Today saw us take a boat trip on the Steam Ship Earnslaw. The vessel is over 100 years old and well preserved. Originally the lake's only means of transport but is now used to carry tourists to the high country Walter Peak Farm, owned by a Scottish family until the 1960s. The farm is now a commercially run enterprise, drawing in the tourists all year. Although geared towards the kids we still had a brilliant time and found it interesting. We fed the sheep, cows ...

The journey to Queenstown from Franz Josef was pretty hair-raising (good job Ray doesn't have any)! As we travelled higher into the Haast Pass, the torrential rain turned to heavy snowfall. Most vehicles were stopping to put snowchains on but as we were all-wheel drive we presumed we would be ok and we didn't have chains anyway. The snow ploughs were out and were working well to keep the road reasonably clear -as it's the only road in and out to the west coast su...