Thank you New Zealand!

Today we fly to Sydney. We are excited about the hot weather and new experiences, but are a little sad to leave New Zealand after all the fun we have had.

Highlights include:

A seal jumping up onto our kayak in Abel Tasman
Seeing dolphins in Milford Sound
Seeing the life of a Maori Village in Rotorua
Sandboarding at 90 mile beach
Waking up on the beaches while camping in Northland
Walking on a glacier
Watchin 'V for Vendetta' at 10.30 in the morning in Nelson
Tramping the Milford Track and Abel Tasman

We'd like to thank Shona and Laurie in Aukland for putting us up for the night, taking us on a great tour of the city and doing our washing!

The last few days have been very wildlife focussed - the search was on for yellow eyed penguins and the blue penguin - both spotted successfully. The sea lions however were a wily lot and dodged us successfully for our 48 hr hunting frenzy.

Christchurch has been a great place to come for the last few days. Akaroa was peaceful (if a little wet) and Christchurch has a great English atmosphere - we are staying on the corner of Gloucester and Worcester Roads.

Great things about New Zealand:

In a country the size of Great Britain, NZ only has 4 million people.
The ability to get lost for a few days with no sign of human habitation is great
You are able to camp anywhere within 50 metres of a river for free
Monteiths Radler beer
The only uptight people are the English tourists (not us!)
There is so much to do outdoors. No need to stay in infront of the TV of an evening


more to follow......

Fiordland

After a quick visit to Queenstown to do the Luge at the top of the Skyline, we headed to Fiordland to start the Milford Track said by many to be 'the most spectacular walk in the world'. We walked the 55km over 4 days - which doesn't sound like much, but we were walking with heavy packs for 6-8 hrs a day.

The scenery was spectacular and we passed through valleys, under waterfalls, over rivers and high mountain passes. On reaching Milford Sound we rewarded our acheivement by going on a cruise. Milford Sounds, Garry assures me are actually the Milford Fiords because they were made by a glacier and not a river. Guess someone got confused?! We saw another few seals and lots of amzing water falls, but then someone shouted "DOLPHINS!" and a pod of 8 dolphins swam with the boat for 10 minutes doing tricks and entertaining us all. WOW!

Our muscles are still hurting, but it was well worth the effort.

We are now on the Southern Scenic Route which goes through Dunedin to Christchurch - where we fly out of in a weeks time.

Thanks for all your messages, keep then coming!