Another sunny morning saw us heading down from Wanaka to Te Anau. The weather was wonderful for the whole trip and we arrived at our campsite in time to have a beer and cold pizza for lunch. The site was on the edge of the lake and the view was fantastic (but the facilities weren't so great - hey ho). We decided on the trips we wanted to do and headed into town and booked them. We spent a bit of time of the internet and then went to stock up at the supermarket before heading back for steak for tea (on the BBQ of course!).

The next day was our trip to Doubtful Sound. We were picked up at 8:30 and taken to Lake Manopori. We had a hours trip across the lake and arrived at the Manopori Power station. Before heading down to Doubtful we were taken on a trip to the underground power station. The tunnel is 2km's long and very dark! We were given a quick tour around the power station, which was like something out of James Bond, and then headed on Wilmot Pass to get onto the boat for the sounds (it's the only way to get there!). The trip was amazing and the scenery was breathtaking. We saw 100's of seals on the rocks at the mouth of the sound and one of the best parts of the day was when they turned all the engines off on the boat and asked everyone to be totally silent (they even asked people not to touch the velcro on their raincoats!), it was so amazing, the sounds of the birds and the trees rustling - a real wow! We headed back to the campsite (via the same route) and settled in for the evening with a nice curry and some even nicer wine - bliss - what a day.

We then left Te Anau and headed on the 120km journey to Milford Sound. We decided to stay in the only campsite on the road which was only 1km from the harbour at Milford. We'd booked our trip for 1:25pm so we went straight to the site and checked in, had some lunch and went down to the harbour. We'd booked a 2.5 hour trip on Milford Sound and were really glad that we had. It's totally different to Doubtful, although smaller it's much more dramatic. With it now heading into winter here the tourist trips are much quieter so we practically had the whole boat to ourselves! After the trip we dropped the camper back at the site and walked back to the harbour to the only bar for 120km! We had dinner there, played some cards and had a few beers before heading back to the campsite.

The next day we were due to stay at Milford again but the rain through the night hadn't stopped (as well as the sandflies!) and the only way we could get to the places we wanted to visit that day was by heading 40km back towards Te Anau so we decided to leave Milford and go back to Te Anau for the night. On the way back we stopped at The Chasm, which was amazing, Lake Gunn (where we did a nature walk) and the Mirror Lakes before arriving back in Te Anau. We'd booked into a different campsite, nearer to town which was really lovely. We parked up and walked back along the lake and visited the Nature Reserve just outside town before heading back for bangers on the BBQ.

We set off earlyish on Tuesday (for Mum & Alicia!) for Queentown. Another lovely drive and we arrived in Queenstown and parked up at our new home. The afternoon was spent wandering around town and doing a bit of shopping. We decide to have a few beers and then ended up staying in town (it seemed like a good idea at the time!). We had an amazing meal and then more drinks by the fire at a lovely bar on the wharf. We crawled back home (via a few fences!) and fell into bed!

The morning of the following day was a bit of a right off so we chilled out in the van and then got ready to go on a wine tour of Central Otago. We visited 4 vineyards (and had a lovely lunch at one of them - Carrick) and got back about 5:30pm. Needless to say, we didn't venture out again, just relaxed and had some food before an earlyish night.

Our final destination was Lake Tekapo. Another lovely drive and we arrived and parked up. The view of the Lake was beautiful and we sat and had lunch in the sunshine (we've been so lucky with the weather). In the afternoon we headed up from the lake to the top of Mount John. It was a quick ascent and quite hard work but what a view - 360 degrees of the whole area. Also on the summit was the Mount John Observatory which had a cute little cafe so we rewarded ourselves with a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake. We headed back before the sun went down and played some cards in the camper before having a chilli (and even more lovely wine!) and settling in for our last night in the camper.

The final journey was to return the van to Christchurch. As we'd cleaned and washed up before we set off we stopped for a tea break on the way and handed the van back just as the hail storms started.