Sorry haven't updated for such a long time, internet issues!!

We made it to Wanaka easily, there was some amazing scenery to see. During one of our (many) stops for photos of the views Fi let a load of Sandflies into the car, this lead to hysterical attempts to kill the millions of flies using our map as a fly swat. We eventually got them all but the map was ruined and we had been eaten alive. As we drove through Wanaka our first impression was that it looked a lot busier than the towns so far, which is always a good start. We checked into our motel and set off to explore. The next day we headed to Puzzling World which was a lot of fun, it had an outdoor wooden maze which we conquered in 40 minutes (average time 1 hour) and there was also illusion rooms full of holograms, pictures that followed you and the Ames room, where one person looks tall and the other short (see pics of Fi and Sam). There was also a cafe area with puzzles on the tables to try and complete. Lau got very annoyed when she couldn't do one, she nearly threw it across the room!! Sam was the only person with enough patience to complete one! That evening we decided to watch The Prestige at the Cinema Paradiso as everyone had been telling us how brilliant it was. It was a small cinema with sofas and a Morris Minor to sit in and watch the film. There was also an interval which gave time to sample the homemade hot cookies - yummy yum yum!!

Our next stop was Queenstown, about 90 minutes from Wanaka. This is apparently the adventure capital of NZ, so we were looking forward to the liveliness! We had lunch by the river and wandered around before heading to Deer Park Heights which is a Deer Park where some of Lord of the Rings was filmed, mostly number 2. We saw two donkeys having a fight before our car was surrounded by goats and ducks and Llamas so that we could not move the car. As Fi was driving we didn't want to kill anymore animals!! We got back to our hostel (Deco's) which is on the hill and has amazing views, to get ready for a night out. We started off in The Pig and Whistle which was an English pub with sports memorabilia on the wall, the food was amazing. Our next stop was The Loaded Hog which was deserted, but did have potential to be like The Loaded Dog (Leicester). We then headed into Minus 5 which is a bar completely made out of ice. We were kitted out with Ugg boots and parka jackets before heading into the bar which was -8.5 degrees!! The room was full of ice sculptures and the chairs and walls were made of ice, even our glasses were carved from ice. It was such a fun thing to do even though we were only allowed to stay in for 20 minutes. We took lots of pictures for you all to see, which hopefully we will be able to upload soon.

After an amazing lie-in we headed up The Skyline, the cable car in Queenstown, where we could see the town surrounded by the mountains. We did some lugeing down the mountain, although they were more like go karts! It was so much fun and very addictive. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the shops - only buying some postcards! How impressive for us!! We also stopped for a hot chocolate in Chocolate Patagonia which was unbelievably delicious, we managed to resist the temptation of the handmade chocolates.