Mount Cook Area16th March 2009Before leaving the Dunedin area we drove out along the Otago Peninsula. The stunning coves and rock faces made the trip worthwhile but the plan of seeing an albatross was scuppered by both the price and the weather. This time it wasn't the cloud that gave us a problem but the lack of wind. Albatross need the wind to glide on, so on calm days, just like this one, they tend to stay on the ground. At $26 to go and see them sitting down,...

The Catlins & Dunedin - 13th March 2009After leaving Cascade Creek, we drive back once again through the beautiful scenery on the way Te Anau. Whilst our journey here was full of stops for snaps, the trip out is a lot speedier, and once again we pass at least thirty large tour buses on their way in to the Sounds.It's a long drive today, as we plan to head south towards the Catlin and Dunedin, passing through but not stopping at Invercargill on the way. As we ...

Te Anau & Milford Sound - 11th March 2009After leaving the excitement of Queenstown, we drive past the remarkable Remarkables (big, snowcapped mountains), in the rain, heading for our night's stop in Te Anau and on to Milford Sound.After oversleeping, we leave late for Milford Sound, and are annoyed that it will probably be packed by the time we get there - the womble tour buses that we spot on our way in are all going where we are, and we stop counting after...

Queenstown10th March 2009We continued South through Haast and the ongoing beautiful scenery of the Haast Pass. This meant us turning slightly in land away from the rugged coastline and climbing through the Mount Aspiring national park and the 563m high pass. The stretch of road between Fox and Haast is 120km with no towns, just hills and mountains all around.Still battling with the weather we arrived at a small town called Wanaka (watch how you spell it!) and dec...

Fox GlacierMarch 6th 2009As we were winding our way down the west coast, the two main changes we noticed were the height of the mountains and the weather, although neither of these things came in properly until we were a few days further south.After a drive through the Buller Gorge, with spectacular views and a section of road where the rock overhangs and there is only just enough room to get a bus through, we arrived at a place called Westport where we had time ...