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This entry will begin with a funny little story I have about English stodge cravings. After a Sunday morning lie in (who am I kidding, we sleep till we want to every day, unless we have any appointments like a particular tour to be on) we both decided the only thing that would make the day worth living would be a big ole bacon buttie. This may sound overly dramatic, but I firmly believe we all need to have our Withnail moments here and there.... it's what seperates us from the apes. The landmark on the map was a rural Salmon Farm, highlighted as a point of interest in bright pink letters - which I think must have a direct relation to how far away we were from anything of note. We'd arrived the same time as a coach load of people, and shuffled in with the non-ethical masses. I say this because we both chuckled at the 2 travellers who were making a stand at an "animal rights"/"meat is murder"/"fish have feelings too" point by not following the crowds in a decidedly hauty fashion. Neither of us have anything against folks like these, good on anyone who has an individual take on the world, but our own behaviour at not giving a scale of care to the notion that we were both schlopping into this place which does exist purely for the mass breeding of fish for humans to eat, and that our very reason for entering this place was on a quest of some greasy swine in a bap was funny by comparison at the time. After filing past every gift known to man that could ever be related to salmon, we found the coffee and refreshments counter. Now! They had bacon on their menu, they had full breakfasts on their menu and they also had a special appendhage to their menu that they were able to provide toast "Door step Sliced". I asked a young girl if it would be possible for us to have some bacon and some egg put between two doorstep slices and was told that she could never know an answer to such a question, because she "Was gift shop", so I took my English Rose charm to the senior lass who was clearly the highest in rank of this Salmon Army and requested she make two peoples Sunday morn dreams come true by shuffling some ingredients into a different order. She took some convincing, and the only thing that slayed her jobs-worth attitude was the fact that I had several customers behind me in fits of laughter at her initial refusal to perform such a simple task for us. By the time I handed her the cash to pay, it was like there had been a mini victory in the civil war that is tourists VS. all snooty gift shop owners. So as the salmon swam their repetative laps in pools graded to fish size below us, Thom and I delighted in satisfying a buttie craving.
The next item of note I have for you all is that of even more spectacular scenery, which we took in on the drive towards Queenstown. Stunning rolling hills and fields all the towards Lake Wanaka, in Wanaka which is a valley housed in by snow topped mountains. Despite the chilly winds Thom braved a dip and I watched. The hills then resumed that afternoon and Bart was pushed to extremes as we ascended great heights to a rest stop which stated it was the highest sealed road in New Zealand. We stopped for a bit here to look down on the planes coming into land at Queenstown Airport and then decended a little more to secure another free rest stop for the night which had fuller panoramic views of both Queenstown and neighbouring Arrowtown. Bloody Marvelous with a beer in hand and the sunset gradually working it's way in over the mountains.
So the next day we decended on into Queenstown and did a good job at not parting with too much cash. The allure of throwing myself off a perch to swing on the worlds biggest canyonswing was rather fierce at one point but my more sensible self kicked in with counting the dollars and instead we went hell for leather on the Luge. After a quick facebook hit (despite my being away I am still hooked) my good pal Amy recommended going to Fergburger, where she said this was her highlight of the whole of queenstown - above a bungey jump. Now Amy is not really the burger kind if you know what I mean, so this recommendation had to be investigated thoroughly. The photo's will show our findings. Needless to say Thom has suggested only a few days ago that we make a 100km detour just to return back to this burger joint to get another one. They are THAT GOOD!!!!!
We can finally remark on how remarkable the Remarkables are with the remarkable photo's we have included. Feel free to let us know any remarks you may have!

Milford, Fiorland and discovering ones inner Nordic Goddess soon to follow!

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