Sydney New Years Eve

We spent 3 hours queueing up to get into the botanical gardens fromm 11am along with another 20,000 people!  We had met up with friends from Fiji & awaited the New Celebrations.

The fireworks went off at 9pm and midnight and was an amazing display.

The boats were all lit up too.

The fireworks glistening off the water!

Adelaide Christmas

We had Christmas with the Barratts which was lovely, we went to the beach for the day then a BBQ at night! You can't get more Aussie than that. Eve got some new make-up form Santa and helped me and Jen get ready for a big night out!

Millie & Mollie the new Jack Russel puppies were a big hit!

We Kids (Jack,  Mark & Keith) spent most the time dive bombing in & out the pool!

It's a hard life in Oz - shame to leave :-(

Melbourne

We had a flying visit to Melbourne- literally overnight so we tried to cram in as much as possible.  The free  city tram certainly helped with this as we were tired after a 3am start and 2 hour time difference.  This is Melbourne Harbour with a view over the city.

Melbourne has a fabulous market called Queen Victoria Market - it sell everything from Fish, Meat , Veg, cheeses, chocolate, clothes, toiletries to clothes to Santa hats!!  It was even on the news on Christmas Eve as over 60,000 people were expected to visit for their  Christmas lunch BBQ  bits - it was Chaos!

This is our hostel in Melbourne, its in the old Salvation Army building - not bad hey!

Sumner

Our final stop in New Zealand is Christchurch.  We decided to have a night on the coast in Sumner which was just beautiful.  Long sandy beaches with surfing and swimming.  Also an amazing sunset over the hills in the background.  We bumped into our Fiji friends too so a good catch up with a cuppa!

Our last 2 nights were in Christchurch city which was  a great place to wander but still alot of earthquake damage- they had 18 more earthquakes on boxing day too up to 4.1!

So we say Bye Bye to a fantastic time in New Zealand and hello to Oz!

Mount Cook

Even though bad weather had been given out we decided to head to Mount Cook - just in case we could catch a spell to land on the glacier.  The rain came down though with the clouds and didn't stop so no heli ride AGAIN!  We did manage a walk around Tasman Lake where the Tasman Glacier breaks off into the Tasman Lake .  The water is milky due to the rocks breaking into the glacier. It made up for the heli ride a little and was an amazing drive!

Rain Rain go away :-)

Oamaru Penguins

Oamaru is home to 2 types of penguins - the rare Yellow-eyed  and the smallest type of penguin-the blue penguin.  It had some beautiful old historic buildings and a steam train that lit up at night!

We could only view the yellow eyed penguins from a cliff top and it was just a case of waiting for them to come in at night, they were so cute waddling onto the beach!

The blue penguins come back from the sea much later on when its dark- for the pubs lol!  They literally come into the town as they make nests under buildings.  It is very random walking around seeing penguins in the shadows!!  They make a shrieking noise all night as we discovered one in a derelict garage next to us with baby penguins!  They are also so timid and scared of loud noises.

Moeraki Boulders

We stopped here on route to Oamaru to see these random boulders on the beach!!

Dunedin

We stayed at Dunedin for 2 nights in a hostel called Hogwartz!  Its a good city with some lovely older buildings!  It is also home to the worlds steepest street - Baldwin Street, which Mark couldn't resist a litlle drive up!

Milford Sound

We went  from Te Anau down the Milford Road to Milford sound, this is about an hour half journey but with all the photo points along the way could easily be 4 hours.  

You go through some amazing scenic mountains and lakes and through the Homer tunnel .  We went on an overnight boat trip down called the Milford Wanderer through Milford sounds which held about 60 people!  We had old fashioned 4 share bunks.

  We sailed up through Milford sound then anchored up where it meets the Tasman Sea and Kayaked form thr boat around the bay.  Later on we went ot calmer waters for the night.  Along the way we saw Dusky dolphins.  It was so dark and peaceful later and the air was really fresh!! After dinner and a good nights sleep

We woke up to a full breakfast and as if by magic the bottle nose dolphins peaking through the glassy water- amazing.  There was a little cloud lingering on the mountains giving it a magical feel. we sailed back past a 162metre waterfall back for a lovely drive to the east coast of Dunedin.

Te Anau

This is the magnificent view from our hostel cabin!! Its set on a Deer farm (but Mark says its worth the price lol).  Its called Barnyard Backpackers as recommended by Paul & Alex ;-)

Queenstown

We drive inland to Queenstown which we instantly love!

We are staying  in a really cool hostel here which is called 'The Butterfli'

The huge lake surrounded by mountains is incredible!

It has a real buzz about it and we sit and enjoy people watching on the shore of the lake!

This is us going up the Gondula in Queenstown - it was incredibly steep as we think you can tell!!  People do a bungy off here called 'the ledge'!

This is the sunset over the lake at Queenstown, pretty good :-)

Choo Choo steam boat !!

Franz josef

We follow the coast road down to Franz Joseph.

There is not much in the town and the main aim is to get too the glacier.

We booked on a Helicopter trip but after almost getting aboard the trip is cancelled due to the weather.

We are able to walk around the base of the glacier which is amazing but disappointing we can't get to the top.

This is the Franz Josef Glacier which we walked upto but not on to. The photo doesn't do it justice - you could in fact fit the Eiffel tower in it 3 times!!

After a couple of failed attempts we head off as the weather looks set to stay.

Punakaiki

After a couple of days at Abel Tasman we headed down the West Coast which is much more rugged with beautiful long beaches and surf waves!! We stopped at a place called Punakaiki in a great little hostel with sea views!!

There are some famous rocks called 'pancakes rocks' due to their stacked up formation and some blowing holes which were great too!

 We got to see our first sunset - superb.