Hello everyong,
Shane and I have spent the last 3-4 days exploring Christchurch and area. We went to the Christchurch International Antarctic Center and got to see penguins. However, we passed on experiencing -18 degrees snowstorm in their cold area. People kept asking us if we wanted to go and experience the cold... we openly laughed at them.
After that we headed up to Hamner springs and then to Kaikoura where we wanted to go swimming with the dolphins, but were foiled by gale force winds. Now we're back in Christchurch and are booking a flight back to Auckland where we'll buy a cheap car and drive to Whakatane where I have recently gotten a job.
Thats the update... Shane has been actively looking for some work, so hopefully something will come up soon.
See you all later,
Ally

Hi Guys,

Well we spent yesterday back in the mountains. We took a hike through Mt. Cook national park, it took us 3 hours. It was absolutely beautiful... there was a glacier lake at the end of it with little icebergs in it. Here are some pics I managed to get on CD. See you all later,

Shane and Ally

Fun facts

Here are some fun differences we noticed along the way:
-Gas here is 1.53/L. but we've payed up to 1.75/L in remote areas
- The lowest grade gas you can buy is 91 octane
-You can buy a bag of horse manure by the road for $1.00 every 10 km or so
- Free range eggs does not mean "Free" range eggs
- eggs are not sold in coolers in the super market
-weather is anywhere from 13C to 25C
- Shane has taken up the local "Movember" and is growing a mustache in November for mens health.
- When you buy a something for 15.00 it's 15.00 and there's no pennies or nickels
- Minimum wage here is $12.50/hr.
-nurses make double time for night shifts
That's about all we can come up with now, talk to you later,
Shane and Ally

Hello again.
Well, we're now in Dunedin working our way back up the east coast of the south island. Queenstown was a great time, and only Shane had nerve enough to bungy as I chickened out... but I did get an awesome video of it on our camera. From Queenstown we checked out Milford Sound on a day tour which was amazing, and went river sledging down a river inhabited with eels. We also did our first Lord of the Rings tour where we went horse back riding past Isengard and the forest of Lethorian (where the wood elves live-Kate Blanchett), and where Borameer was killed. Yes we're big nerds.
Tomorrow we're going to see some penguins in the wild and check out the Cadbury Factory. Oh yah, and we went on a Speight's Beer factory tour today and got six free beer at the end. It was a good day. Hope you're all doing well and we'll post pictures when we can.

Ally and Shane

Wellington, Nelson, Wanaka

Hey guys,
Well from the sounds of it winter has arrived in Canada. I have sadly also heard that both the riders and the bombers are out of the playoffs.

I'll quickly update you on our whereabouts. From Napier we went through Hawkes Bay region to Wellington (not overly impressed with Wellington, but still a nice city). Then we crossed the Cookes Straight on a beautiful day to Nelson. We both loved Nelson (sunniest place in New Zealand) with the Abel Tasman National Park right there. We went on a 3-4 hour walk (which is lame New Zealand standards) but it just about killed us. Then went kayaking the next day and got to see a seal devour an octopus right beside us. It was very cool.

Then we moved on to Franz Josef and saw the glaciers and are currently in Wanaka. Its a small town in the mountains (our favourite so far!). We went to the coolest puzzle place ever and got lost in a 2 km maze. Tomorrow we're river sledging (boogyboarding down some rapids) then on to Queenstown to test the nerves.
Hope everyone is well,

Ally and Shane

Hello all,

So white water rafting was awesome. We were on class 5 rapids and went over a 7 meter waterfall. They said it was a complete crap-shoot as to whether or not the boat would flip. We all chanted "What have got? No Chance!" before going over the falls.

We did not flip but 3/4 of our boat went underwater and we got caught up right under the waterfall. We only lost one person in the process and it wasn't Shane or I. We believe that it was our fat asses in the back that kept the boat from flipping. The guide was shocked that we didn't flip.

Anyways, we are currently in Napier (the art-deco capital of NZ). The town was flattened by an earthquake in the 1931 and was completely rebuilt in art deco form. Today we're going wine testing and then on to Wellington.

On a side note I was offered a job in Whakatane hospital, which is funny because that's the exact town my sister lived in when she was here. A big shout out to Michelle, Happy 30th Birthday! hahahahaha... I mean 29.

See you all later,

Ally and Shane