After leaving Milford Sound we stopped briefly at Invercargill on our way down to Bluff (the southernmost point of the South Island of New Zealand). Whilst in Bluff we had to get the token picture of us next to the signpost with miles to London, New York, Tokyo, South Pole etc. We went to Bluff with the intention of taking the ferry to the Stewart Island. However the weather in the South Island had been so bad that we decided not to go. We had heard from the lo...

After leaving the glaciers we drove to a town called Te Anau. This was only a small town and a good stopover point for organising tours to either Doubtful or Milford Sound. After much deliberation we decided on Milford Sound and booked a boat trip for the following day. Whilst in Te Anau we did however manage to find a magnificent pie shop. They were so good that we had to go there twice, once on the way to Milford Sound and once on the way back. Unfortunately we...

The day after our ice trek, we wearily drove on to Lake Matheson, supposedly one of the most-photographed lakes in New Zealand. Again though the weather was bad, so although we were able to walk around the lake and get some pretty nice views from Reflection Island, the mountains in the distance were covered by clouds, which somewhat defeated the object as the whole point of Reflection Island is that you can see Mount Cook in the distance reflecting in the lake. ...

The Franz Josef Glacier in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, was named after an Austrian Emperor after being first discovered (well by a European, the Maori's knew of it before) by an Austrian called Haast. In the last ice age it (and others) stretched to the Tasman Sea and carved out the Fiordlands of the South Island. Today we hiked onto the glacier, a pretty scary thought when you see the picture of the steep ice steps which you have to climb up to get ont...

After leaving Kaikoura we took Arthur's Pass, the scenic route across the South Island of New Zealand, taking us from the East Coast to the West. Unfortunately the weather was awful, so the spectacular scenery we expected was hidden behind clouds and mist, but to be honest the whole of New Zealand's scenery is so spectacular anyway that you get a bit 'scenery'd' out. We drove on to Greymouth on the west coast, where we watched the sunset over...