Arthur's birthday today. Left Wanaka this morning and went to Puzzling World. There were loads of optical illusions, holographic pictures, pictures creating pictures, a slanting room which made me feel really sick. Everything in it was horizontal but the floor was sloping down and so you kept tripping, as your brain thought you were tipping, but you obviously weren't. There was also an Ames Room, which makes people on one side look huge and people on the other ti...

Had another pretty amazing day today, even more spectacular views of stunning lakes and mountains! I'm really glad we've come at the time of year that we have, because some (not all) of the mountains have snow on them, and just at the peaks, how you imagine a mountain to be so am getting amazing photos! We stopped off at Lake Matheson (pretty early 8am) and it was beautiful, a 20 minute walk through the forest to get to the viewing points and when you get there i...

Wow what an incredible day! We climbed the Franz Josef Glacier - Ka Roimata O Hinehukatere (Maori) - which was possibly one of the best things I've done, it was so beautiful, a totally new and different experience. The ice was so smooth and blue it was amazing. It was a 13km return hike. We got a discounted price as we are travelling with kiwi experience, and all the gear - boots, socks, crampons, hats, gloves, waterproofs etc were all included, so didn't have to...

Yesterday we left Westport, and made our way to Lake Mahnipua (not sure of the spelling!). We did quite a few walks. One called the Truman Walk, through a forest, which led out onto a beack, where the waves were absolutely massive! Arthur got stuck on a rock between waves! The sand was also black there. We carried on along the coastline to Pancake Rocks (Punakaiki Rocks) and Blowholes, had lunch on the bus then set off on the walk. Again through another forest, a...

Yesterday we woke up to snow peaked mountains! It was beautiful, we hadn't seen them the night before as we had arrived in the night to Kaikoura! The landscape in New Zealand is pretty much picture perfect everytime you look out the window! We stopped off at a seal colony on our journey, and there were so many cute little pups playing! We then moved onto Picton, where we dropped off people going to the North Island, and picked up people who were coming down from...