Driving from Wanaka to Queenstown we took the shorter mountain pass via Corona. This was yet another scenic drive with spectacular lake views as we came down the Queenstown side. After a suggestion from Sophie we stopped in Arrowtown for a pie for lunch. Excellent recommendation. So good in fact we had to have a 2nd one! After touring some of the quaint shops we headed onwards to Queenstown. We headed straight through Queenstown to take in he road to Glenorchy. ...

We started our time in Wanaka at Puzzling World. What started as a single maze is now a large tourist attraction with the maze and a multitude of illusion rooms. It also include a cafe complete with multiple puzzles to play with! The maze itself took consists of 4 corner towers which you need to find before finding your way back out. We set off together and after around 10 minute both reached a different corner tower at the same time. I then proceeded to get to a...

We set off in the morning to walk to the terminal face of the Franz Josef glacier. The first stop was at Sentinal rocks an old terminal moraine mound that gave pretty good views of the glacier. We then continued on along the river bed to within a couple of hundred metres of the terminal face. It was surprisingly warm this close to a huge block of ice! We then took the short drive to the Fox Glacier and walked the chalet lookout walk. This walk through forest ...

Once we had thawed out in the morning we headed back down the mountains and on towards Nelson Lakes. We stopped at Lake Rotoroa and did a short walk along the lake side before heading back to the car to warm up! We then headed into the Buller Gorge and took a walk over NZ's longest swing bridge to a 1929 earthquake fault-line and various gold-mine exhibits. After passing through Westport via a hostel shower we found a very pretty beachside site to park up for th...

From Blenheim we headed towards Abel Tasman National Park which is in the North West corner of the South Island. We stayed (parked the van!) in the "wee town" of Kaiteriteri one of the most popular resort beaches in the area - not convinced we were here at the right time of year though! The following day we caught a water taxi to Tonga, not the country just one of the many beaches on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. On the way we saw Apple rock - a mass...