On Tuesday we headed for Queenstown. We had a quick stop 1st at Puzzling world where we did the maze and illusion room before hiting the road. Before getting into Queenstown we stopped to watch people do bungy jumps. We spent the afternoon by the lake with a bottle of wine and then that evening we all went out together for pizza and teapot cocktails! On Wednesday I had a nice lie in and then spent the day sunbathing by the lake again. Today I went to the Milfor...

Today we travelled away from the coast to the other side of the southern alps and back into the sunshine. We made several stops for walks and photos of lakes and waterfalls before reaching Wanaka in Mount Aspiring National park. We took the opportunity for a bit of rest in Wanaka. A few of us cooked a nice nutritious chilli before having a relaxed evening and early night.

Yesterday we continued down the west coast towards Franz Josef. On the way we stopped at the Bushman's centre where we learnt about how people make a living on the coast through deer. We arrived in Franz Josef, a glacier village at about lunch time. In the afternoon I went kayaking on lake Mapourika which was fantastic. The lake is surrounded by both mountains and rainforest, a very strange and unique combination. The scenery was stunning and it was generally a v...

Today we headed down the west coast of the south island to lake Mahinapua. We made several stops along the way for walks. First we stopped at Cape Foulwind to see a seal colony and later on we visited the Punakaiki pancake rocks (stratified limestone stacks) and blow holes. We also stopped in Greymouth where we went to buy costumes for the fancy dress Christmas party that night. That evening we had a massive steak dinner followed by our fancy dress party.

Yesterday we left Nelson and headed for Nelson Lakes National Park where we had lunch and a swim in the glacier lake surrounded by beech forests and mountains. Here is discovered that ducks can be as bad as seagulls whenI had my whole sandwich stolen from my hand and devoured in about 2 seconds by a hoard of ducks!! We stopped in a place called Murchison for some famous New Zealand hokey pokey ice cream before driving down the Buller Gorge, an incredibly beautifu...