On the road by 08.15 and heading towards the West coast and Glacier Country. Initially looking a bit grey but as we got to the end of Lake Wanaka we started to climb into the rainforest on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park and in true rain forest style it started to rain. The route followed the River Haast which was in full flow due to the rainfall and waterfalls were cascading into the river from the adjacent mountains. The cloud level was very low and mo...

Sunshine to wake up to this morning and after packing up we went down to the Shotover River to see the jet boats operating in a narrow canyon. Looked very exciting but just as well we didn't book to go here yesterday as it was closed because the river was in flood after the previous nights rainfall. We then fuelled up, diesel a bit more expensive than in the north island, and then headed onto Arrowtown, a former gold mining town where many of the original buildin...

It rained really heavily during the night and was still raining when we got up. This morning we are booked to go on a jet boat so equipped with wet weather gear and shorts ( very stylish) we headed to Queenstown harbour via the minibus and wandered around the town before our 11.00 sailing. It was still raining when we checked in and we were issued with black waterproof macs with hoods and life jackets before getting on the boat. After a safety briefing we set off...

Queenstown is our destination today, not too far to go although we have really enjoyed the travelling through this beautiful diverse country. We stopped for lunch on the southern most shores of the stunning Lake Wakatipu some 30 Km away from Queenstown. bright sunshine and 25 degrees!!! Turned out to be a lazy lunch, we just didn't want to leave - we were tempted to go for a swim in the lake but were reliably informed that the water temperature was only 10 degree...

An earlyish start, we need to be at Manapouri Harbour for 08.00 with pack lunch etc. After following a slow school bus for almost half the 20 km we arrived with 5 minutes to spare to find all our fellow passengers already on the catamaran. The sun was already shining although the mountains around Te Anau had been shrouded in cloud at Manapouri we had clear blue skies. As soon as we boarded we set off across beautiful Lake Manapouri on the first part of our journe...