Milford sounds which is ridiculously green and has loads of waterfalls. We went for a cruise around the sounds to see all the waterfalls and take it all in.

The chasm and its crazy rock formations.

Us at the Chasm which was on route to milford sounds - it wasn't too impressive this day as it wasn't raining but the next day it was ridiculous!

And this is when he came back in search of food! I think he might have jumped in the van if he'd had a chance.

We stopped to have a look over milford sounds and this guy was ridiculously tame. He ran away when I got out of the campervan but he still hung around in search of food. I think he might be the only mountain parrot in the world.... his breed of parrot that is not him!

That night we drove to Te Anue and then in the morning headed off to milford sounds. On the route we found a place called mirror lake.

One of the old chinese settlements in arrowtown left over from when a large number of chinese workers came to australia in search of gold. Charlotte wasn't a big fan of the chinese settlement... I thought it was interesting.

Autumn colour in arrowtown - from the official lord of the rings guidebook to new zealand this is where the nazgharls came riding throught the shallow stream... not the most memorable scene maybe but we were always going to see something from LOTR.

Us having a roam and checking out the lake and the autumn colours...

We went in hunt of autumn colour and a mirror lake and found both at this place betwen queenstown and arrowtown. We didn't plan to stop here but it just looked amazing so we pulled over and had a roam along the lake for a bit.

We decided to reward ourselves with burgers - mine was much needed after starving myself all morning. Best burger I've ever had at a place called fergburg in Queenstown. Tasty burgers post skydiving - it doesn't get much better than that! When we stopped in Queenstown on the way back through we had to stop in for another one.

Us post skydive - We were both absolutely buzzing! A-m-a-z-i-n-g nothing like I've ever experienced before it was so exciting and just an amazing rush to fly through the air looking down at the mountains thousands of metres below. wow!

NZone the company we went with we excellent and this is there van - the guys on the van is how I imagine we looked coming down but we'll never know as photo were ridiculously expensive as someone had to skydive down with you to take them!

The plane which is definitely the smallest plane I have ever been in and all the more terrifying because you know that when it gets to 12,000 ft you're going to be throwing yourself out of the door!

So it was a nice day so first thing we do in Queenstown - book sky diving! the weight limit was 100kg so I'd had nothing to eat or drink all morning and weighed in at 101kg which I thought was a problem but they told me to take my shoes off and I should be ok! not particualrly reassured we got in the minibus and headed off to the drop zone.

After mount cook we headed down to Queenstown the adrenalin capital of NZL. Also the home of the mirror lakes and a mountain range called the remarkables which given there name had to be quite impressive! We got there at night again and thought we'd broken the van because it wouldn't turn back on but a guy from the campsite came and turned the wheel for us and it worked - who knew steering lock could do that.... we woke up and went for a small walk before skydiving!

Then we spotted this sign - I think the gist of it was there's a glacier there somewhere but its a bit burried under the rocks! The search for the glacier continued...

After mount cook we took a trip to what was meant to be a glacier - the Tasman glacier! It was down a very dubious steep gravel road and in the end..... is that a glacier?! not quite what we were expecting.

The view from our campervan in the morning. We had breakfast and then headed for Mount Cook.

Us at the view point - this is actually the bottom of a glacier although it doesn't look very pretty as the glaciers melted and taken all the rock down with it! We decided to come back the next day and trek up the valley to see a better view of it!

So we got there in the pouring rain and thought we'd take a stroll up to see if we could see mount cook from the view point - this is the best my camera could do which is pretty good I reckon as at this stage it was mostly covered in cloud!

After our trek up mount john which I think took about 4 hours we headed to mount cook - this is one of those classic signs from new zealand from along the way and on this road the next morning we actually got stuck behind a huge load of sheep - they do like their farming in NZL!

Another view from the top showing just how blue / turquoise that lake was! I hadn't seen a lake that colour before.

So I set the self timer and then ran like a mountain goat back to the top of the mountain.. only for the camera not to take a straight picture! but we did nethertheless make it to the top and there were some very impressive views.

We were serious about our walking - sort of! just time to stop and play in the childrens playground for a bit..

We grabbed some breakfast from a little petrol station by our car park and waited for the sun to come up and the information place to open. I bought a brand new jacket in case of rain and we headed off around the lake to climb Mount John.

The sun rising over the church of the good shepherd at lake tekapo. We turned up in the dark the night before again (we did finally work out that we should get places when it wasn't dark but only towards the end of the trip!) so parked up in a random car park and set the alarm to wake up in time for the sunrise and then woke up to this just outside our back door - incredible!

This was part of the trip from Christchurch to Tekapo - there was a sign saying no hard shoulder and then the road just disppeared into a gravel track - Charlotte manouvered us through it while I helpfully took pictures!

The international peace bell in the botanical gardens - come on now you know you'd have done the same if you were there!

The countdown to the rugby worldcup 2011 has already begun apparently - 70 weeks? thats over a year!

The sculpture in Christchurch...

Christchurch cathedral - impressive but thats not a cathedral! that looks like steyning church... which is fitting because Christchurch is tiny it was much smaller than Brighton. Vey pretty place though and a really nice central square.

Us trying out shadow pictures as it was so sunny in the park - there were lots of these taken and this was the best... I blame out bags for our lack of coordination!

So we spent the evening before plotting a route and had decided that we'd probably headed the wrong way so after Kaikora we shot back down south to Christchurch and parked up next to the botanical gardens by the centre.

This walk had most of NZL landscape covered - mountains, lakes, cliffs, rolling green hills and even a forest with a wooden bridge that only one person could cross at a time!

I think this might has some sort of connection to maori's... or it could just be a man riding a canoe / seahorse.

Us in search of whales....

The cliffs over Kaikora where there are allegedly lots of whales.... I was trying to look for them but I think they needed to be jumping up and down and making more noise if they wanted me to spot them!

A seal from the seal colony! My favourite seal in NZL he looked exactly how I feel early in the morning and he wasn't going to move around for anyone although he did put on a bit of a shuffle for us. There were loads of them on the rocks but this guy was right next to the path.

The view back over Kaikora as we walked around the headland - our first experience of the fantastic blue lakes and snow topped mountains of NZL.

Kaikora home of whales watching and a very friendly seal colony. Having finally made it over the mountains in the pitch black the night before it was amazing to wake up to this sun and amazing scenery. This is us at the start of our hunt for whales and seals!

A more normal picture of us chilling out at the springs - it was a natural spring so had a dubious smell of sulphur in some parts but was definitely needed after the sleep in the airport. If I remember correctly this pool was 38 degrees and felt like a big bath.

Us chilling out in the springs with my underwater camera and we found out it can take pictures of us from under the water but it looks a bit like one of those crazy mirror places!

Our trip to Hamner Spring - so after a long night in the airport and no plan (as such) we saw an advert for some natural springs not far from Christchurch which looked very relaxing and it was game on!

The van! oh how good it looked in the brochure - it can sleep 3-4 it said - no wonder it was an absolute tank! We got handed the keys and were off - I think it was the second corner we took where we learnt that you had to lock shut the cupboards when driving! that was then end of our glass bowl... this is my first parking job right between the lines and wellll worthy of a picture.

And so our New Zealand adventure begins! We decided we'd get a flight late Friday and head to Christchurch where we'd work out accomodation and then pick up the campervan in the morning.... failing that - this was the corner of christchurch airport we made our own for the night!