Today started earlier than intended due to Elizabeth having played with the alarm clock last night. I tried to get back to sleep and failed.

We managed to leave the apartment at about 9:30am after having received a refund for the failed internet access. Our first call of the day was to Lake Matheson, after hearing so much about it we were looking forward to our walk. It was a lovely lake but certainly not the nicest we have seen in our travels. It was not helped by the fact the mountain tops were still obscured by clouds. We spent a couple of hours here walking round the lake and carrying the pushchair up flights of stairs. Elizabeth managed to get through the walk with one minor strop. Alex nearly gave up on walking but was happy once she realised she could be a plane and so we both had to be planes for the best part of 45 minutes.

We left Matheson at about 12 and returned to Fox, a brief fuel stop was made before we headed out into the countryside. I had to call in because they had not told us what fuel to use and the fuel cap was labelled in Japanese. When we left Fox we looked for a good place to have lunch. We stopped at the hopeful sounding Sandy Bay, briefly as David started to be munched by sandflies and they were insisting on joining us on the car journey. We then ended up at lake P, I need to check the atlas for the name. It was a lovely lake and we managed to eat most of our lunch before being driven away by beasties.

The drive from there was lovely and mostly along a river valley, we saw endless breathtaking views and stopped a number of times to explore waterfalls, roaring billy, thunder falls, fantail falls. We were going to walk to the blue pools but Elizabeth and her temper had just gone to sleep so we headed on. Haas Gates were impressive but the tourists faffing on the single lane bridge without regard for the traffic was not.

We drove past the top end of Lake Wanaka and stopped at the rest stop there because it was just stunning. We then drove on past Lake H which again was stunning but we did not stop. There are just so many breathtaking views here is you stopped for each one you would never get anywhere.

Arrived into Wanaka just after 6 and found out hotel very easily. The room is good and big and the surroundings are nice. We then walked into the town for a treat meal out, I would say it was for valentines but we forgot it was the 14th until the end of the meal. We have food at Zees which had a good view over the lake, excellent food and the most appalling service we have had.

Girls are finally dispatched to bed and we hope they lie in, that is our forlorn hope.