Another gentle drive today, down to Te Anau, which is a couple of hours drive down to the Fiordlands, where you can access Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. Stopped off on the way at this lovely little café, right in the middle of nowhere, for a fab muffin and coffee and then got to Te Anau. My hotel is right by the lake and for the first time in the south island, I don't have a balcony or a very good view, which is a bit of a shame really, was getting very u...

Today dawned bright and clear, so looking like glorious weather for my tour and was sat on my balcony having a leisurely breakfast and cup of tea, only to catch the Queentown flyby taking off from Queenstown airport. It was pretty cool, as they flew past the hotel, over the lake to do U turn and head off wherever they were flying to. Not any fighter planes or old warplanes unfortunately, just regular modern passenger planes by the look of them, but it was nice t...

Again, a leisurely lie in - I'm almost getting into holiday mode here - as I only had a couple of hours drive to Queenstown. Had consulted my guidebook the night before and decided to stop off in Arrowtown on the way to Queenstown. Arrowtown is this cute little tourist trap village, that has a wonderfully preserved main street from when it was a gold mining town. It sits on the Arrow River, which is, I believe, the second richest gold bearing river in the world....

Today has been a joy. The drive down to Wanaka is probably one of the most stunning and varied scenery I have ever seen in one short trip. The weather was overcast and dreary as I left Franz Josef and headed south. I drove through rainforest along some windy roads that just kept surprising with scenery around every bend it felt like at times. One minute you were on a wide glacier valley bed, then around the bend and suddenly up into mist shrouded rainforest, t...

Did I say good nights ' sleep? I should stop tempting fate. Phone went at 3.30am. It was Dad. So I'm like, what's the matter? He starts talking about rugby. I'm like, it's 3.30am Dad. He carries on talking, so I interrupt. Dad, it's 3.30am here and he's all surprised & says, I thought it was day there. No, I'm definitely the other side of the world and it's definitely 3.30am. Didn't get much sleep after that, though through no fault of Dad's; I did drop of...