Fox glacier

Today some wanted to do the heli hike which would have taken them up to the top of the glacier, but unfortunately it couldn't take off as there was too much cloud.  2 others went on the guided glacier walk.  The rest of us did a lovely walk round a mirror lake, and then up to the glacier viewpoint where we could see all the glacier walkers down below us.  It was fascinating to see.
After lunch we drove to Franz Josef and had a lazy afternoon in some hot pools!

Arrowtown to Fox glacier

A lot of driving today, with a few stops for walks, one of about a hour that we could only walk half of due to a bridge under repair.
Lunch was invaded by lots of sandflies which are apparently all over the west coast, so lots of insect repellent needed and we ate on the bus!  They are worse in some places, so hopefully we won't encounter too many.
We are staying in a motel which apparently has great views of Fox glacier and mount cook - when the clouds lift!

Arrowtown 2

Had a free day today, so we hired bikes for the morning and rode some of the tracks around Arrowtown.  They were lovely tracks except there was quite a lot of up! - and I had 27 gears this time!
We spent the afternoon catching up with washing and looking round the Arrowtown town and museum. 

I don't seem to be able to upload photos at the moment, it must be something to do with th internet connections.

Arrowtown

Today we walked through lovely forest beside waiau river for about 4 hours.  After lunch we drove to Arrowtown stopping at the famous bridge for bunny jumping - unfortunatly we were just a bit late to see any jumps, but it is quite an impressive sight. 
Then we arrived at our motel in Arrowtown and had a quick look round before a nice BBQ.  Arrowtown is one of those gold mining towns, so looking forward to exploring a bit more tomorrow.

Milford sound

Today was a scenic day!  We drove from Te Anau on the only road to Milford sound which took about 2 1/2 hours, then took a large ferry type boat out into the sound for a couple of hours.  These sounds are actually fjords as they have been formed by glaciers.  It was incredibly busy, there were about 3 large double decker ferries, and hundreds of people who had come on coaches along this one windy road!  I've never seen quite so many Chinese either! There we're also little planes taking off and flying over the area, anyway, hopefully you get the idea that it was a tourist trap. It was howeve quite spectacular scenery.  After the boat trip and lunch we made our way back to Te Anau stopping a few times for short walks to scenic places. 

Te Anau

We got the 8am ferry back to the mainland - I was wrong about the size of Stewart island, it's actually about twice the size of the isle of Wight!
We drove through invercargill (all these Scottish names, I forgot to mention that we met a couple on Ulva who actually lived on the isle if Ulva in Scotland). We gradually made our way up to lake Manapouri for lunch, followed by a lovely walk along part of the Kepler track to Te Anau. 
We've got great accommodation again over looking lake Te Anau - photo from our room.

Stewart island 2

Today was a free day, so got up later for once!  We made our way up and over to Golden bay, - you do an awful lot of walking up then down, then up, then down again here!  From golden bay we took a water taxi over to Ulva island which took about 10 mins to get to.  It's a completly natural island with lots of birds to see.  We had a lovely few hours wandering through the paths and getting to unspoilt beaches.  The weather by the way has turned out beautiful, it's sunny and warm, but with a slightly chilly wind.
Got back to hotel and went for another short walk up and down a few hills!  We leave the island early tomorrow.

Photo is the Stewart island robin, and not my photo, although we did see a few.