We went down into the viewing area and basically there wasn't anything to see in the water, so we spent about 10 minutes there and then ended up leaving! Afterwards we went for a walk around the Queenstown Gardens and sat and ate our lunch whilst looking over the lake. At 14.00 we went on a cruise across the lake to a working farm, where we saw sheep, deer, sheep herding (using working dogs), sheep shearing, spinning and weaving. We also got to have free tea, coffee and treats during the tour as well! It was a really nice visit and at the end we were collected by the steam ship TSS Earnslaw to take us back to Queenstown. After this we generally had a wander around and grabbed stuff for dinner before heading back to the hostel again!

TUESDAY 10th July

It was a very early start for us today - we were up at 05.30, so that we could be in town by 06.50 to be collected for our trip to Milford Sound! We had about 8 or 9 hours on the bus, as although Milford Sound is only about 100 kilometres, at the most from Queenstown, the only road that leads you there is rather convoluted and so over trebles the distance you have to drive! Crazy stuff, but the driver was cool and put in stops for us to take photos and also go for short walks on the way. Once we arrived we boarded the boat which would take us around the fjord and were on our way. It was a little disappointing in some way - as there hasn't been any rain for some time, the waterfalls had either completely dried up, or were just tiny trickles. Despite this, it was still impressive to see the height of the mountains looming straight up from out of the water! There were some fantastic geological and geographical features - beautiful folds in the rocks, strips of mineral deposits, hanging valleys and so much more as well, it was all very exciting! So we had fantastic views whilst enjoying free tea and coffee. Part way around the fjord we were dropped off at the Milford Sound underwater viewing station. We went down about 10 metres and got to view the extraordinary habitat that's been created due to the fjord - a deep sea environment has been created just beneath the surface due to the lack of waves and movement and the introduction of dark coloured water, which doesn't have a high particle content. After a while we were picked up by another boat which took us back. We then had to hop back onto the bus for the convoluted journey back to Queenstown. We didn't get back until about 20.00, so we grabbed some dinner and then headed back to the hostel.

WEDNESDAY 11th July

Today we were pretty lazy and ended up not getting up for ages as we were both just so tired! Once we were up, we headed into town and went to get tickets to see the new Harry Potter movie, but they were sold out and so we bought some for Thursday instead. We then headed up to the Skyline Gondola to go up to the top of the hill. We also got luge tickets whilst we were there! Once we were up on the hill, we went and had a little watch of the people doing bungy jumps. Crazily enough, we both ended up considering doing one, but thankfully sense got the better of me and the monetary confinements got the better of Steve, plus there are lots of things we would rather do before spending all our money on bungy jumps! We then headed over to the luge and had a few turns at whizzing around the 800 metre track. It was really good fun and it was just a shame that the track wasn't longer, so you could enjoy it even more! We had lunch at the top of the hill too in order to admire the fantastic views of not only Queenstown, but also the mountain ranges beyond. There wasn't a lot else to do though, without spending a lot of extra money, so before long we were heading back down on the gondola. Once down we had a wander around the town, buying some bits for dinner and then we ended up going back to the hostel pretty early on and not doing a lot else!

THURSDAY 12 July

Today we haven't done a huge amount again! First of all we went to St. Peter's church and then we wanted to go to William's Cottage, but we couldn't find it anywhere and so we went to the ice-skating rink instead and spent ages there! I was pretty wobbly to start off with, only being able to get around by either clinging to the side and stopping every few feet, or hanging onto Steve! Eventually I managed to get all the way around by myself without stopping, which was quite exciting! Steve was doing brilliantly though (he has an unfair advantage, as he does a lot of blading too) and he was whizzing around at warp speed and being able to turn around whilst skating and also skating backwards! He kept laughing at my wobbles and squeals as I kept almost falling over! I did actually fall down a few times, which was pretty painful I can tell you and I've ended up with a swollen hand and feeling a tad tender! It was great fun, but soon our feet could take no more of the torture being inflicted by our boots and so we went and had our lunch looking over onto the lake, as we sat in the park. Soon enough it was time for us to get to the cinema and see Harry Potter! It was very exciting and I was eagerly awaiting the time for us to go into the cinema and I was the first person to get seated! Yes, I am very sad and I'm not afraid to admit it and I'm still so excited about the last book that will be out in 8 days (yes, I will be buying a copy)! After the movie, time was getting on, so we went and bought some stuff for dinner and then headed back up to the hostel to eat and come and update the blog and that's about it for today!

