Mount Cook, including the surrounding mountains and glaciers were a fave. Pristine mountains, rivers and ice glaciers you could hear moving and releasing floods of ice and water throughout the day, sounded like thunder.

The camp site at mount Cook was basic, but we still loved it, due it being at the foot of the mountains, and close to Mount Cook village, and an excellent visitor centre, informative displays and more importantly...showers! (Not sure Albie agrees). Had a good walk, as close as we could get to mount Cook and glacier. Ryan and i had a dip, had to get a pose with a floating ice chunk from the glacier. Rope bridges were cool, the sound of ice melting and moving was impressive.

I opted for a bit of a beasting walk in the morning, set off at 0530, walked up the mountain to Muellers hut at the top, complete with snow patches, and excellent views across the range, including glaciers and Mount Sefton.

We left Mount Cook, had a spell in Wanaka, lush lake, and village setting. Came across a secluded stretch on the river and rapids, just right for swimming. We parked, and walked to the rivers edge to stumble across a birthday party....loads of dogs running riot with party hats on, lol. It was a ridgebacks 1st birthday party! The kiwis were great, even fed us party food, dogs were friendly, all swimming with us, rode the rapids, fun day.

We left hot Wanaka, and passed through Dunedin, stayed at a good camp, visited secluded beaches, even got chased by a sea lion bull! Didnt take to being photographed.Most beaches/bays we visited had sea lions, one with mother and pup. Jacks blow hole was not blowing, did see a penguin though, bonus. Still hot, another night at hillview camp.

Moved on to Invercargill...bleak, not much to see / do, so booked into an Ibis to sort washing / avoid the s***e weather! Following days, we had our fair share of showers, and kipped in reserve camp sites, one was by the deepest lake in NZ, 462m.

Happy days!! Moved on to Queenstown, stayed at a 'Top 10' campsite, oh yes, now we were buzzing. Queenstown was great, lovely town, the Luge was hilarious, who knew Mich was so competitive?! Until she sped off the track into tyres lol. Gondala gave great views, and was great for taking the mountain bike up (nice Giant Glory), had half day hire, down hill tracks through the forest, down to Queenstown, met a crazy Ozzzie, great day.

Shopping was good, Ferburgers were lush (had to que for 20 mins), Chinese seem to have invaded the place, they defo love NZ, everywhere weve been, millions of them! Ice bar was a novelty, nice cocktail too. Mich booked us all into a special effects cinema, experience place. Met a loveley older couple from Northampton, and a gutsy German girl travelling solo, done everything NZ has to offer. Gave Ryan a good game of golf, fantastic views all around the course, think i might be getting a set of clubs when im home. It may have been close on the course, but Ryan spanked us all in the crazy golf, although we did all get hole in ones.

Leaving Queenstown, we headed to the west coast over Haast pass, taking in more amazing views, mountains, glaciers, lakes and drives. We did come across a large pod of dolphins, and got ate alive trying to photo them (binned it), got some ropey pics.

The coast road back up to Picton was picturesque, although we had had our fill, and looked forward to catching the ferry back to the north island, had a good stay at Picton, and caught the ferry with a day to spare to miss a cyclone! Thats two storms we had dodged...can we keep the sunshine? No, stayed in a couple of camp sites, had some heavy rain, a good town with the chilled surfy vibe was Raglan, bit like Byron, lot smaller.

A night in an apartment and we were off to Fiji! Fijis lush! Day one, were all burnt, ill update soon xxx.