New Zealand Adventures!

Hello Everyone!

Hopefully you are all managing to stay warm with the white stuff on the ground. Despite the fact that it's mid 20's and sunny where we are, we assure you that deep down, we're a little envious! Christmas has a bit of an odd feel when all you're thinking is 'I should be at the beach!'

As I'm sure most of you know, Leah and I spent 10 days on the south island of New Zealand and what a fantastic trip it was! We landed in Christchurch and spent the first couple of days of our trip there. Despite being a fairly quiet city, the people (a lot of tourists)

were still out and about. We familiarized ourselves with the downtown area thanks to a tour on the tram (streetcar) that does the inner city loop, making a couple of stops at some of the Saturday markets with many homemade candies, crafts and true New Zealand art pieces. One of the stops on the tram took us to the gondola lift up the mountain outside of town to take a look down on the city and enjoy the mountain-top view all around.

We departed Christchurch and made our way to Queenstown, which is the

most 'happening' city on the south island. The 5 hour drive had plenty of sights to offer; mountains, snow tips, waterfalls and more animals than you can imagine! Our first evening in Queenstown was spent wandering through the city, doing some shopping then heading to the pub for a delicious meal and a couple of beers. The next day, we took a scenic drive out to the little town of Glenorchy, and later we headed to yet another gondola lift up a mountain side. This ride ended a bit different however, as it included a luge race down the side of part of the mountain and a fantastic seven course buffet dinner.

The next day we spent on the road on our way to Dunedin. It was only about a 24 hour stay but it was well worth it. We took a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory and came away with more than enough free samples, and followed that with dinner and a tour of the Speights brewery, a well renowned beer of New Zealand. It was very interesting to see how the beer is made and of course, more free samples followed which we were allowed to pour from the tap ourselves!

The next morning we headed out the Otago Peninsula to visit New Zealand's only castle. We toured through the grounds' many gardens and lookout points, and passed by the old 'methane plant' that was used to provide fuel for the crystal lamps in the castle. We then made our way back to Queenstown. By the time we got back, all there was time for was for a little bit of a stroll by the waterfront and dinner before a quiet evening to rest up for our big road trip the next day to Milford Sound. We caught the bus around 8 a.m. and returned around 8 p.m. The trip included about 7

hours of driving through the mountains with plenty of natural waterfalls and glaciers to look at, but the highlight was the scenic cruise out to the Tasman sea. The cruise through the sound (more technically a fjord) featured sunny weather, more waterfalls, a couple of penguins, a few dolphins, a huge pack of seals and some big waves to test even the sturdiest of stomachs! But of course the most breathtaking of all was the views of Mitre Peak, both from the shoreline and up close and personal!

Our next stop was Franz Josef for a walk on the glacier, however due to an excessive amount of rain our tour was cancelled. Our back up plan was well worth the trip however, as we spent the afternoon in hot pools nestled into the woods; perhaps a little more relaxing than walking on a glacier. The following day we headed back to where it all started in Christchurch. We got in late in the afternoon and had a quiet evening to recover from the long trip.

On our last day in Christchurch we spent most of our time in the city centre, finishing off with a traditional (and amazing) fish and chips dinner served in newspaper. Sadly, the time came to pack our bags for our 6.35 a.m. flight and come back to Sydney.

We barely even had time to unpack before we headed down to Wollongong accompanied by our good friend Tamara for my graduation day! The ceremony was well done, the speakers were to the point, everyone seemed to have fun, and most importantly I finally got the piece of paper I came here for!

The next couple of weeks involve us planning out our Christmas holidays which will be spent with Luke and Tamara, planning our New Year's day and I'm also going to see if I can put that piece of paper I got to some good use! So for now, we hope all of you take care and please try to keep in touch throughout this busy holiday season!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Jeff and Leah

xoxo