Marc & Lizzie's Great Adventure: Warning: This blog contains adventure sports!

But first, we left the the traditional home of extreme sports, Queenstown, and headed around beautiful Lake Wanaka an past Lake Mapourika. Unfortunately we had to admire the view from the comfort of the van since we were behind schedule due to the snow.

Moody Lake Wanaka

Early morning - Lake Mapourika

Our next stop was Franz Josef Glacier, a very unusual place where the glacial ice has flowed down almost to sea level making it one of the most easily accessable glaciers in the world, which suited us just fine. (It's unusual, except that there's a similar one a few miles up the road- Fox Glacier) We joined a guided walk, as that's the only way you're allowed onto the ice. We were given a pair of crampons each (a metal plate which ties onto the sole of your boot, with large spikes sticking out) to help us stay upright on the white stuff. We walked for 30 minutes over a dry rocky valley that was full of ice 10s of metres thick just 10 years ago - the glacier grows and shrinks regularly. Once we got to the edge of the ice we got cramponed up and walked gingerly onto the ice. The crampons weren't as cumbersome or as lethal as they looked. We visited ice caves, crevaces, waterfalls and flights of steps the guides had made with pickaxes. It was such a surreal landscape, with amazing shades of blue ice just below the surface. It was a fantastic experience.

Franz Josef Glacier - It's MUCH bigger than it looks in this picture

Intrepid ice explorrer

In one of the ice caves - The ice is blue because the ice is highlycompacted

Following the glacial trip we were ready for some serious R&R. Luckily our glacier hike included a pass to the hot springs across the road from the campsite, and for just a few extra dollars we were able to upgrade to a private pool. It was great, sitting under the stars with the steam billowing skyward from our little pool, maybe a bit too relaxing, as we were comatose afterwards. If the hot tub had not drained out automatically once our time was up we might still be in there now!

After Franz Josef, we headed over a mountain pass in the middle of the island. The camper proved surprisingly wieldly over the snaking mountaineous roads, and Liz proved to be a surprisingly good passenger! On route we had a sugar craving and headed for what we thought was a shop, it turned out to be a youth hostel but a super-kind youth leader gave us a very large bar of yummy chocolate - oh the Kiwi's are a smashing bunch :). Just one example of the kindest, friendliest people anywhere. Our destination was Hanmer Springs, a town dripping in adventure sports. Neither of us quite commited to a bungy jump, but we chose an alternative each; jet-boating and horse riding. You should have no trouble guessing who picked which one!

The jet-boating was great fun, in a 55mph boat with two big V8s that can turn in it's own length like a jetski. The driver took us through a narrow, twisty, steep sided gorge, which made for a great place to show off what the boat could do. Liz thought she might be a bit scared, but spent the whole time with a huge grin on her face!

The horse-riding was rather more sedate. You might not think of it as an extreme sport at all, but for Marc, it was more scary than anything else we've done. And it wasn't helped by the fact there was snow on the ground and the horses kept slipping on the loose ground (Liz says horses often 'trip' whilst walking :/ The scenery was spectacular, nonetheless, Marc was very glad to get off at the end! Liz said I did very well for his first time EVER on the 'devil's creatures' as I like to call them!

Jet Boater Keates

The beautiful scenery that blurred past our jet boat

Marc on one of the devil's creatures

We celebrated with a night out - a very late one which ended with us being taught the Haka by a part-Maori Kiwi and his friends in a car park.

We left next day with sore heads, heading for Kaikoura. This town is in a beautiful setting, on the coast where the mountains meet the sea. We saw seals basking on the rocks and even sunbathing on a boardwalk in a car-park.

It's a hard life being a seal

A beautiful stretch of Kaikoura coastline

But our reason for visiting was to swim with dolphins. We were nervous of doing it as it's the middle of winter in NZ so the sea was 10 degrees! We togged up in thick winter wetsuits, balaclavas and boots as well as snorkel masks, we looked more like cat burglers than snorklers!! After our disappointing experience of kayaking with dolphins in Oz, we hoped we would at least see one this time. So imagine how we felt when after just a few minutes at sea, our boat was surrounded by literally hundreds of Dusky dolphins! What a sight for hungover eyes lol. Duskies are smaller and even cuter than their bottle-nosed cousins. With some trepidation we flung ourselves off the back of a catamaran into the freezing cold water. It was an amazing experience to see the dolphins swimming below and aound us. They came really close, even brushing against our wet-suits and jumping clear out of the water right near us, blatant show offs ;). We followed them round for an hour or so, getting in and out of the water until the cold got the better of us. Thankfully we were greeted by a hose pipe with hot water to warm our wetsuits and mug of hot tea to warm our stomachs. It was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience. Can't wait to do it again!