Scenic!

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Sad to leave Queenstown after an awesome time, we got in our newly aquired Mazda Familia. We hit the road early(ish) Sunday morning on a 4 hour drive to Milford Sound; a national park south of Queenstown with incredibly beautiful lakes, mountains and rainforest areas. The drive down was very impressive with stunning views around every corner.

After soaking up the views, we headed back North to Te Anau for the night. Here we had a wander, and a beer at the local, before bed. Monday morning was another early start for the drive to Wanaka. We arrived in the afternoon and had lunch by the crystal clear Lake Wanaka surrounded by snow topped mountains with bright blue skies. Having had enough of the natural beauty and in need of another adrenalin rush we decided to head to the famous Wanaka Puzzling World. Despite entering with very low expectations, much fun was had and we all left a little disorientated by some of the impressive optical tricks. See pic! After this we headed to a Quirky little independent cinema full of living room sofas and a VW beatle in place of the regular chairs to watch "The Lives of Others" before heading to a hostel.

Tuesday morning was yet another early morning and a long, incredibly scenic drive up the West coast. The drive was broken up by various stops for short walks and a dip in a beautiful, but icy cold lake on the way. We stopped at Fox Glacier to gawp for a while before reaching our current destination at Franz Josef where soon after checking in we were invited for a game of 'soccer' at the village hall, which went down a treat.

Another early night tonight (we're getting very sensible, mum!) will prepare us for our 8 hour adventure hike on the Franz Josef glacier tomorrow, which should be COOL!! (oh dear...)

Best wishes to all back home.

Love Mark, Hazh and Dave xxx

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Photos

Lamb crossing
The fourth time we had to mow through a sheep blockade

Mountain Veiw
An awesome view of Lake Wanaka. The reward of a tough mountain climb.

Puzzling
One of the many mind boggling optical tricks at Puzzling World.

A Cold Dip
A freezing cold, but very refreshing dip in the Blue Pools en route to Franz Josef.

Fox Glacier
A detour on our way to the Franz Josef glacier that we will scale tomorrow.

Comments

[Jenny Morcom]

New Zealand looks fabulous
Hi You've really made we want to go to New Zealand - it looks so beautiful! Glad to see you are all still washing- even if it was in a very cold lake! Take care Have fun Love Mum (Hazh's)