since we last wrote we have stayeda night in Queenstown - a very busy bustling (young persons) town which is right on Lake Wakatipa. Yesterday we had an early breakfast in Arrowtown, an old mining town which is very quaint & has some lovely Victorian buildings. We passed through Wanaka - lovely lake & over the mountains to Fox Glacier where we are staying for a few days, catching our breath & chilling out - literally - on (or should we say beneath) th...

Well, this trip has been worth it just for the amazing experience we had yesterday on the cruise to Doubtful Sound. We set off from Lake Manapouri & took a boat across the lake for an hour then got on a coach across Wilmott Pass. Then we got onto a catamaran for 3 hours on Doubtful Sound (which is really a fjiord) After that we reversed the whole process! The Fjord National Park is where they filmed some of The Lord of the Rings & it really is as spectacu...

well, driving from Oamaru to Dunedin was like stepping back in time - open road, no traffic & golden oldies from the 60's playing on the radio (plus the odd blast from the new Tommy Emmanuel albums we've managed to acquire on the way) There seem to be very few big towns on South Island - mostly little rural townships which are still as as you would imagine they would have been when the first settlers arrived. We've now seen the Moeriki boulders an...

Wow! Each day here has been better than the last! Our hosts at the homestay are absolutely wonderful & have made us feel at home. We are having drinks with them tonight. Mount Cook is awesome. On the way we saw some amazing scenery - the roads are almost empty. Ann, you'd love driving here! The weather so far has been good - temperatures in the high 20s. & lots of sun. We walked some miles at the base of Mount Cook & took in all the wonderful scen...

Well, as you can see we're now in New Zealand. It's absolutely wonderful. We were picked up from Christchurch airport by our landlady & taken to a marvellous B&B.where we stayed for 2 nights. Whilst there we went to a little place called Rangiora & visited the Johnson family - those of you who worked at Fairview may remember that they ran the cottage bakery in Fairview Ave until 5 years ago & may have taught Stephen & Jessica. We ende...