New Zealand

One month is no where near enough time to see NZ properly but we've done what we could and have crammed in as much as possible, thats the reason we've not updated for a while. We leave tommorrow having had the best month of our trip thus far, we have seen some amazing things, done some things we couldnt have imagined before getting here and in general have had a tip-top time. We've also really good weather considering its winter, its been cold but there has only been 3 or 4 days of rain, so our concerns were pretty much unwarranted.

Since we last updated we visited Wellington, only briefly, met up with someone we met on the Trek in Thailand and picked his brains about what to do and see on the South island and indulged in a local beverage or two (Mac's beer in fact, I hope we can get it at home!) we also made it to the Lord of the rings exhibition which had all the origional costumes and some parts of the set, we we're both pleasently impressed with it, far better than we thought it was going to be. We took the 1pm (3 hour) crossing to Picton which has to be the one of the most picturesque crossings around, beautiful coastline, rolling hills and some weird and wonderfull birdlife. We travelled down the West Coast first to the Abel Tasman national park.

Abel Tasman.

As you can see the place is stunning, we dodnt expect to see beaches nicer than most in Thailand/Bali here but NZ is full of suprises.

We travelled down toward the Glaciers making a few stops en route, Punakaiki (pancake rocks), Greymouth, Tuaranga Bay (seal colony) and Hokitika, picturtes to follow.

Seal colony, Tuaranga Bay.

Pancake rocks.

Both the Frans Josef and Fox glaciers (as in mints) were amazing, but what was more impressive was the speed in which they were retreating (a metre a day) it's a shame nothing can be done about it but thats global warming for ya!

Frans Josef Glacier.

Queenstown 'adventure capital of the world' was our next destination, we made pit stops at Haast and 'Wanaka' (try pronouncing that after a few) to see a few things including 'puzzling world'-fun for all the family. It was about then that we picked up Gordon. Gordon just happens to be a mouse, we dont know that for definate but there are a few things we do know for sure.Take a look at the evidence:

Half eaten oxo cubes.
Bags of rice and cereal with mouse size holes in them.
Small packages of round brown 'dropping' like items left at various points of the van.
Strange mousey rustling noises after dark.

So our powers of observation led us to believe we had a small rodent problem. We took all possible precations, swept up crumbs, hid foodstuffs, and as we had no mouse killing pills we sprayed the van with deodrant to try and make him leave. Thankfully and probably for none of the fore mentioned reasons after 3 nights of inscessant mouse activity he decided to leave us in peace, either that or we'll find him dead and decaying in our rucksacks when we pack!

Puzzling world Wanaka.

Swimmers beach.

Us smooching by random lake.

Mt Cook.

Anyway back to our trip, Queenstown was great, our favourite town so far, it really has everything, snow capped peaks, more activities than you could shake a stick at, great shops returants and bars, the only problem is that its so bloody far from home!

Queenstown, view from the top of the Gondala.

We are now in Christchurch spending our last day in NZ sightseeing before we head onto Fiji hopefully for some sun then we'll be making our way back. It's a very 'bitter-sweet' feeling coming home we obvisouly want to see everyone and there have been things we've missed from home....umm... cant actually think of any as yet (apart from people of course) but we really love this travelling lark, its a fantastic way of living, its just a shame that we dont have a bottomless pit of money which we would need to continue this trip. We have been playing NZ lotto scratch cards in the vain hope of winning some dollars, but unless our streak of bad luck on them ends abruptly then we will see you all very soon.

Oh my god we cant believe it we've never been this far away from home!

Love from Ant and Tan xx

Since we've last updated we've both jumped out of a plane strapped to strangers from 12000ft, and no it wasnt some new bizzare drinking game the Kiwi's have thought up, it was our first skydive, hopefully the first of many. We were scheduled to do it 2 days ago but due to weather not holding up we were postponed untill first thing yesterday, so we had gone though most of the anxious feelings and nervousness, on saying that it doesnt mean we both weren't cacking it before hand.

Us putting a brave face on just before getting kitted up.

We both had great instructors who sort of put our minds at rest and the journey up in the very small very rattly plane was suprisingly o.k. Reality set in once the door was opened and people started hurtling themselves out one by one, thankully this process was fairly rapid and before we knew it we were sitting at the door with our legs hanging out and with one look back (for a pre-jump photo) we were out.

Me on the way out, I know the pic looks superimposed but I promise its not, we've got a DVD with more proof if needed! (WARNING: DVD contains graphic facial movement that some viewers may find offensive or just plain wrong)

The freefall lasted about 45 seconds, long enough to stretch out cheeks by a good 8 inches and to make our mouths dryer than a barmaids armpit, but it was the best bit, just a really intense feeling with views of both the East and West coast of NZ amazing! once the chute was opened all was left was a gentle ride down to the ground during which time the instructor even gave me a shot at controlling the chute. Our only complaint was it was over all too quickly and if we get a chance to have another go well do it in the drop of a 'human from 12000ft'!.

We cant really top that event I wouldnt have thought from now on in, but we'll attatch a few pictures of a national park (Taringiao or summit like that) very beatiful!

Snowy national park.

Terinaki falls.

Tan with snow.

Us-lake Roturia.

Take care all, Ant and Tan xx

Another week or two has passed and we thought it was about time we gave you all an update, unfortunately no pictures as we've used our limit on here but we'll try and e-mail some more to you all soon, we will wait till then for you to thank us for filling your inbox's.

Not a great deal to report from our last 10/12 days or so in Australia, we didnt do a lot, mainly lazing by the pool making the most of the warm weather when we could. We did go to Saturday in the park "festival" its in inverted commars as we're not sure it actually classes as a festival, it didnt really live up to expectations but thats probably more to do with us being spoilt at home with the best festival in the world (Glastonbury!)

Last tuesday we arrived at Auckland airport after a 4 and a half hour flight from Cairns, to be honest the weather wasn't as bad as we had expected, cool yes but not quite brass monkeys so touch wood that'll still be the case when we next update once we're on the South Island (the far colder of the two). Auckland was good, much like many other cities but we enjoyed our few days there, great food (the fish and chips in particular) yes we're really branching out and trying all the local delicassies! We went up the Sky tower there, the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere apparantly, got some great ariel pictures of the city.

We've taken out another 'wicked camper' this one's called 'Dickhead' but amazingly its far less offensive than goold old Charlie. Its a little smaller than Charlie but is a 4X4 which i'm sure we are going to make full use of by the end of this leg, no more getting laughed at for getting stuck in the mud! HA!

We took 'Dickhead' North at first to Northland (wouldnt have guessed from the name I bet?) We visited 90mile beach, which as the name suggests is a large area of sand and sea, the Bay of Islands along with the Largest Kauri tree in the world (second largest species after Californian redwoods) it truely was a monster over 18m in circumference thats around the base(I knew that maths GCSE would come in usefull..........even though it took me four attempts....sorry I digress) anyway very large and very impressive. We then took a couple of days to visit family my (Ant) Grandfathers brother who lives in Whangarei pronounced Faw-ngar-ai yep the New Zealand place names are just as confusing as the Welsh (for all you non Welsh of course) and Tans cousins, in-laws in Hamilton which was really nice, NZ already more than anywhere else has a really homley feel to it, maybe its the visiting family, the weather or the rugby or a mix of the three, but we're really enjoying.

We're now in Rotorua, which smells like Port Talbot after a curry. It's full of steaming Geysers, sticky mud and eggy wiffs but its a fantastic place, so many amazing things to see and do, with that in mind we'll bid our farewells and get to it.

Cheerybye, Ant and Tan xx