We left Omarama early for our drive to next stop Twizel. On the way, our plan was to head to Mount Cook National park to see Mount Cook which is the tallest mountain in Australasia at 3754 feet. The drive to the National park is very scenic, especially when you reach lake Pukaki at the start of the park. It was another fantastic day weather wise and it was a lovely contrast seeing the snow capped peaks against the blue sky and occasional low cloud.

After a couple of photo stops we parked up in Mount Cook village, hardly a village at all but a hotel and tourist information centre. Our first walk of the day took us through alpine meadow, through silver beech forest and climbed, relatively slowly to a look out point where you could view Mount Cook and it's surrounding glaciers more clearly. As we were still sore from our Queenstown hike, this was a relatively gentle alternative.

After this we headed to the blue lakes car park for our next walk to the Tasman Glacier lake. the drive there was interesting in a camper van as we had to cover about 10k on an unsealed, gravel and pot hole laden road. The camper van is noisy at the best of times with pots and pans rattling away but this was something else. At one point I thought we might burst a tyre but we made it there in one piece.

This was a very nice walk, climbing up some steep steps and rocky paths before eventually reaching the glacier lake. This was pretty cool as there were icebergs floating in it which seemed really weird given the warm weather.

After this we drove to our holiday camp for the night. It was the Thursday before Good Friday and the owner helpfully informed us that if we wanted to stock up on alcohol we needed to do so that evening as the liquor stores are closed over Easter. We did wonder at this point whether we were giving off some "drinkers vibe" like a red, bulbous nose and rosy cheeks but, good advice nonetheless!

Clearly stocking up was a priority so we headed into town shortly after and bought some wine and beer for the van. We then headed out to see what Twizel had to offer.....and guess what??? The veggie options were rubbish!!

We went to a pizza place in the end which was very middle road but there was wine so that helped...,

The following day we decided to go on a long hike, about 22km's to be precise...I know, how good are we??

Anyway, after an initial mishap where we took the wrong route we realised our mistake, double backed and started on the Twizel river loop.

The path took us across farm land, dry river beds, marsh land and forest, mountains all around. Amazingly it was another warm day. For winter, we have had pretty amazing weather so far, oops I have probably jinxed us now!

We saw a fair bit of wildlife along the way, falcons and geese in the main but not a soul in site apart from us which was pretty amazing.

After walking for about 3 hours we reached a large bog area and realised that we would have some difficulty crossing it without getting very wet so we decided to return home. By this time, everything was aching and we were so hot, especially from carrying backpacks. Luckily I had packed some emergency hot cross buns so we had something to eat. I say emergency but nothing beats some home cooked baking by mum or a lovely chili made by dad-getting home sick now :-(

So, we got back eventually and caught a few more rays by our camper van before the temperature dropped rapidly and we decided to head into town for dinner.

Picture a starving Stephanie, feeling slightly homesick and eager for a nice, comforting dinner....We opted for pub food on this basis. The only option was a creamy vegetable pasta, not ideal but tolerable. Food arrived and I tucked in. Immediately I thought something wasn't quite right. On closer inspection I noticed large pieces of chicken in the sauce!!!!!!!!! Not good and suddenly very sick. Obviously i complained and they did correct their mistake but my appetite was gone by this stage and most of my meal was left uneaten...