See all the pictures whilst we were in New Zealand.

We arrived in Auckland towards the end of a storm. Parts of the country had been badly flooded. The weather sorted itself out for our few days here, we enjoyed exploring the city and searching the suburbs in search of cinemas which involed long & hilly walks. We watched Cold Mountain on the big screen and agreed with the best supporting actress Oscar going to Renee Zwelleger.

Auckland does not really seem a part of the rest of NZ, it is a city with the hustle and bustle that goes with city living. The rest of the country is very laid back and the people enjoy their way of life. The car you drive is not of importance, the house you do or don't own does not matter. Having a good lifestyle and being happy is what matters most to the New Zealanders we have come in contact with.

Ben spent a week over at Tauranga with Pam. The first few days had bad weather. Some of the biggest waves in 20 years were seen over at Mount Maunganui, which made Ben book a surf lesson for the following week.

A trip to Rotorua was had, the rain kept the sulfur smell to a minimum but also saw the destruction of many umbrellas. Mud in the ground boils angrily in the parks.

"A place where your heart remains and your soul learns to fly."

Much of our time in NZ was spent on the farm which is owned by Mike and Ellen. They live here with their children, Anabelle, Ben, Hickey and Audrey. Evelyn had previously stayed here in 2001 and fell in love with the place.

We WOOFed (willing workers on organic farms) which allowed us to work for food and or rent. This was great experience as we got all kinds of jobs to do. Our day begins at 8am (not too early!), we drive over to the cowshed in the 'white banger' with Zac the Jack Russell, fill up milk containers for the backpackers then cleaned down the cowshed with the assistance of high powered hoses, fed the hungry pigs and then make our way back to the farm for breakfast. Most mornings we sat out on the verandha, watching the horses being collected in from the rolling green hills for their feed. Then we help out with any other jobs needing to be done; gardening, painting and decorating, silage making, fence repairing, washing machine repair, driving tractors, milking cows etc, on the farm the list of the jobs is endless. After we have finished our jobs we then enjoy the rest of the day. Kayaking, quad biking, horse riding, surfing or just plain relaxing sat in the hammock reading a book....these things done as time permitted!

Ellen is fantastic with horses and posseses the natural horsewoman skills which she is very good at teaching. Evelyn took one of the lessons and learnt how to communicate and relate to horses in a natural way. Junko, who helps Ellen look after the horses and does the horse treks took us on a few adventurous and challenging rides through beautiful countryside. Galloping up hills and through streams was great fun. Evelyn fell off Serg (a very big racing horse) and fell into a thorn bush cantering up a hill, thought she had broken her hip but jumped back on and continued the ride!

We met a lot of very nice people on the farm. A group of Canadians (Jaime, Tyler and Ben), two of which were eloping, took on the project of building a sweathouse, with the help of a half kiwi half english builder called Stu. They made a lot of friends on the farm and invited us to their wedding. Evelyn had the privilege of helping Jaime choose her wedding dress and ensure the bride was ready for her big day! It was a fantastic weddding in Pahia on a stunning beach. The dinner and party in the evening rocked! So did our heads the next morning...

We flew down to Queenstown and met up with Mike and Carol (Ben's parents). It was a wonderful feeling in the build up to Mike and Carol arriving in NZ as it had all seemed such a long way off when they booked their flights, but the wait was worth it! We stayed in a lovely apartment (very luxurious!) with views of the mountains in all directions and a nice balcony to sit out on and enjoy the views. We caught up sat out on the balcony, the sun shining, with a couple of bottles of bubbly in true style. Mike, Carol and Ben had promised to do a bungee jump together and what better place than the bridge where it all started, the Kawaru. Evelyn decided to look after all the photographic challenges of the event.....basically she was too chicken to do the jump!

There were more adrenalin rushes to be had on the Shotover Jet ride, a highspeed boat ride through a canyon almost hitting the rocks. The views mixed in with the scary driving of the boat made this a very memorable experience.

A more relaxing trip was down to the Milford Sound, a 4 hour drive away from Queenstown. The views of the mountain and lakes throughout the journey were wonderful. We boarded the Milford Wanderer for an overnight cruise, kayaked with seals playing around us, had a lovely dinner and a few bottles of wine followed by card games. In the morning we woke up and saw a huge pod of dolphins swimming and playing around our boat. On our way back to Queenstown we stopped off and walked the first 3 hours of the famous Routeburn track, we were really lucky with the weather as in this part of the world it usually rains and the weather is highly unpredictable but we had sunshine and blue skies.

We hired a car for 4 days to explore and drove to the nearby towns of Glenorchy and Arrowtown. The colours of autumn and the sun shining really made these two places seem magical.

Saying goodbye at the end of such a fantastic week was very sad but makes the thought of meeting up the next time all the more exciting.