The next morning, still buzzing from our epic day in Franz Joseph, we got back on the bus to go to Makarora. En route we stopped off at Lake Matheson, which we had seen from 12 thousand feet the day before. A short walk took us to Reflection Island, where, on a good day you should be able to see a perfect reflection of all the mountains and trees in the lake, a photo which can be seen on loads of postcards etc. Try as we might, we couldn't quite get the perfect shot, but it wasn't a bad effort! 

Once back on the bus we took a scenic drive past Fox Glacier, Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. It was a clear day so we had amazing views, but as everyone else was taking photos we couldn't help but feel slightly smug at how much better it was when you flew over it in a plane!

Our route then took us through 'the most remote part of New Zealand' over the Haast Pass. It was a beautiful drive, and we had a couple of stop offs along the way: one where Hoff 'taught us to be a Jedi' by staring at a waterfall so long that when you then looked at a tree it looked like it was moving; and then to another waterfall where a few of us kept ourselves amused by choosing a rock then trying to throw pebbles so they would land on the rock!! Small things hey!!

We arrived in Makarora about 5pm, so we actually had some free time for once! It is a tiny place (even smaller than Barrytown - did not think that was possible) so not much going on but nice to chill out for a bit!

That evening was karaoke, and despite both of us point blank refusing to sing, Jonny got dragged up on the mic with Emma, Jen and Fran with the promise of a 'prize'. Their song of choice was none other than..... ABBA (he just can't get away from it), to which they substituted 'honey honey' for 'Jonny Jonny', which of course Jonny loved especially the line 'you're a love machine'. Was absolutely hilarious to watch and the 'prize' was an offensive Man United wristband in red and luminous yellow!

Next day we got back on the bus for the final leg of our journey with Hoff (sniff sniff) through Wanaka to Queenstown. On the way we stopped at Lake Hawea and Puzzling World. This was a place full of optical illusions like water running uphill, faces following you around the room and a room where small people look big and big people look tiny! It was pretty cool and we then spent an hour getting lost/frustrated (some more than others) in the giant maze!

After another brief stop at an orchard where Hoff had shamelessly plugged the fresh fruit ice cream (coincidence that he then got a free one when we got there?!), we headed to the Kawarau Bridge which is the home of Bungy jumping. Some people chose to do one right there and then, which was great fun to watch, whilst others booked their jumps for later in the week. Despite me saying I was never going to do a bungy jump I suddenly found myself signing up to do the Nevis, which is the highest one in NZ. Again, if you're going to do something, do it properly!

Then it was back on the bus into Queenstown, and we were all very excited as we had heard great things!!