There's not much else to tell you for now. We've been a little disappointed with Queenstown, it's certainly a place where there's tonnes to do, as long as you have an endless supply of money! But, it's been very nice being away from the KiwiExperience bus again! We've planned the rest of our time on the bus with more breaks, so that we won't (hopefully), get so fed up with the whole thing and will also be able to see more of New Zealand, rather than just New Zealand's supermarkets!
We can't believe we now only have 5 weeks until we're home, it's absolutely crazy that we have such little time left of our travels!
By the way, we also wanted to say thank you for your congratulations on our engagement. We've certainly been walking around like Cheshire cats, just constantly grinning since Steve proposed! I'm sure we'll have worn the ring out by the time we get home, as we both keep looking at it!
Anyway, we hope you're all well and we hope you are enjoying the blog, don't forget to keep posting, it's really nice to hear from you and really makes us smile when we get new messages! We'll be in touch again soon, missing you all loads!

Ice Trekking!

Hi again everyone, we've actually managed to get to the internet quite soon, so that for once our blog shouldn't be too much like an essay! We've also managed to have some time away from the KiwiExperience bus as well, which has been wonderfully refreshing! So we'd best just get on and let you know what we've been doing over the past few days.

MONDAY 2nd July

It was a late start this morning, as we didn't have to be on the bus until 09.30. Our first stop on the bus was to Cape Foulwind, where we were going to do a short walk to the seal colony nearby, however, as it was drizzling ever so slightly and the bus driver was feeling too lazy (as well as most of the people on the bus), we didn't get to do the walk, but instead got driven straight to the seal colony. We were a bit annoyed about that, but it was cool to see the colony and we hopefully got a few nice photos. We then went about 2 minutes down the road so that people could have breakfast and if you so wanted to also walk down to the Pancake Rocks. The driver decided that he would only wait for half an hour - which is how long it took to get to the rocks and back and as I needed a loo stop - Steve ended up walking over on his own to get some photos. As usual the journey was broken up by annoyingly over-long stops for lunch and we also stopped for an hour and a half at a supermarket! So it was incredibly annoying that what should have been a 3 hour drive, instead took us around 7.5 hours! It was even more annoying, as we went for a walk to Lake Mahinapua across the road from the hotel and by the time we got there, the light was fading fast and so we couldn't see very much, apart from the fact it was stunningly beautiful and we wish that we had arrived earlier so that we would have had the chance to look around. We had wanted to go to the beach on the other side of the hostel, but by the time we left the lake and got to the track to the beach the light wasn't good enough to make out the path, so we had to leave it and just go back! Once back we popped into the bar to have a couple of drinks before dinner. After dinner we bought ourselves a green stone (jade) necklace each, which are really cool! We then went and hid in our room, as everyone else was taking part in a stupid tin-foil and clingfilm fancy dress party (basically an excuse for them all to get blind drunk)!

TUESDAY 3rd July

Today we got to make our way to Franz Josef at last (possibly the part of New Zealand I've most been looking forward to going to), although we had another late start (for all those poor people suffering hangovers). After 45 minutes, we as usual had a breakfast stop, although this one was merged with a trip to the Bushman's Museum - where we got to learn about the introduction of deer to New Zealand for hunting purposes, it's mass culling and eventually it's capture to create deer farms in order to provide meat. It was quite cool seeing the helicopter techniques they used to kill and eventually catch them! We also saw a huge wild pig, possums and a selection of guns for hunting deer, oh and a couple of enormous eels! Once everyone had finished eating we made our way straight to Franz Josef, where we were taken to a trail, which went to a viewpoint. We were then dropped off at the hostel, by which time it was too late to be able to do any of the short walks, so we ended up just sitting around for ages and then having to fight to use the 1 and only microwave in the kitchen to cook our jacket potatoes (they don't have an oven either)!

