Where did we last leave off? Right, I was dangling by my ankles. So since then minor pain set in (only me as a result of jumping feet first, not head) which ran through the abdominal (guttal) area and left me in tears as I attempted to roll over in bed each night. Other than that, no complaints. But, if you ever realize how much use the guttal area gets when rolling over and combined with my thrashing ways, you'll know that was a big complaint.

So... Queenstown eh? It was absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately the second day was crap weather so Mark & I didn't get the chance to get the views from the top of the gondola, but it was still a wicked town! (Mike you were right - it's so cool! Now you HAVE to go! Where are you anyway?)

Before heading out of town we visited the Deer Park to feed the sheep, donkeys, pigs, ponies, goats, bison (we more ran from them), deer, llamas (they stuck their heads right in the car!) and fairy cows. It's a huge park (drove 10km through it) and offers brilliant views of the mountians and lake. It's also where a lot of the Lord of the Rings was shot. Anyone heard of that movie?

On to Wanaka (rhymes with Hannukah, drinkin tia juanica, smokin marijuanica... the song's stuck in your head now isn't it?) but not without visiting a few wineries (Sarah & Paul hadn't gotten to do this yet, it was their request Mom). Central Otago is a red grape area, particularly pinot noir (Malbourough, where Mark & I were is a sauv blanc area). I'm sold on the guewertz though. Pretty drive and all of a sudden we were in Wanaka. Only one night there so we didn't get to take advantage of all the great walks in the national park, but we did get to Puzzle World! The most frustrating place on earth! About 1.5 hours in the giant outdoor maze (1.5 km, 2 stories), another hour in the crazy uneven rooms and face hallway and then eternity sitting playing with the small tricky puzzles. Frustration won over and we headed for the Glacier.

That's right , I said glacier. On Thursday we climbed a glacier! A full day hike starting with 1.5 hours tramping through sub-terrain rain forest (only about 200 years old since the glacier has retreated) and then a good 3+ hours hiking around, checking out caves & crevaces of a glacier. Fun times for all! Eventually I will look at the brochure and tell you important things about why there's a glacier there. Not now.

(Happy Birthday Case! Hope this is a good enough reason for having not gotten a hold of you sooner. Glaciers don't have great access to the outside world! Hope it was a good one! Will keep trying you this week).

Yesterday was Hokitika, jade capital of NZ for some small time life and souvenir shopping, today was a full day drive (with random stops at the Pancake rocks & Buller Gorge) to arrive in Takaka. 3 nights here so we can do some hiking and maybe even kayaking (brrrrr...) and on to Wellington.  To give you a guage on how far we'vew travelled, Mark & I have done 3100km in the almost 3 weeks he's been here, about 1800 of that since we picked up Sarah & Paul last Tues night.