The sand flies have taken their toll overnight and both Lyn and I have several ankle bites, itchy but not sore.

We drive out of Haast, named after Julius von Haas the great Dutch explorer and after whom besides the town, there is als the Gates of Haast, the Haast Pass, the Haast this and the Haast that - he was also a concert violinist and wrote the first geology text for the Westland in the 1860's.

Haast leads us to several massive glacier formed lakes, one of the best being Lake Wanaka, Wanaka town being at the head of the lake. One drives along the lake then on to the edge of Lake Hawea before we get to Wanaka for a coffee stop.

There are two routes into Queenstown and we take the Carbona route wher there is a historic hotel and supply store from the gold mining days - very interesting. The pass down to Arrowtown is hectic.

Arrowtown is a trendy tourist spot made up of old shops and hotels from a bygone era, very quaitn and we stop and have lunch and a beer as it's raining and the mountain biking in Queenstown looks like it will have to wait for tomorrow.

Then on to Queenstown, also trendy (well, as trendy as New Zealand can be) with a plethora of shops, cafe's, restaurants and bars and a miriad of information centres. We book into the Lakeview Motor Home Camp and go exploring, only to end up in an Irish Pub (surprise!) where they're having a quiz, quite funny with most people struggling to speak never mind partake in the quiz.

It's rained on and off today so hopefully the gondola and bike routes will be open tomorrow otherwise we will have to take the Shotover jet boat or a lake cruise.

Lyn: I made the mistake of ordering sushi for lunch in Arrowtown. [It was on the menu but the choice of chicken or salmon or tuna should have warned me!!] Anyway, on enquiring I was asked if I'd prefer vegetarian or tuna and once again I made a mistake by ordering tuna! And we waited.....and waited.....and waited! Eventually the food arrives and on inspecting the sushi even I can see they've disemboweled the veg sush and added canned tuna!! Yuck!! Note to self - don't order sushi in Kiwi-land!!