We arrived at Fox Glacier (mints - ha ha!) Saturday morning and were very happy to see the sun shining! This area is notorious for the very high rainfall of about 5m per year! Although at the top of the glacier in the high Southern Alps they record rainfall (generally as snow!) at 12m per year! That is why the glaciers are here and running down into tropical rainforest areas, a crazy phenomenon! We saw the Fox Glacier from its viewpoint and walked to the term...

We got to Wanaka via a very interesting road with hairpin after hairpin, the Crown Range road, 2 days later it was essential that you carried snow chains, we timed it well!! Wanaka was again beautiful, quieter than Queenstown and reminded us of the Lake District. We checked the i-site and found a walk to do the next day so we spent the afternoon at Puzzling World, it was excellent, great fun. The illusion rooms were good, from having 100 faces that follow you ar...

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 ...