We arrived in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, Tuesday afternoon after a very scenic lunch by the Lake Wakatipu with the snow capped mountains surrounding us and the sun was shining - horray!! Queenstown, as everyone had told us, was beautiful, set right on the Lake with snow capped mountains called The Remarkables all around! It reminded us of a alpine village with all the chalets, it is definately set up for the tourists, every building is a ho...

We arrived in Te Anau on Sunday afternoon to bad news - the road to Milford Sound was closed due to the high avalanche risk! Not good news as Milford Sound was one of the places we particuarly wanted to go to. Te Anau was a lovely little town on Lake Te Anau, the second largest lake in NZ after Lake Taupo, with snow-capped mountains everywhere you looked. We spent a few hours there and then after talking to the DOC (Department of Conservation) we decided to dri...

We headed even further south from Dunedin towards the Catlins, an area of unspoilt isolated forests with great opportunities to see wildlife.We reached a place called Nugget Point, so called as the rocks just off the land bear a very slight resemblance to gold nuggets! We got drenched walking to the lighthouse and back, the views were worth it though. The next bay along the coastline is called Roaring Bay, we arrived just before dusk to try to get a glimpse of ...

Dunedin is a lovely city, the second largest in the South Island. It is quite studenty so there are lots of pubs, clubs, etc - ideal! It is also known as the Edinburgh of the South because Dunedin actually means Edinburgh in gaelic. We wish we had more time to spend here but unfortunately it was just a flying visit! We did manage to go for a swim, mainly because we were desperate for a shower!! However Andrew did manage to swim 100m, the furthest he has ever...

We decided to do the East Coast or the South Island first, based on Ron and Shona's advice and so headed on our way down south.The scenery we were driving though was so stunning, lots of snow capped mountains everywhere you look! We passed Mt Somers and went up a random gravel track in search of Erehwon (nowhere spelt backwards!!) from the Lord of the Rings film.We found LakeClearwater but unfortunately the further we went up this gravel road, the higher we clim...