Before leaving Lake Tekapo the following morning we decided to take in their river walk which was estimated to take around 2 hours. The walk itself as walks go was ok apart from the dead poisoned rabbit that we had to walk past followed by the fly infested sheep's placenta lying in a field that we had the misfortune to come across when we were almost back at the van. I now understand why they don't want you around farming areas during lambing season because those...

So the next stop was Mount Cook which was always going to be a bit of a gamble as it is one of the wettest parts of New Zealand and Mount Cook is notorious for being hidden in a thick blanket of cloud and many people who visit never get to see the unusually shaped peak. We arrived late in the afternoon and as we were nearing mount cook true to form there were blue skies however there was a thick band of cloud covering the peaks of the Mackenzie mountain range inc...

So our next destination after Dunedin was the MacKenzie mountain range and in particular the star of the show, the tallest mountain Mount Cook. It was quite a long drive from where we were and with time on our side we decided to take an overnight stop in a small town called Waimate at Kelsey's Bush Animal Rescue Park. On the road to Waimate we passed through a town called Moeraki home to the much photographed Moeraki boulders. As you will see from the photo the b...

After enjoying a few days in the country it was on to the south islands second biggest town of Dunedin. The name Dunedin is apparently gaelic for Edinburgh so we were hoping to find a bit of a home from home. We stopped at a few scenic points along the way before arriving in the town centre around lunch time. We parked up and headed to the tourist info to get a town map and see what trouble we were going to get into for the next few days. Only five minutes out th...

The next couple of days were to be spent exploring some of the more beautiful parts of the south island in The Catlins. There is a scenic drive which takes you from Invercargill to Dunedin with specific points of interest marked along the way. The first stop for us was New Zealand's most southerly point in a town called Bluff which turned out to be pretty duff as the town was really bleak and offered nothing other than a lookout point to the open ocean where the ...