6 to 14 March

A scenic drive from Fairlie to Bendigo with lots of stops on the way. Lake Tekapo looking beautiful in the sunlight. Very blue due to glacial 'flour'. Managed to see Mt Cook although cloud covered it up again a bit later on. Lindis Pass was beautiful.  Arrived in Bendigo and Mark took us up to see some old mine workings in the hills opposite the house. Lots of vineyards appearing on the slopes leading up to them. Apparently it is a good wine growing area with several large vineyards having extra fields here. Lovely views over the valleys and to different mountain ranges. 

Mark is off on a tramping expedition tomorrow for 5 days along the Rees Dart track above Glenorchy. 

A trip to the old town in Cromwell was interesting. The original town was flooded when Lake Dunstan was created in the 1970s and they managed to save some historic buildings and have started to re-erect them. They've done about 7 so far and one has old printing presses and history of the town in it.

On to Queenstown and a trip on the steamship TSS Earnslaw across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak station for a heritage tour. Gill, our tour leader, explained some of the history of the station, the gardens and NZ itself. Did you know that the first settlers sent for things from home to make them feel better and to improve their surroundings? Gorse and bracken to clad the hillsides; sparrows, blackbirds and thrushes so it wasn't so quiet. Had a wine tasting of local central Otago wines whilst we were there. Very pretty gardens full of flowers. 

After fish and chips sitting out overlooking the lake we then drove north and camped out at 12 Mile Delta on the Glenorchy road. Next morning Chris moved the van so we overlooked the lake and we had a lazy day (Chris did have a swim - apparently the water is around 9 degrees summer and winter so rather bracing). Chased off by sandflies and decided to camp at Glenorchy itself. 

Lovely views on the way including a glacier which we believe may be the Margaret one. Lovely sunny day with reflections on the lake.

Did some gravel road driving north of Glenorchy. You can drive up to Chinaman's Bluff where the road meets the Dart river (and Mark's tramping ends). Lots of streams to ford - we counted them - 7 with water in them, 1 partly filled, 2 dry ones and another dry one which wasn't really a ford but would be covered by water if it came down from the mountains. Plus loads of cattle, sheep and horses.

Next day drove down to Te Anau with a stop in Queenstown for anti sandfly stuff. Apparently baby oil mixed with dettol will do the trick. We bought both together with some more conventional stuff with Deet in it.

Arrived at Te Anau on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Checked the weather forecast and it isn't good from tomorrow onwards so we decided to do a late flight over Fjordland. Our personal helicopter (we were the only passengers) left with at 5pm with Ron at the controls. He has over 23 years experience in flying helicopters so we were in safe hands. The tour lasted 1.5 hours with two stops on the mountains - 1 on Mt Pender and 1 on Mt Kidd. It was a fantastic experience. The clouds were starting to come in which added to the views. We saw lots of lakes and small and large tarns. We flew over Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri and saw the hydro-electric power station from the air. We also saw a very expensive road to nowhere which was built to help setup the power station. 10 metres (yes that's right metres) of rain a year help to run the power station. Apparently they get up to 30 metres at Milford Sound.

It was great landing on the mountains and looking down in the sounds. Slightly spongy underfoot between the rocks. There was even some snow left up there. We went through a hanging valley called Campbell's Kingdom which had lots of waterfalls. We also saw some of the huts on the Kepler Track - some mad NZers even run up to them (very steep, long and twisty paths to them) in a race.

After a night in Te Anau we went to the cinema and saw Ate Whenua - a film about Fjordland.

As we hadn't been south of Te Anau before we decided to go down to Invercargill via the southern scenic route. The inland bit of this isn't very interesting - lots and lots of farms but the coastal bits are pretty good. McCracken's Rest was very windy - nothing between us and Antarctica.

Visited the museum in Invercargill and I touched a juvenile taotera (a prehistoric lizard like animal). The patriarch is Henry who is estimated to be 120 years old. Chris went to look at motorbikes owned by Burt Munro of The Last Little Indian fame - he set landspeed records at Bonneville in the US in the 1960s which still haven't been broken.

Southern scenic route improved with some beautiful coastlines. We saw two sea lions on the beach at Waipapa Point near the lighthouse and got quite close to them (about 10 metres). Managed to take a couple of short videos too. Lots of rocks on the beach but nearly empty rockpools - mainly seaweed in them.

Weather deteriorated and it started raining. We've been pretty lucky on this trip and the weather has been mostly good with the odd shower of rain.  Spent the night at Newhaven Holiday Park on Surat Bay. Will go to look for seals tomorrow.

Woke to rain so decided not to walk. Drove on further and ended up at Nugget Point lighthouse. It started raining when we were walking so sheltered under bushes whilst the hail then came down. The lighthouse is now fully automated and controlled by a computer in Wellington. They have a lookout point in front of it so it had stopped raining and we took a few photos. Another tourist was standing on a metal grill and looking into the wind and it looked like he would take off.

Drove north to Dunedin to try to escape the weather and it got worse. Torrential rain and hail as we approached the city. As it was bad weather we (mainly me) decided to visit CadburyWorld. We toured the factory (complete with lovely hats covering our hair and Chris had to have one covering his stubble). Although they weren't making anything at the time we got a few samples including some liquid chocolate.

More rain overnight and very windy the next day. Decided to head back to Bendigo and hopefully they weather would be better there. 

Before we went we visited the local aquarium which is run by Otago University Marine Studies dept. Took a personal tour with Jean one of tutors. Saw massive crayfish moults - they shed their outer skin (including their eyes) every so often. They also have an escaping octopus called Fred who has learned to get out of his tank by the smallest of holes.

Very windy when we arrived at the aquarium and again when we left and most of the way back to Bendigo. Passed lots of fruit farms near Roxburgh and the weather improved - the wind dropped and the sun came out. By the time we arrived at Clyde we had to take off fleeces and trainers and jeans. 

A relaxed evening with Christina and Mark and a lazy day the next day. It's nice to be in one place for a couple of days. Will explore around Wanaka and Lake Hawea tomorrow.