WEDNESDAY 4th July

Completely awesome day today - the best day we've had in New Zealand so far! We got up this morning and got layered up in preparation for spending the day hiking on Franz Josef! So first thing we walked over to the Franz Josef Glacier Guide Centre, where we were able to borrow boots, crampons ('spikes' that you strap to your shoes for walking on the ice), waterproof jackets, warm socks, woolly hats, gloves, and waterproof trousers! So we got all kitted up and then hopped on the bus which took us to the car park near to the glacier. We then had a 45 minute walk to get to the snout of the glacier, tramping over the outwash plain as we went (it was all very exciting). Finally we got to the glacier and strapped on our crampons and then split into 4 groups depending on your ability and confidence, so we went into group 3, as I was feeling a bit nervous about my physical ability to cope with the hiking uphill and so Steve would have more opportunities to take photos. It was a nice group of people, as all the idiot lads were trying to show off by being in groups 1 and 2 and all the tarty girls were in group 4 as they are too unfit! Anyway we spent the next 6 hours or so hiking up on the glacier, going through huge crevasses, as well as some pretty tight ones too (there was one poor woman who actually got stuck in one and had to get rescued by 3 guides), we saw the most amazing blue ice too and the views were just breath taking! It's so hard to describe what it was like, it was as though we were in an alien landscape! We got pretty high up the glacier too, going up and over the first icefall, around 3km we travelled onto the ice. But, all too soon it was time to head back down and off of the ice. I was amazed that I only had a couple of slips (unfortunately the same woman who got stuck in a crevasse also took a nasty tumble, although she seemed to have a more bruised ego than anything else). So all too soon, after our 6 hours of trekking, we were back at the bus and eventually at the hostel having nice warm showers! It was just incredible and we don't think the photos will do it justice, but hopefully you'll get an idea of what it was like when you see them!

THURSDAY 5th July

We ended up having a bit of a lay-in today, as we were so tired from yesterday! But eventually we were up and making our way back towards Franz Josef. We decided to do a walk which would take us back to the snout of the glacier so that we could get some more photos and also walk through the rainforest on our way there. It was a really nice walk and it was cool to get a couple of extra photos and see all the tiny blobs that were other groups of people trekking on the glacier! After having a spot of lunch we started to make our way back, and went on a different route to see some more of the rainforest etc. We ended up stopping at a kettle-lake, which had a great view of Franz Josef in the background so that Steve could take a photo. He then told me he wanted to find his gloves (as it was raining), so we stopped a bit longer whilst he was rummaging around, however, he began to tell me that there was something he had been meaning to ask me for a while and he PROPOSED to me - so we are now ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How exciting! I couldn't believe it when he said it, I cried a bit and just kept saying "yes" - it was so amazing! We've not stopped smiling since and we're going to pop to the bar later to have a celebratory drink together!

Well, that's about all for now - we have 1 more day in Franz Josef and are then going to have to get back onto the stupid KiwiExperience bus! Oh well, hopefully this driver won't be so lazy and we'll actually get to do some more things and see more as well!

Mum - we thought you would be jealous of the whales and I bet you're getting a huge list of stuff you want to do on your travels! We didn't think it would quite be cold enough for thermals, but so glad we invested in them! We're going to try and hop on and off the bus a bit more now, mainly to save our sanity and also to make sure we actually see New Zealand before we leave! Franz Josef exceeded my expectations dramatically (and not just because Steve proposed), the day we did the hike I was on cloud nine! Glad you finally got your blind, and hope that the wardrobe demolition is going well at Liz's. Shame about the weather preventing any development in the garden. Hope the physio goes well and that your arm continues to get better.

Liz - Hope the pygmy puffer fish has settled in OK and no, I'm not sure it's quite in the same league as sperm whales, but it's close! Nice to hear that Belle is a complete nutter - I would hate for you to ever have a sane pet and pets always take after their owners anyway, so not much chance of that happening! Hope she starts behaving a bit more though! Looking forward to coming home and seeing you all, as we're missing you loads too!

Bill - We find it hard to believe that we've been away for 3 months too! Glad that progress has begun on the conversion, it should be smashing when it's all finished - we certainly can't wait to see it all! We hope the rain doesn't hold up progress too much. We'll have to send our congratulations to Andy and Mark - we had no idea they were planning marriage, so it was a bit of a surprise when you told us!

Goodbye sweaty soup - Hello freezing cold!

Kia Ora! We've finally made it to New Zealand - crazy stuff, as it's always felt like this part of the trip was miles away! Well, we've got rather a lot to get you updated on (sorry - the internet hasn't been readily available), so we'd best get cracking!

