Again the weather wasn't great when we woke up by Lake Dunstan so we decided to cover the remaining 230 kms to Mt Cook stopping for lunch by the amazingly turquoise Lake Pukaki before arriving in the town at the foot of Aoraki, the maori name for Mt Cook the highest peak in New Zealand. We spent an hour or so in the visitir centre which had a really interesting exhibition before we drove up the Tasman valley to the blue lakes (honestly described as the green pond...

With continuous rain from Milford Sound we decided it was probably a good day to cover some miles so we spent the day driving back north on our way towards Mount Cook stopping for lumch just before Mossburn before passing Queenstown and finding a lovely little spot sitting on the shores of Lake Dunstan by the town of Cromwell. A nice relaxing evening reading and Steve doing further work on his stone skimming before we carried on the poker tournament.

Having dashed up to Milford Sound we took our overnight cruise ship which took us for a short evening tour of the Sound before we had a paddle round in kayaks. Being in these tiny little kayaks surrounded by huge cliffs rising directly out of the water was very dramatic and watching the weather swirl in very quickly was quite impressive and a little ominous. We then had yet another camera incident. As we went back to the boat the crew decided to drag the kayak up...

After our meat feast in Queenstown we did our first bit of night time driving before pulling over for a night's sleep in a layby just before the turn off to te Anau. The next morning we reached Te Anau where we refuelled and checked out our options for cruises on Milford Sound, as there was one leaving at 6ish we decided to head up the only road in and out managing to make the trip in time despite the brakes beginning to make some funny noises as we descended dow...

After Alison's afternoon reccy in Queenstown we headed in for a much needed shower and then went out for a nice dinner, Alison's treat for me having asked for her hand in marraige. She got a diamond ring and I get a plate full of meat, seems fair to me. We headed to Flames and got a plate of ribs and a mixed grill to share, it was huge, at least half a farmyard on our plates, fantastic!