After a leisurely morning we finally got on our way from Dunedin at around midday. Our trip took us first south towards Invercargill for an hour and then west across the mountains towards Queenstown. The road is twisting and turning all the way with beautiful scenery and more sheep and lambs than you can possibly imagine.

The closer we got to Queenstown the more we saw fruit trees in full blossom and the more vineyards advertising their wares. We stopped for a late lunch at the Speargrass Inn which we would happily recommend to anyone passing that way. The scenery changed from typical Scotland to 'wow, it's just like Switzerland!!' Snow capped mountains, rugged scenery and a huge and peaceful lake completing the effect. We paused to view the bridge made famous by A J Hacket as the home of bungy jumping but arrived just too late in the day to have a go ourselves (SHAME!!!!).

As we drove through, Queenstown itself is unbelievable, just like a regular Alpine village and we look forward to exploring it later. We drove further along the lake and found Azur Lodge, our home for the next four nights. We were welcomed with wine and canapes and shown to our private villa directly overlooking the lake and the Remarkables mountain range. As well as being amazingly beautiful, we have it on good authority that these mountains are extra incredibly remarkable in that they run directly north to south.

Words fail me to describe our villa and I can only say that we must have done something good in a former life!!