Se we left Makarora amid sunshine & blue skies after a brief stop at the cafe for Trouble to get his morning cup of coffee. Unfortuneately only 3 of us were interested in the Eco tour by jetboat (Ecology AND jetboat? How cool is that?!!!) & they needed 5 for the go ahead so we didn't get to do that. We stopped at Wanaka to visit Puzzling World - several rooms of illusion & a great maze which myself & Debby managed to navigate very well I think. We reached all four corner towers & found the exit with time to spare before Trouble returned with the coach. No one wanted to do the skydive at Wanaka so we headed straight through to Queenstown. Trouble took us the scenic route over the Crown Range Road, a ... read more

So Debby, Justin & guy who I won’t name (who kept us awake with his snoring!) were up & off for their full day glacier hike before I’d had my first cup of tea of the day! Tea, chat to Mark & brunch before heading out to the landing pad for our helihike!!! After being given crampons, boots, socks, gloves & a jacket we had a brief safety briefing & clambered into the helicopter. The flight over the glacier was amazing!!!! We had a brief tour up & around before landing in the ice next to a bare rock face called the Black Hole where we met our guide Turtle & Dean whose job for the day was to scout ahead for us! Then we got 2 hours of tramping over ice & across ice cold ... read more

Friday we set off down the west coast for a tiny place called Barrytown (also known affectionately as Baz Vagas!) stopping a few times on route to enjoy some sights. The first such stop was at Cape Foulwind to see the New Zealand Fur Seal colony. Unfortunately they were too far way for my camera to capture but there were several Weka next to the path including one with a chick next to the seal viewing platform. The other stop was at the Pancake Rocks - aptly named due to their odd layer formations. Here we admired the rocks & a blowhole which was just shooting spray as the tide was too low &/or the wind was the wind direction. Good views along the coast too. We stayed at the pub in town which is run ... read more

So Saturday we were all set to attempt the Tongariro Crossing, reputedly the best 1 day tramp in New Zealand... We left Taupo at 6am arriving at National Park Village (imaginitive name!) before 8 in order to sign in for the guided walk & get kitted out. Seagull had told us walking shoes weren't good enough but our guides seem to disagree & pronounced all our footwear suitable for the tramp. So after a short talk & drive to the start of the walk we were handed ice axes & set off up the mountains! Beautiful views around as it was a crystal clear day with not a cloud in the sky, best day they've had for ages! For the past couple of week's they'd not been able to go up the mountain at all & ... read more

Thursday I went caving on the Haggas Honking Holes adventure! Abseiling down waterfalls, crawling through holes & climbing up limstone walls. It was brilliant but so very tiring! Once we got out of the caves the walk back up the hill to the sheds nearly finished me off! There were loads of glow worms in the caves (Arachnocampa luminosa) - for those fans of nature documentaries these are the ones that have a sticky silk strand hanging down under them to catch flies. The whole experience was amazing! There are photos taken by the guides but I don’t have a CD drive to get them onto the computer... We then stopped briefly to watch an angora rabbit being shaved for it’s fur! Nearly bought some angora/merino blend yarn but decided I didn’t want to carry it ... read more