New Zealand thus far...

So I've been having fun here in NZ so far.

As I said we were planning to, went to the steepest street in the world. It was indeed steep. Even ran up the last bit though - get me! Had a delicious kiwi icecream too - hokey pokey (vanilla with lumps of stuff like the inside of a dime) and gold rush (honeycomb flavour with honeycomb pieces) mmmmm.

We then went to try and look for albatrosses and penguins but failed to find any, did see some fur seals though which were very cute (although apparently not nice at all and regularly attack tourists). I kept thinking I saw albatrosses but apparently they were just big sea gulls. Have seen lots of hawks and eagle-like things though which I think are cool. Also there are lots of farmed deer which Lan laughs at me for getting over-excited about every time.

Also took a photo of the train station which is apparently the second most photographed building in the southern hemisphere. Prize for first guesser of most photographed. It's very obvious.

Then we went to the gardens of Larnach castle which were pretty cool. Did a native plants tour which involved me getting lost several times. Also got crazy hayfever and was sneezing the whole way round (not as badly as notorious hayfever with you e-war) but was interesting nonethless.

The next day was Cadbury world day. Yay! It was very interesting (did you know that England got chocolate 100 years after Spain because when we raided their ships we thought cocoa beans were sheep poo and throwed it over-board!) and got lots of yummy chocolate that we don't have in UK - my favourite was called Pinky - how apt!

Afterwards I walked to the Botanic gardens which were pretty. Was desperate for the loo and the toilets there were closed so I went in a public one that was very crazy and modern - it even talked to you! But then because I had headed to the toilet I managed to get very lost of my way to meet Lan at the police station and ended up back at the Steepest Street again (way back at the other end of town, oops).

The next day we finally emerged from Dunedin and Alana's house and headed down to Invercargill. We went via the Catlins national park and saw a waterfall (playing pooh sticks on the way - Lan had never played before - what a deprived child!) and Nugget Point lighthouse. Also had some more delicious bargain avacadoes, num num. We then got to Invercargill and lovely Alana's mum cooked us dinner.

That brings us to today (I think - I'm very confused on days at the mo). We went to Bluff which is the Southernmost point of NZ. Took a cheesy tourist shot under the sign that says how far to lots of different points. Over 18000 km to lovely London. Then we went to a beach that you can drive on just because you can drive on it, I paddled away while Lan sat in the car and looked at me like I was an idgit. After that we rolled to the Invercargill museum and looked at some lizardy thing that is a distant relative of the dinosaur and some maori stuff.

Then the highlight of the trip so far... MILKING A COW! Went to Alana's Aunt's farm and did some milking both by hand AND with a milking machine. I think I was pretty good, but apparently I wasn't. I was surprised by how modern and technical it was. Good times.

Aside from Alana: "Attempted to milk a cow but it didn't really work. Thought she was going to get kicked by the cow - which doesn't happen - and got paranoid as soon as the cow started to move. While posing for a photo she decided to squeeze the teet and wondered why the cow would move. As you can understand, I was in fits of laughter. When it came to using the milking machine she was ALRIGHT at doing it once she figured out which way it goes."

Now back at Alana's mum's watching the tennis. Off to glow worm caves tomorrow, then some more naturey stuff and then some watching crazy bungeers in Queenstown. Hopefully actually camping tomorrow - hardcore! It's boiling at the mo, lovely lovely. Not sure when I'll next be online, at latest at the weekend when we get to Lan's friend's house. Over and out for now. xxx