We left Franz Josef and continued down the West coast of the South Island, making a morning stop at Lake Matheson. This is a spot famous for being able to see Mount Cook and Mount Tasman reflected in the water. Apparently you can't see the peaks because of clouds for more than 200 days of the year, so we were very lucky to have clear skies. It was still early, so there was a layer of mist hanging just above the perfectly still water, making for an incredible view. We continued down the coast to Wanaka, stopping often to appreciate the coastline - New Zealand definitely spoils you with scenery.

When we got to Wanaka we were pleased to find out we were sharing a room with one of our good friends from the Bay of Islands, who we'd been bumping into all the way down south. We headed down to the beautiful lake and had a swim before meeting up with our friend Mikaela, whose birthday it was that day. For the first time since arriving in New Zealand, we treated ourselves to a meal in a proper restaurant to celebrate. After dinner we visited Wanaka's famous Paridiso cinema, where you sit on on an ecleptic mix of sofas, armchairs and even vintage aeroplane chairs. All this makes for a very cosy viewing experience - especially given that during the intermission you can buy hot cookies.

The next morning took us on to Queenstown, where we were reunited with pretty much everyone we'd met travelling all the way down New Zealand. We went for a wander around the town, going through Queenstown gardens and along the lake. That evening we had a cake for Mikaela since we'd been too full for pudding the night before, then headed out to have our first experience of Queenstown night life.

The next day was St. Patrick's day, a cause for much celebration as we were all together again. In the afternoon we took the gondola up the hill to where you can luge. For those of you who don't know, luging involves racing down windy lanes in carts similar to go-carts. We did this in a group of six, a few of us getting pretty competitive as we raced down the track several hundred metres above Queenstown. Back at our hostel we changed into outfits for the night, having bought some of the traditional St. Patrick's day decorations.

We started the next morning with a walk by the lake and ice creams from Patagonia's, an amazing local ice cream shop. We then had to say our first goodbye to our friend Lara, and there may have been tears involved. It wasn't goodbye forever though as we'll be seeing her in Bali in a month's time! To cheer ourselves up that afternoon, we decided that even when on the other side of the world we should keep up traditions, so paid a visit to the cinema. It felt like being at home again as we wolfed down popcorn and talked our way through a bad film, as we do on a regular basis in Oxford.

The next day was our last in Queenstown before heading south and by the time we returned most of our friends would be gone, so it was full of goodbyes. We started the day by eating the famous Ferg Burgers by the lake. These burgers are so popular that almost any time of day there will be a forty minute wait for one, but somehow going at eleven thirty in the morning we didn't even have to queue. In the afternoon we decided to do something active, so walked up to Bob's peak where we'd been luging a couple of days before. At the top we met up with some friends and visited the Skyline café which overlooks Queenstown. Once back down we went on a group trip to Domino's to get $5 pizza, a wonder we have been marvelling at since we got here. Domino's in England will forever be ruined now, as on average it's at least five times more expensive. After dinner we met up with everyone from our first bus who we'd travelled the North Island with to have one last hurrah, as the next morning we were leaving for Dunedin.