What a long day! We left Dunedin at 7.30 this morning, aiming for Invercargill - a mere 170km away. What time did we arrive? 8.15pm! Crazy! There weren't any traffic jams or anything, apparently it was all part of the plan because there's a lot to see in the Catlins between the two cities. People were so fed up with all the stops that towards the end of the day, half of them didn't even bother getting off the bus anymore. I was just glad of the opportunity to s...

I can't believe it's February already. Time flies when you're having fun! I've now started the "Bottom Bus" sector of my South Island tour, so I'm now on a much smaller bus with only 10 others. It makes a nice change from being on a packed coach! Our driver, Don, seems like a really nice guy. Unlike the young Kiwi Experience drivers, he must be about 70 years old and is very knowledgable about everything New Zealand. Much to my delight, the first stop of the day...

At the end of yet another hot and sunny day, I can't quite believe my luck with this weather! Fingers crossed it doesn't change any time soon... I got up at 7.30 this morning so I could get out and up into the mountains before it became too hot. I climbed Ben Lomond, which is 1748m above sea level, starting out from Lake Wakatipu at 310m. There is a cable car up the first 400m or so, which takes you to the Skyline restaurant (but using that would have been cheat...

I left the lakes and mountains of Wanaka behind this morning to travel to more lakes and mountains in Queenstown... Well I am in the Southern Lakes region after all! I could happily have stayed another week in Wanaka, it has been my favourite place so far I think. We stopped at Puzzling World on leaving Wanaka, where I managed to wake up a few brains cells and blow away one or two cobwebs... Sort of. We then stopped off at Mrs Jones' fruit store just outside Que...

What a brilliant decision to stay in Wanaka another day! I went for tea with my friends before they left to catch the bus, then did some research on a good way to spend the day wearing myself out. Tim and the people I spoke to in the information centre had recommended that I do the popular Rob Roy Track - a 10km track with views of glaciers and waterfalls. The only problem was that its out of town and apparently costs 70 dollars each way for the shuttle! What a r...