After leaving brisbane and arriving at the airport we discovered we were in for a four hour delay. Uh oh. But turns out we were flying with emirates and they gave us a forty dollar food voucher. big win! Woohoo. After that little drama we flew across the Tasman sea, landed in Christchurch and got another big score, free clothes. As you can imagine we were not really prepared for a nz winter coming from tropical Darwin. I had one coat and one jumper. But we then managed to get scarfs, gloves, jumpers, waterproofs, so we picked up our hire car and off we went! We drove ( Nathan did the driving, I did my best impression of the worst back seat driver in history - sorry Nathan) visiting mt cook and the glacier lake and icebergs which were awesome! Skiing in queenstown for a few days and having one of the best meals of my life in gantleys restaurant. onto the west Coast and picking up hitch hikers was the aim of the game, great fun! We made it to franz Josef glacier and the ice explorer trip. helicopter ride for the first time ever eek!!!! And walking on a retreating glacier was unreal so beautiful with caves and walking through ice corridors. Next up more hitchhikers and a few days at Abel tasman national park. Here we decided on a freedom sea kayak adventure. Big mistake. The minute we were through the surf and started paddling up the coast I knew this wasn't for me. I hated almost every second of it, however a seal did come to say hello and swim around our kayak ( a lovely moment ). after our Abel Tasman adventures it was onto Wellington, a few cocktails here and we returned our rental car and joined a kiwi experience bus to taupo and rotorua. Nathan's attpted sky dive was cancelled did to bad weather( perhaps the 7th time in a year haha) but we had a fab time in the hot springs of rotorua and a Maori cultural experience. Finally Auckland and our last few days have been to rest and prepare for the next adventure in Vietnam. New Zealand has been beautiful, we have had a wonderful time and so thankful to have had the chance to visit :-) Kia ora new zealand, chao Vietnam xxx
