Dunedin
Dunedin - Te Anau
Te Anau
Te Anau - Wanaka
Wanaka
Wanaka - Franz Josef
Franz Josef - Hokitika

We woke up early to start the Dunedin City Tour, our bus driver was very deaf friendly and we were pleased to find that we were the only ones booked on the tour! The tour took us to the Otago Peninsula, Baldwin St (the worlds steepest street) and the Dunedin's Botanic Gardens, to name a few. Dunedin is absolutely stunning as a city. It has a lot of historical buildings and is the spitting image of Edinburgh with its hills, buildings and character.

We finished the tour at Dunedin's train station to catch the Taieri Gorge train. Our train had 1920's carriages, and the ride apparently ranks in the top 6 train journeys in the world (but they all say that!) for its scenic views and experience. It has to be said, the scenery was absolutely breath taking and it definitely ranks in the top three train journeys we've taken!

Our hostel was full of weirdos, so we were definitely glad to leave Dunedin.

As we opted for the scenic route, we had a very long drive to Te Anau via Invercargill/Bluff. We made a couple of detours and stops, in particular at Nugget Point where we saw a enormous male southern fur seal trying to mate aggressively with two females. Definitely an experience as when Helen got out of the car, we were convinced that the male was going to charge at Helen.

We also stopped at Bluff to take some photos of the places signpost, in particular of the one pointing at Cape Reinga (see pic) as when at Cape Reinga we had a photo taken of the sign pointing at Bluff. The weather was dead miserable so we stopped off for Hot Chocolate and cake in Invercargill.

When we finally arrived at Te Anau, we found an awesome backpackers where we stayed for 2 nights. The following morning we had an early drive to Milford Sound taking in the views of Mitre Peak (1,682m). Mitre Peak is one of the highest mountains in the world to rise directly from the ocean floor. We boarded our boat to cruise around Milford Sound, and we saw lots of gorgeous waterfalls, bottlenose dolphins and southern fur seals.

From Te Anau to Wanaka, we stopped by at the River Kawarau bungy to decide whether we were doing a tandem bungy, Helen chickened out as usual. We also stopped by at quaint Arrowtown, which is stuck in the 1800's for some lunch at the Bakery which is legendary for their pies.

We stayed in Wanaka for 2 nights, at this point we realised that both of us were absolutely exhausted. Not sure if it's from travelling for a year or from driving constantly the last 3 months. We'll catch up on our sleep when we come home!

We visited Puzzling World, where we did lots of mind boggling puzzles but we didn't do the maze as the temperature outside dropped dramatically so it was absolutely freezing. We even had a go at trying to be psychic...with no luck! We decided to return back to Queenstown as Helen decided her engagement ring was still too big so got it resized.

Both of us were absolutely gutted when we found out our motel didn't have the channel for the Olympics opening ceremony. But, Helen's cousin saved the day by recording it so we could watch it when we return back to Christchurch.

After Wanaka we drove to Franz Josef which was a beautiful scenic drive taking in views of Lake Hawera, Lake Wanaka and the ocean. We stopped by at some waterfalls, Thunder Creek and Fantail falls which were stunning. We decided against climbing/hiking the glacier due to the effects of global warming and the environmental impact on the glacier. We stayed in Franz Josef for the night and Nick managed to find a live BBC feed online so we could watch some of the Olympics.

Our next stop was Hokitika, there was absolutely nothing in the town apart from a good deli and a beautiful raw beach. We did manage to find a nice cabin with PRIME tv so Helen could watch the equestrian on tv :) yay! Directly outside our window we had loads of goats, ducks, alpacas etc so it felt like we were on a farm. We watched a lot of Olympics, and even woke up at ridiculous times to watch the equestrian. (At least we have a team silver!)