After the excitement of the blue penguins, we took a detour off the motorway to Christchurch so we could visit Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo, on the way stopping off to view some ancient Maori rock art.

First we came to Lake Pukaki, which is a beautiful deep-blue coloured lake with Mount Cook and the Southern Alps in the distance. The colour of the water has been caused by glacial feed, so it is really stunning.

Further along the road we came to Lake Tekapo, which also has mountain ranges as the backdrop, and is known for the Church of the Good Shepherd, a small church on the edge of the lake which has amazing views from it's windows.

It really is hard to drag yourself away from the stunning scenery, especially as this as about the last thing we will do in New Zealand (as we leave in three days), but after a few hours we left to drive on to Christchurch. Also it's our last night in our spaceship, the people carrier that we've been living in for the last five weeks, and our home that we have become strangely attached to. Not that it won't be nice to wake up with no condensation dripping off our noses, no more freezing cold nights, no more excruciating back pains from sleeping on a really uncomfortable bed, and finally being able to move around in our sleep and not hit our heads on the roof every five minutes, but it has been nice having freedom to go anywhere and not have to carry our backpacks for 35 days. Not sure we'll be rushing to hire one in Australia for so long though!