In more glorious weather we drove to Christchurch and stayed the night at Drifters backpackers. We had a mooch around town - it's just like being in Holland and Dan really loved it - and even put our faces on and went for a few beers in the evening. Lovely. We are now going back across the Alps for the third time (via Arthurs Pass) and back to Waitaha valley. The cows have finished milking now but Stu says he has lots of other stuff for us to do. ...

Left Qtown and had the best view ever of Mount Cook (from the other side) today at Lake Pukaki. This has to be one of the most amazing places on earth. Spending the night in Lake Tekapo tonight. x

We knew we'd arrived in the ski-ing heartland of NZ because everything was suddenly expensive and posh and new built and not like the NZ i'd come to know at all. Wanaka was really lovely and was obviously benefiting from a boom in the tourist industry. There's some stunning properties by the lakeside and lots of developing going on. We really liked it there although we didn't get up to much (too achey from the glacier hike). It does seem as though everything ...

We're in Wanaka now. Had a very long drive from Franz Josef but we stopped off at Lake matheson and were lucky enough to see the amazing mountain views in perfect weather. Thank you God! Not doing much except spending a few days recouping from the craziness of the last 10 days. x

Very reluctantly and not without a fight, we left the farm and drove down the coast to Franz Josef. We were very excited about climbing the glacier and Dan had even hoped to go up in a helicopter to see it and land on it from the air. After much deliberation and soul-searching (and bank balance searching) we decided that going up in a helicopter was the 'f*****'s way' and we'd muster up the courage to climb the b*stard from the bottom up! HOO-HAH! Hardcore! ...