"44.42.19 S 169.06.29 E"

We had Gill's birthday in Bluff. Such fun with a nine and nearly eleven year old! They decorated the place and made her a cake, a really special day. Thank you Eleanor and Hannah, a great effort. The Bach we stayed in was fantastic with a log burning stove to keep us toasty warm.... It was blowing old boots and freezing!  But at the Southerly point of our journey and well into the Roaring Forties what do you expect!

From Bluff we moved on to Milford Sound, still travelling with the Hendersons which is great fun and adds a new dimension to our lives, it is a long time since I have had two smalls with us.

Everyone says how beautiful Milford Sound is, I am not sure we saw that much of it to know. We did have a lovely walk along the shore of the lake. One advantage of so much rain was that the waterfalls and rivers are incredible huge torrents of water crashing down the mountains. 

We stayed in Cromwell to visit Queenstown which felt like a proper ski resort!  We even had a fresh fall of snow on the hills. It was a shame about the campsite, too big and with insufficient resources. We came back one day to find another tent pitched on our pitch with a guy line across our entrance!  

The area also had it's own gold rush. Huge tracts of land have been changed by industrial sluicing. It has the feel of another planet!  But a beautiful walk nonetheless especially as we had sunshine for once. 

Lake Wanaka was our next stop where we found Red Bull setting up for an event. The following day we went down to check out the lake and see what was happening. The event was running, mountain biking and kayaking with some extras thrown in. A bit of abseiling and clay shooting....  All great fun to watch and made me think I needed to get fit and compete in some sort of event myself...

Back at the campsite and into the hot tub with a rum and ginger and the thought soon faded, we shall see. 

With love from a very wet New Zealand

Love Alasdair and Gill

A cafe we stopped in on Route 6, they are really into old cars here.