South of South Island

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hi! having not written on this for a while i thought i'd best update you all on what we've been upto.

After leaving Queenstown (where we'd been to watch bungee jumping, go up the gondala and play on the luge) we made our way down to Invercargill. This was a bizarre town which had amazingly wide streets (3 lanes of traffic on each side of the road, as well as really wide parking bays and massive pavements) and we stayed at an incredibly weird campsite (it was beside a prison, a railway line, the airport and a dismantled showground). We stayed there for a few days but all we seemed to do was go round the shops, to the cinema and walk through the park.

From there we drove through the Catlins towards Dunedin. This took us a few days during which time we visited the southernmost point in NZ, saw seals and their pups and some really pretty scenery. At one beach we also saw Hectors dolphins really close into shore, surfing the waves and getting really close to the swimmers in the sea.

In Dunedin (gaelic for Edinburgh, complete with Edinburgh street and suburb names) we walked up the world's steepest street, went on tours round Speights brewery and the Cadbury factory, shopped, and drove out to the Otago peninsula where we saw sealions and went on some nice walks. We also met up with a couple that we'd met in various places in South Island, and finally learnt their names!

We then drove up to Oamaru where we saw yellow-eyed penguins really close up (after waiting for a few hours!) and went to a very nice (and expensive) fish restaurant that the stars of Lord of the Rings ate at during filming. We also looked round the town which had some nice architural buildings and the botanic gardens (where Jack successfully managed to walk into a small wall and blamed me for his stupidity!).

Our final stop before Christchurch was Mount Cook (Australasia's highest mountain). The scenery of mountains (with snow on them!) was spectacular! once the clouds had cleared the view of Mount Cook was breathtaking. We went on several walks here to get views of the mountains. Everything here was incredibly expensive so we only stayed one night and spent the surrounding nights 'freedom camping' by beautiful lakes.

We're now in Christchurch and have so far spent our time trying to sell our van. After 3 days of sitting in the Backpackers Car Market (a warehouse available for backpackers to sell their vehicles in), putting posters up around hostels, putting it on the internet and in the paper, we finally sold it!! A lovely German couple came in one day and really liked the quirky nature of our van, and luckily for us the van started fine and behaved very well! (earlier in the day it hadn't started and was trying to stall at traffic lights). Since then we've been in the pub celebrating with other sellers and finally sorted out our hair - i no longer have hideous roots (but it's now almost black) and Jack has now got 'boy hair' - loads has been cut off!

We're not sure what we'll be doing for the next few weeks, we both fly out of here on the 8th March, but i'll keep you posted with our stories!

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Photos

a very proud and happy Kate
having just sold the van!