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 climbed, the worse the weather got!We were literally in the middle of nowhere and getting short of fuel so we thought it best to head back to civilisation, although we did see what we believe to be the plains from the film, which looked pretty cool even covered in mist!

The next day we were on a mission to reach Mt Cook, as the weather forecast was looking promising!On the way we passed LakeTekapo, which was lovely and then LakePukaki which was STUNNING! It was brilliant turquoise in colour and looked magical surrounded by the snow capped mountains.

The sun was shining and the clouds were moving as we drove up to Mt Cook.Initially we could not see its peak, which was covered in cloud.The weather was still good though so we thought we would still do a walk but first we stopped at the Old Mountaineers Café for a Hot Choc!We are so glad we did as 5 minutes later all the cloud had gone leaving a brilliant blue sky and a wonderful view of Mt Cook's peak and all the surrounding mountains, it was magical!Andrew as you can imagine was over the moon!We walked along the Hooker Valley Track which took about three hours and took us right to the base of Mt Cook.There were also two glaciers that Andrew pointed out to me.All in all a brilliant day!

Today we were driving right down south heading for Dunedin.On the way we went over Lindis Pass (934m) which is also known as the Misty Mountains, and they lived up to their name!Although we did get some great views!We also drove through gold mining areas and Andrew had a go at gold panning in the stream when we stopped for lunch!He has got several rocks and stones now in the camper which he swears have gold in them, I am not so sure!!

Lots of Love

Sarah and Andrew xxx