New Zealand definitely lives up to the hype. We've been in the South Island just over a week and its so beautiful, every bend in the road reveals a new picture-postcard view, its just breathtaking. We've driven past turqoise lakes, snow-tipped mountains reflected perfectly in the still water, lush ferny forests, stunning gorges filled with rushing green glacial waters.

We had the most amazing time a few days ago, at Franz Josef glacier we decided on the spur of the moment to do a Heli-hike, which meant we were whisked 800m up the glacier by helicopter, did a glacier walk, then caught the helicopter back down to the village.

It was fantastic, I just loved the helicopter flight, the pilot took as right up to the top of the glacier to its massive 35kmsq snowfield, then banked and swooped over all the ice flows below. He dropped us off into an artic wonderland, we climbed through tiny narrow crevasses and explored the amazing shapes and caves in the ice.

We were both on such a high afterwards, we just kept saying to each other all night, 'we went on a helicopter today' and grinning. It was expensive, but so worth it, we're saving up for another one!

We're in Queenstown at the moment where our heli-hike is pretty tame compared to the people who seem to be throwing themselves off every conceivable object on the end of a bungy cord or parachute. It is absolutely freezing here and the heater in our campervan, which has about as much power as a travel hairdryer, is struggling. We are sleeping in our thermals with three duvets on top, already looking forward to Fuji, where we'll be in 4 weeks time defrosting on the beach.