After a shaky start, we are now on our way. We were about to leave Christchuch, when Pam got a bad dose of food poisoning and took to bed for 24hrs. then we had to return to base as fridge not working and got an upgrade on the van, so were well pleased! It was a big relief as we weren't sure about our first one's ability to climb the mountain passes! Then we lost the van key for an hour, which became very frustrating! We began to think we were destined to stay in christchurch for 5 wks. We reached Lake Tekapo late afternoon to find an absolutely beautiful place for tea. the lake is turqoise blue surrounded by snow capped mountains. The weather is fantastic, hot and sunny with clear blue skies, so the scenery looks amazing. We tried to tour the observatory high on the mountain but the night tour was booked, so found a spot to park for the night, where we couldn't be seen!

Today, we had an early start as didn't want to be caught! We drove to Queenstown, which was a beautiful drive over the mountains. We checked into the caravan park to charge up, sort out an itinerary and headed into town. Our first stop was a 1 hr jet ride on the lake and 2 rivers, which was such fun!! We then lazed around the town and had an ice cream on the jetty. Very relaxing. Tomorrow we have an early atart again, as we are driving to Te Anau to camp before picking up coach to Milford sound and onto boat trip. Then we hope to go to Doubtful sound before setting off towards the glaciers. We keep changing our proposed route around the south island, as everyone keeps telling us their favourite places. We are having such fun as usual!