MONDAY 25th June

We decided to spend today mainly in China Town, so we had to hop on the underground to get there and then began our day of sightseeing. We wandered around some of the 'back streets', visiting a few small Temples along the way. It's a bit sad in a way really, as China Town feels like it's lost it's true essence, as it's been renovated etc so many times, to 'improve' it. We also went to the China Town Heritage Museum, which was really interesting and explained how people initially came to Singapore and the kinds of conditions they lived in, what their social and cultural habits etc were and what jobs they had. There was even a 'mock-up' of the types of houses they lived, which was very eye-opening. We stopped for lunch afterwards and I bought a chop (Chinese seal - I've wanted one ever since Steve bought his) and even managed to haggle $5 off of the price (which Steve was very impressed with). We then made our way towards Little India for a wander around in the afternoon. We went to a really big food market, which was pretty cool (although rather dubious smelling most of the time) and we also passed lots of Mosques, which were really ornate and quite beautiful as well. Little India has been less interfered with by the authorities than China Town and so has managed to retain more of it's 'soul' and as we wandered around we felt we got more of the essence of a traditional way of life etc. We finally made it back to the hostel and just flopped after spending all day sightseeing around the city again! We're not too sure how impressed we've been with Singapore, in some ways it's like Hong Kong, but it's much sleepier in many ways and not as exciting as many of the other cities we've visited during our time in South East Asia.

TUESDAY 26th June

Not a very exciting day at all today! We didn't get up early, and then spent the morning packing our bags ready for our flight to New Zealand. We checked out of the hostel as late as we could, just so we didn't have to spend as much time hanging around at the airport. Once we got going though, we just hopped onto the underground, which took us straight through to terminal 2 at the Changi airport. We spent the first hour or so going backwards and forwards between the 2 terminals trying to find the post office so that we could send yet more souvenirs home! We then had a bite to eat for lunch and proceeded to sit around in terminal 1 not doing a lot besides sitting around and reading our books. We were finally able to get checked in 3 hours before our flight and so then went through and proceeded to read yet more of our books, whilst waiting for boarding to begin. The queue for boarding was absolutely enormous, as we were going on a double-decker plane and had 3 different companies using the same aircraft! So boarding took forever due to the number of people and the fact that we had to put our bags through X-ray machines and also go through the metal detectors ourselves! Finally we were on though and soon after in the air and on our way to Sydney, Australia. The flight was pretty smooth and took about 7.5 hours.

WEDNESDAY 27th June

What a palaver today has been?!?!? Our flight landed at some unearthly hour at around 05.00 and we had to go through the transfer flight checks (we didn't need to collect our bags or anything, but needed to go through security checks with our hand luggage). We then sat around in the Sydney airport terminal for about 3 hours to board our flight to New Zealand. We were slightly delayed getting onto the plane, but were finally boarded onto an incredibly empty flight (kind of surprised they didn't upgrade anyone - Steve and I are secretly hoping to get upgraded on our flight home from L.A.) and spent another 2.5 hours in the air, we even had a second breakfast (making us feel quite like hobbits)!
The troubles started when we landed. It took an age to get through passport control, as the plane had been full of Americans on some kind of tour and they all ended up in front of us in the queue! After the customs official had amazed at us managing to stay together after 3 months of travelling we were through into baggage collection. At first about 20 bags came through (including Steve's), but then they stopped the conveyor belt for over half an hour and so no bags could be collected from our flight. Finally the bags came through again, but then we had to go through the quarantine section - we had to have our boots checked by an official, but again all the Americans were in front of us and each of them had tonnes of stuff that needed checking by hand! Finally we were completely through customs (by the skin of my teeth - the official didn't like the clay that was stuck in the treads of my boots, but let me through eventually) at 15.15 (despite having landed at about 13.20), however once through we found out that the person who had come to take us to the hostel had left! They had been told no-one from our flight was left in customs and after putting out a tannoy announcement (which we didn't hear), he'd gone, as he had other things he needed to attend to as well. We managed to get a shuttle bus though which took us straight to the doors of the hostel for $25. After arriving we were shown around the hostel and after warming up with a cup of coffee we decided to brave the FREEZING cold and go to warehouse to buy some thermals (yes it is that FREEZING here, we've managed to go from one weather extreme to the other)! We also stopped for dinner whilst we were out, as we didn't feel like cooking! But were soon back in the hostel having another hot drink and filling up our water bottles before bed to try and get warm!

THURSDAY 28th June

It was an early start this morning, we had a worrying prospect that we were going to have to have freezing cold showers, but the water finally started to come through hot! We had to get packed up and have breakfast etc and then wait for the KiwiExperience bus to arrive at 07.50. we thought we'd missed the bus or were in the wrong place as the bus was really late, but it turned out the driver didn't know the address! So we got on board and were on our way to Kaikoura. When we finally got to Kaikoura we went to the Whale Watch centre (before hand we'd popped to the chemist to buy me some more travel sickness tablets - thank goodness) to go on a boat for a couple of hours to see if we could find any Sperm Whales. It was a very rough journey and so I'm very glad I had some tablets, otherwise I would have been sick as a dog! We weren't expecting to see more than 1, possibly 2 whales, but we ended up seeing 6! It was pretty cool to watch them, especially when they dived to begin their deep water dives! It was a shame we couldn't get more sense of how large they were, as you only see just over two thirds of their body mass when they rest at the surface. After all this excitement and lots of photo taking, we popped back to the room to have a look at our itinerary and eventually went out for some fish and chips for dinner!

