Bloody great glaciers

Aaaargh, I just wrote this whole post and then internet explorer died. How dare it! So this'll be brief I'm afraid.

I've been in New Zealand for a week now, Wellington was surprisingly small and quiet for a capital city but the museum was good, particularly the colossal squid. I knew they'd found one and had been examining it but I didn't realise it was on public display, so that was a nice surprise. Admittedly it wasn't as colossal as you'd expect, but it was pretty cool. I'm now on the south island and moving around pretty quickly. I'll be spending two nights in Queenstown but otherwise it's just one night in each town. I do wish I'd spent two nights in Nelson though, that seemed like a lovely little town.

This afternoon I decided to go nuts and actually spend some money on an activity.

I've been really good so far, just eating homemade sandwiches and pasta. Darn bank balance! So anyway, this afternoon I took a helicopter ride over the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. Which was A-MA-ZING. Absolutely breathtaking views. As you can see.... So that was my splurge for the west coast. Other than that I shall just be doing the whale watching at Kaikoura and seeing penguins at Oamaru. I have been tempted to do a skydive but it's just too much money for something that lasts no more than a couple of minutes. I would have wanted to do the Franz Josef one anyway, which is fully booked for the next 3 days.

I'm enjoying New Zealand 100x more than Australia; the scenery is fantastic, the type of backpacker is far less irritating and I'm not having to spend nearly as much money to stay entertained. I saw a seal colony yesterday, I've seen quite a few birds and all the backpacker hostels are lovely and cosy after spending the day either on the bus or in the cold. Anyway, thats me for now, I want to publish this thing before explorer implodes again. Ciao!