After a beautiful drive, leaving the Mount Cook National Park behind and heading into Wanaka, we stopped at the much awaited 'Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World'. I came across this in a tourist magazine quite by chance and Rob hasn't stopped talking about it since! It's a tourist attraction for puzzle dweebs and children, with a 3D maze, special effects rooms and lots of puzzles. We dragged Phil along and the 3D maze soon turned into a frantic competition of who could get out first. And of course, it was won by Rob, the puzzle king himself! Phil and I realised towards the end that the only way we could escape was if we worked together - every time we split up we got lost again! The special effects rooms were good and I enjoyed the place a lot more than I thought I would (especially with the discount vouchers!) We had a quiet night in with a DVD and eating dinner overlooking Lake Wanaka - nice place.

In the morning we said our farewells to Phil (had a great time - thanks for joining us for a while) and set off for a 'quick' 3 hour walk in the Mt Aspiring National Park. We wanted to walk the Rob Roy track, supposedly a good one as it takes in mountains, glaciers and waterfalls, but didn't realise that 30km of the 54km drive there was on unsealed roads, so we had to drive at snail pace so the car didn't get damaged. I had to close my eyes as our Ford Focus went through the 'fords' (i.e. deep rivers!). But all was Ok in the end and the walk was absolutely fanstastic - we walked through grassy valleys, forest and the glacier view at the end was well worth the journey.

Queenstown was our destination later that day and it's a really great town, full of things to do. We enjoyed an evening wandering around by the Lake and eating a Fergburger - very tasty burger place recommended by friends - and it didn't disappoint! Today we've been on the Shotover Jet (jetboat that speeds over the Shotover river through a pretty narrow canyon, with lots of spins and soakings for its passengers) and up the Gondola cable car for views and the Luge tracks (toboggan on wheels). You can probably tell from the photos of the latter who was more at home Lugeing - I was overtaken by several small children and even came to 2 complete halts on a downhill slope. Quite an achievement really. Good fun though. (That makes me sound like the old woman I am becoming!). It would be good if we had a bit more time here (and money) as it feels as if we've only scratched the surface of Queenstown, but off we go again, heading South to Te Anau tomorrow.