We arrived in Wanaka quite late in the evening as it was a long drive from Franz Joseph after stopping off at Lake Matheson where, on a clear day there is a perfect reflection of the mountains on the lake. Unfortunately, the only thing we lacked was a clear day!!

When we finally got to Wanaka there was just time for a quick snoop around the shops to get our bearings before heading back to the hostel to prepare dinner in possibly the dirtiest kitchen in the world!

Yesterday, we headed out a couple of kilometres up to Mount Iron to get a view of the whole town. After a half hour hike up some bloody steep sections, we reached the top and had fantastic views of Lake Wanaka, the town and the surrounding mountains, including all four of the ski parks in the area. Then it was back down into town to find somewhere that we could hire board and boots from to go snowboarding in Cardrona. There was definitely no lack of choice and after a while we were good to go. On the way back to the hostel we got to shake hands with one of the biggest hands around.

Today was spent snowboarding in Cardrona, one of the biggest parks around. We started off fine (well, as good as could be expected after just one afternoon's experience) and were getting used to the terrain and the runs. We also got to see some of the Slopestyle (that's freestyle riding to most of us) finals that were taking place while we were there. During the afternoon however, we were greeted by lots and lots and lots and lots of snow, so some of the runs had to be shut off and we could barely see 15 metres ahead of us. Still, at least it gave us an excuse if we did have an accident!!

By the time we got back, we were both knackered and all there was to do was cook, eat and sleep, as tomorrow we are heading to Queenstown, via a trip to Puzzle World in the morning.