Spaceships

Well since my last post I have done a fair bit of traveling. After Kaikora I arrived back in Christchurch and waited for Sally and Ann to arrive.... When the strangest thing happened, in my small dorm, which only had one bed left spare, a guy I knew from Ibiza, a fellow (rival!) posterer turned up, So that was very weird. The four of us went out for a drink that evening and the following day went for a drive as Nick had a car, to the coast and then to the Botanical gardens.

The day after the girls and I picked up our Spaceship.... Our home for the next 16 days! Its a bright orange people carrier, that has been converted into a campervan, we have a DVD player, cooker, a bed... Not quite spacious. So we have been adjusting to our cramped lifestyles and I'm bringing back fond memories of caravaning.

We headed off into the middle of the south island and down to Queenstown, a very ski like resort where you can do all the extreme activities. After our first night in a nice campsite in our very cozy spaceship, we thought we'd give it a go at free camping, although we then found out that you can't actually free camp in Queenstown, so we headed off to a very cheap department of conservation campsite at Lake Moke, which was in the middle of no where and had only a toilet that was not too nice.... So that was a bit of an adventure.

Sally and I went White Water Raftting, down the Shotover river, which was great fun although very cold (Ann definatly had the better idea staying in the warm), snow has just started to fall on the mountains and thus is melting into the rivers, making the water freezing. The snow is providing some great vistas and photo shots for us, especially over the lake views. The drives are so beautiful, I'm scared to go to sleep, and its taking us longer to get anywhere as we have to stop so much for photo's.

After Queenstown we drove down to Te Anua the gateway to Fjordland national park, and the next day went up to Milford Sound, the best drive yet through Mountains and by amazing lakes, and as the snow was melting there were little cascades of water and mini waterfalls everywhere. We took a cruise down the fjord and into the Tasman sea, and managed to get a glimpse of some baby New Zealand Fur Seals, which are interestingly actually sealions (I'm not too sure why they call them seals then!)

We have since driven back up the island through Queenstown and Lake Wanaka..... The lakes are becoming a bit like temples, although not quite yet as each one is slightly different. The drives are fairly long although we split it up so are never driving for long. New Zealand roads are so quite and with a total population of only 3 million (of which I'm convinced at least a few hundred thousand of them are living in Fulham), so we go miles and miles without seeing anything or anyone and then arrive at the smallest town ever. We had a bit of a panic when the fuel light came on in the middle of nowhere, and have now completely run out of money, as the ATM in this town has broken and will not be working until Tuesday! Luckily we have everything we need in the spaceship..... !!

This morning we hiked up Fox Glacier, which was a great experience, we walked up through rainforest and then looked down across the Glacier before descending onto the ice and ice picking our way on top and then through a small crevice.... Lots of fun.

I will put photos on bugbitten asap, when I find a computer that will allow access to USB devices.

lots of love and Happy Easter, the girls tell me I can't eat meat today and have to have fish....... Hum not sure about that.

jenxx