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.

43 metres. Rock on either side. Water below. One girl. One rope. One way down. I did it. I BUNGIED!!!!   Crazy Mark Ramsay bought me a birthday gift to remember... a chance to plummet to my death, the highlight being survival in which case I get to dangle above the rocky gorge by my ankles. It's okay - he did it first! It was SO fun!! Even though I missed that whole go head first, not feet first so that your body doesn't get snapped as bad instruction ... 1 instruction they gave me and I did it wrong. All is good.   Mom please note: Mark was the bad influence on ME! NOT the other way. Absolutely not!! It was ALL him!   So what else have we done since we last saw our penguin friends... We meandered the Oamaru side street (yes, just street) to find beautiful old buildings all made from Oamaru limestone. All about 100 yrs old and white in colour. On the way to Dunedin we stopped at the Moreaki Boulders, round boulders that are formed in the ground around sediment and are gradually exposed by erosion and roll down to sea. The waves wash away the calcite until eventually the boulders cave in and over time are carried out to sea in bits. They vary in size but average about 1m in diameter. Dunedin... a trip to Pine Hill to catch the view from under the satellite tower of the stunning city and penninsula (deja vu... I was there a few weeks ago too).  In the city for lunch at a funky not-for-profit cafe (The Arc) and a wander about. That night Mark & I caught "Touching the Void" a wicked docu-drama about two mountain climbers at the film festival. Saturday was action packed... Museum in the morning, Cadbury World (I have eaten 7lbs of choclate in the last 3 days, honest) early afternoon, topped off with a tour of the Speights brewery (the "pride of the south" beer). Chocolate and beer. Does life get more perfect? We met up with some friends of mine that night for a few on the town. Dunedin is a huge university town, making us realize we ain't no uni students anymore. We's old. So, yesterday we climbed Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world (Sarah did it in heels) before leaving town to arrive in Queenstown. Actually first we had the biggest Becky Moment of my life. At the bottom I was playing photographer swinging 4 cameras around on my wrist while they all showed me luvin under the street sign. I wisely put my keys in my camera case and set it down beside me so as not to drop them. When I got up (clumsily as I was holding 4 cameras) I accidentally kicked the case and knocked the keys out. Would have been fine if I had noticed before that moment that I had set my things on top of the grate for the drainage. Down they went. We were lucky in that it wasn't deep nor draining quickly, but the procedure did require 2 coat hangers (nice people living on Baldwin St), a magnet and half an hour. Good samaritan who drove by with a magnet in her drunk saved the day. The guy who was washing his car up the hill and sending massive quantities of soapy water down didn't help. Thankfully no one killed me or lost their cool and Paul got introduced to a day in the life of me... Now I am really contemplating getting that spare key made. So we got here... a few photo stops along the way (magnificent scenery, we are in the middle of the southern alps now) and we are quickly going poor in Queenstown, the tourist capital of NZ. Even groceries are unbelievably expensive. All is good, tomorrow we move on. It's a great town though - population 8500 with approximately 3500 tourists coming through on any given day!!!!! unreal. So it's a lively town with wicked atmosphere, but you have to be travelling on the British pound in order to spend anytime here! We wandered today until Mark & I went jumping (so cool! I was so ready to chicken out!!) and just had a fantastic dinner. Now Sarah & I have a date with the hot tub (spa) and a bottle of champagne. It's for medicinal purposes, really.