FRIDAY 29th June

We didn't do a huge amount today. We made our way to Nelson and stopped on the way at Picton, so that some people could go over to Wellington and so that people from Wellington could join our bus. We then had another little stop for lunch at a Winery, where we got to stop for a free wine tasting (which wasn't really worth it as we only got to try 2 wines and weren't even taught how to taste properly, but just left to 'neck-it'). After stopping for lunch for ages we continued our journey to Nelson and by the time we arrived there wasn't time to do anything. We merely got checked into the hostel (which was pretty impressive, a nice surprise to have somewhere quite so posh to stay) and then went over to the supermarket to buy some dinner stuff and bits for lunch etc. On our way back we had to make a couple of phone calls to confirm bus seats and places on a trek we wanted to do on Saturday. Once back we cooked dinner and then didn't do anything more apart from reading!

SATURDAY 30th June

A very early start this morning, we had to be up and breakfasted and ready to be collected outside the hostel at 07.00 this morning so that we could be taken to the AquaTaxi Centre. Once at the centre we decided what route we wanted to do - initially we were going to be dropped off at Tonga and would walk to Torrent Bay, however the sea was far too rough and it would have been dangerous to be dropped off on the unsheltered beach of Tonga, so we were instead dropped off at Bark Bay and then walked to Anchorage instead. The walk was meant to take us 3.5 hours, but after having paid so much money for the water taxi we decided we wanted to take our time and enjoy it (despite the fact it was raining and that the fog was so low that it obscured any views we would have otherwise had). It was a really pleasant walk and it was refreshing to do one described as being easy and it actually turning out to be easy, rather than having near-vertical scrambles to go up! We stopped for lunch on the beach at Torrent Bay and then continued around to Anchorage where we arrived with about 15 minutes spare before the AquaTaxi would arrive to take us back to the centre. We had to get soggy legs to get back into the boat and it was so cold walking through the water - but they had towels on board so that we could dry off and put our boots back on. Once back on land we were taken by minibus back to the hostel, where we decided to have a 'meal deal' - a roast dinner with pudding. The roast was a disappointment, as I'd been picturing dad's roasts (I can't believe we've gone over 3 months without one), but the chocolate cake pudding certainly met expectations!

SUNDAY 1st July

Not a lot done today, at 08.15 we hopped back on the bus and made our way to Westport. We had a few stops on the way for lunch and loo breaks etc. We also had a stop to go for a short walk by one of the lakes at Nelson Lakes. When we finally got to Westport we went for a walk to go to the breakwaters, but unfortunately couldn't find the way and so ended up having a short walk around the town! We've not done anything else today though apart from sit on a bus!

Tomorrow we're off to Lake Mahinapua and then Franz Josef the day after, where we'll be stopping for a few days (I'm so excited). First impressions of the KiwiExperience aren't good though, it's not very easy to actually hop off the bus, as you end up being stuck somewhere for ages as the buses aren't running very frequently, but if you don't hop off the bus you only get to spend an afternoon in each place, which often doesn't give you enough time to do the things you wanted to. At the moment, we think it would have worked out just as cheap and much more flexible and suitable for us to have just rented a camper-van for the time we're spending in New Zealand. Oh well, best keep our chins up and make the most of it!

Liz - Great news about the house, I'm glad the decorating is coming along nicely. Hope the wall-knocking down goes well - don't demolish any load-bearing ones will you, or go through any pipes?! Also glad you got the birthday wishes too, hope you had a lovely time. We can't believe you have got a dog so soon! Is it a puppy or a grown-up doggie you have? She sounds lovely and I'm not surprised dad's too soft with her. Glad she's settled in and that the kittens like her too. Looking forward to seeing you all and the house when we get back (still feeling very jealous)! By the way - I hope you were being kept up to date with the blog, otherwise you have a LOT of catching up to do!

Mum - We did get here safely and getting to the hostel was easy peasy using the shuttle service, there was one ready and waiting to go as we walked out of the terminal, so we didn't even need to wait around! Just trying to get used to the cold - our thermals have been invaluable!