What a day! I am absolutely exhausted, but would definitely say that I made the most of 24 hours in Mount Cook! I got up at 7am, thankfully to totally clear, blue skies - perfect for a good walk in the mountains. I had a list of all of the possible tracks from the village, of which I'd already done red tarns last night. This morning, I decided to head towards Kea Point further up the valley, and turned off towards Sealy Tarns - supposedly a very steep climb, but ...

My luck with the weather finally ran out today. I could hear rain pouring down on the hostel roof all night and sure enough, it was still going when my alarm went off at 7am. I had booked a water taxi for 8.30am to take me across Lake Te Anau to join the most interesting part of the Kepler track - another one of New Zealand's 'Great Walks'. It is possible to get there along a lakeside track from the town, but it's a long and boring route and I only really wanted ...

Another 7.30 departure this morning, when will I ever catch up on sleep? Still, I was quite excited to get up this morning as today was the Milford Explorer trip! We met up with the big green bus in Te Anau and drove along State Highway 94, one of the most scenic drives in world, to see one of the great wonders of the world: The Milford Sound (technically a fjord, not a sound, as it was formed by glacial activity...) Milford is part of a huge national park and w...

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...