Mum flies home this evening and I'm staying at a hotel at Auckland airport as I have a really early flight to Fiji tomorrow.

The last couple of days were good fun with some good walks.

The first walk was up Ben Lomond. This was after we'd finally had breakfast at Les Alpes. We were a little late as there had been road blocks set up by the police to search all vehicles including our bus - assuming for someone or something. So our bus was a little late after being searched, but the issue was the pasty chef was also stopped en route to the restaurant and the driver taken off by the police. The pasty chef with croissants (delicious by the way) was left stranded so grabbed two of the crates and walked 20 mins to the restaurant. Lofty then offered to take him back and pick up the rest from the side of the road. We still don't know what it was all about.

So after brekkie we didn't go quite to the summit but did a good 2hour climb to the saddle with spectacular panoramic views of Queenstown Bay, Lake Wakatipu and the Southern Alps snowy peaks (see photos of me and mum looking both ways out). We got the gondola in from Queenstown up and then started the rest of the walk up. The sun was shining which was great but there was a real wind at the top.

Then we drove to Lake Ohau after a quick stop at Amsfield winery. We stayed in amazing lodge by the Lake. An awesome spot with stunning views from our room. It's family run and Jock the son was a bit mad in a loveable teddy bear sort of way - funnily enough we bumped into him at the airport and he greeted us like old friends. The food at the lodge was also delicious as was the wine - the sous chef apparently came third in NZ masterchef!

The next day we drove a bit further to Mount Cook. Apparently Mount Cook is a very technical mountain and many people attempt it before Everest. It doesn't have the altitude and oxygen issues but has similar technical challenges and several people a year sadly loose their life attempting the climb. So we didn't do that walk but we did walk through the Hooker Valley to near the base of Mount Cook and to the a glacial lake with icebergs due to a massive chunk of the glacier breaking off last week (see pictures). A busy walk compared to the others we've done but also beautiful and a great last one. The lodge had a big shared lounge and dining room where Lofty and his girlfriend who works near there, cooked us delicious salmon dinner - salmon bought from the local fish farm just near Mount Cook so couldn't get much fresher. We drank my bottle of birthday fizz after doing a bit of re-pack job on the bags so mum could take back all my walking and cooler weather gear!

It's been great to have two weeks with just Mum - it's fantastic both my parents are so fit and active and willing to travel- I hope I am at their age. It will be great if I also get some time with just my sister then I really will feel I have completed quality family time as part of my year.

It's going to take some time to get used to being on my own again - although hopefully warmer weather (but I think it may also be raining in Fiji) will help with that! Bit worried that I seem to be fitting in well with the 60+ crowd and have exchanged email addresses with more of that generation than my own! Need to work on that...