Up 6:15 to brilliant sunshine, made sandwiches, ate breakfast and loaded our backpacks to trek to Quintin Lodge. Passing a lake called The Mirror, then higher up Lake Mintaro and then on up the Mackinnons Pass, at his Memorial you get stunning views both side of the pass and we were blessed with cloudless clear blue skies (Kea are a cheeky green bird like a parrot as one entertained us the other tried to pinch GA's bobble hat) and up to the peak to Pass Hutt for ...

After traveling to Te Anau from Queenstown we had lunch, then boarded the launch to the jetty at the start of our trek. After afternoon tea (very English) we had a nature walk to explain the surrounding countryside, a walk of about 1 mile, for dinner I had Venison and Ga had Salmon (roughing it or what). 29th up early to make our sandwiches for lunch and it was chucking it down, after a couple of miles we enter the wetlands ha ha with ancient Beech Forests (it's ...

2:00 Tuesday morning we had a stunning view of the Southern Hemisphere sky unbelievably clear, saw four shooting stars and brilliant scenes through their telescopes on Johns Mount. Later that day made our way to Oamaru (Penguin Town) lovely Victorian buildings anyway we stood waiting for these cute little fairy Penguins to come ashore at sunset, in the distance we spotted about 10-15 scrabble up the rocks towards their burrows. Disappointed with the numbers and t...

Oh well it rained from Saturday tea time to the same time Sunday, when it stopped we managed a short walk and it fell as snow on the mountains so with clear sky's we've had great views. Had a lovely 9.5 mile walk along side the lake, we're in training for our Milford Sound trek 28th January, tough night tonight as we have star gazing 02:00 Tuesday morning. John & Gail

Dull day, so we walked up Mount John to the observatory and cafe and after a coffee had a tour of the oldest of the five observatories with a very enthusiastic young lady. Then we walked down the other side to the shore of the lake, it was cloudy, spitting with rain and chilly, but there was a open air wedding taking place on a ridge above the lake and the bride and bridesmaids looked a bit on the cold side, the photographer had a problem getting them to smile. O...