19/8/9 Queenstown to Christchurch Spud, our last driver for Kiwi picked us up for the drive to Christchurch. We drove out of Queenstown along the Karawau gorge with its river. There are many rivers running into the main river which are named after prostitutes working the area during the gold rush. There is Roaring Meg and Gentle Annie to name just two. We stopped in Cromwell for some breakfast and to collect some lunch for our picnic stop later, before crossing ...

17/8/9 Queenstown After breakfast we collected our skis and lift passes from the hire shop and went to catch the shuttle bus up to Coronet Peak, the nearest resort to Queenstown. it took half an hour to drive up to the resort and it was sunny and clear yet again...we are so lucky. Once at the base station we put on our gear and got on the first chair lift up the mountain. The ski area was one big bowl with lots of runs all leading down criss crossing each other ...

16/8/9 Te Anau to Milford Sound and return to Queenstown We awoke to see lots of low cloud and grey skies which was a bit disappointing as we need the day to be a bit less cloudy. we decided to be optimistic and keep our fingers crossed that the weather would clear later on by the time we arrived at the sound. we were picked up at 10am by Cheese another Kiwi driver on a bus with only 8 others...happy days. Fiordland of which Milford Sound is a part, was awarded ...

15/8/9 Invercargill to Te Anau Thankfully we had a late pick up and only left Invercargill at 10am so ahd a little lie in. we visited Invercargill museum where there are Tuatara, the only surviving members of sphenodontians, lizard like creatures that flourished 200 million years ago. They are said to live up to 250 years old but the ones at the museum were only 125 !!! Henry one of the lizards had just become a father at 120 years old. We were able to see the b...

14/8/9 Invercargill We left Dunedin at 7.45am and travelled through Balclutha (shores of the Clutha River) which is the capital of the central otago region. The Clutha river is the largest river in NZ by volume and flows at 300 cubic meters per second so is pretty big !!! Balclutha has great street names both Elizabeth and Smith Streets which Phil said must be where the pikeys live !! We joined the Southern Scenic route through the Catlins an area of rugged coas...