Hi everybody! It's Claire here - I've been tasked with our first blog update. Firstly apologies in the delay with getting up and running. I had a minor incident involving the mac and a glass of water 2 days before we left Sydney which sort of scuppered our plans. Fortunately Andy had agreed not to divorce me and it looks as though the insurance company will cough up so all good really!

We have had the most amazing 10 days here in NZ - if we continue at this pace we will be home very early with all financial and emotional reserves fully expended!

First issue was trying to get through NZ customs. For some reason I was feeling a little apprehensive under the scrutiny of the customs officers... when asked regarding my visa status I blurted out that I was carrying Earl Grey tea bags - much to the amusement of the team! That and Andy's dirty hiking boots looked as though they might be deal breakers on day one!

We kicked off with a weekend in Queenstown visiting Tona - it's an awesome place; really beautiful with heaps to do! Tona was the perfect hostess - providing is with plenty of entertainment and yummy food (thanks sweetie!). Highlights included the shotover jet (an absolute must for anybody heading this way), a lovely vineyard and an almost vertical 2 hour walk straight up a mountain! Almost forgot we also squeezed in bungies (sadly spectating only...maybe participating is yet to come?) and the legendary queenstown ferburgers (twice!). We loved seeing you T and will miss you xx

We then headed off on the routeburn..a 38km trek through glacial valleys heading towards Milford Sound. There are plenty of photos attached but in brief we were stupidly lucky with the weather, the scenery is just stunning and we had a fab time! Hardest part was persuading Jonny he needed to survive on freeze dried pasta for three days...but Andy elected to carry a full pack and managed to stow 3 litres of red wine to soften the blow. Definitely one of the best trips I've ever done. We were collected from the end of the hike and spent the day in a boat on Milford Sound - difficult to convey the scale of the fjord...incredibly beautiful! Jon (Attenborough) Adams particularly enjoyed the seal colony!? He can't wait for the penguins!!

Next stop was Mount Cook - Australasia'a highest mountain. We arrived under thick cloud cover and it remained that way for approximately 36 hours. We did manage another almost vertical hike (this seems to be becoming a bit of a theme!) with views slightly impaired by inclement weather! The next morning we woke at 6am to find beautifully clear skies and the only sensible option was to fork out on a chopper ride! Needless to say it was absolutely awesome - we flew over Mount Cook and the Tasman glacier and landed at the top. Just spectacular!

From Mount Cook we headed back south taking in a short but lovely stop at Lake Wanaka with time for some energetic mountain biking round the lake...before heading north again, this time to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. We spent yesterday on a full day ice hike fully kitted out with all the gear including our own crampons. The morning was a fairly leisurely climb but things turned fairly savage after lunch... in brief we spent almost two hours at the bottom of a 10m vertical crevasse while a rather large boy in front managed to get wedged and had to be hoisted out! In true style I managed to get my crampons stuck together and fell sideways into the floor of the crevasse..not a classy manoeuvre in retrospect. The boys were very excited to finally be using their survival skills and we did all feel we had a fairly 'on the edge' trip! After a day feeling wet and cold we treated ourselves to a luxury campsite (with hot showers and electric hook up!)...and managed Jonny's gourmet stew and a few beers in the back of the van in celebration!

That's pretty much it folks! You can see we've adapted well to the constraints of travelling!? Hope all's well and not too snowy back in blightie! Will be in touch soon LOL from three docs and a contador!