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.

Stewart island

We found some yellow eyed penguins on the beach in the Catlins area, it was great to see them, including 2 young ones.
The next day we  drove down to Bluff, parked the minibus, and caught the ferry to Stewart island.  It's quite a bit bigger than I imagined, I suppose isle of Wight size, but most of it you can't get to.  We had a nice afternoon walk up into the bush area and around the coast line.  At about 9pm we boarded a boat which took us to another part of the island where we walked through a bit of bush to the beach, we all had torches, but our guide then tells you to turn them off if he sees or hears a kiwi.  We saw one on the way to the beach and we watched one for a long time on the beach feeding.  The Stewart island kiwi Is the  Brown one, and does well here as there are no preditors.

The photo is not from our window today, but about 100 metres away.

Catlins

Well, you know I said we had been having hot weather - cancel that! Today had been much cooler with a little rain.  Having said that it has brightened up nicely this evening.  We spent quite a lot of time on the bus today as we travelled down to the far south east corner of New Zealand, to the Catlins area.  This is a beautiful area, and we did about 3 short walks, one along cliffs to a lighthouse, then to a waterfall, and through bush to the beach.  We saw lots of seals enjoying the water, along with lots of different sea birds. I actually picked up a paua shell off the beach - It's the one that they use to make all sorts of jewelry, so hopefully I can get it home in one piece.
Our accommodation is a lovely house next to an inlet.  Tonight we're going somewhere in the hope of seeing penguins! 
The 3rd photo is taken from our accommodation.

Clyde

We've had really hot weather over the last few days, it was 30degrees c or more! There was a good breeze today though, just sticky at night.  Sorry to everyone in UK with more wet weather ;)
We made our way today to Clyde which is in the middle of the Otago region.  Lovely village - with another great Marino wool shop (weve seen a few now ) and walk in the surrounding hills and lakes - there was a flooded valley nearby. and a  town called Cromwell with a massive dam and hydro power station.  Interesting hotel which dates back to 1899, and Peter Jackson stayed here for 6 months while directing the Lord of the rings, some of which was filmed near here.  This area was were the first gold was discovered and statred the good rush in the 1860 s.
Photos from the balcony of the hotel. 

Mount cook

Had a lovely day walking up to a glacial lake fairly close to mount cook.  Weather is extremely warm which is a bit unexpected, but glorious views - which I've forgotten to take on my phone, so you've got one from our bedroom window!  Got a BBQ tonight. 

To lake pukaki

Once we had been collected by the minibus, we drove through the Canterbury plains to lake Tekapo  which has the most gorgeous colour.  We had a 3 hour walk up to view points and back round.  There are 11 in the group and 2 guides - both girls.  There are 5 English, 5 Aussie and 1 south African.  After the walk we drove towards lake pukaki and views of mount cook in the southern alps.  Our accommodation is great, but no free WiFi, so doing blogging etc in one hit!

Christchurch and beyond.

We took the scenic kiwi rail from Picton to Christchurch which took about 5 hours.  It was great to see the countryside and coastline. We spent the night in Christchurch before being picked up by minibus for the start of our walking tour. When we arrived in nz, I had an email from the b & b we were supposed to have been staying to say that they could no longer put us up as their insurance company had finally given the go-ahead for earthquake repairs to start, and they had to move out.  Fortunately they found us an alternative.  We didn't see too much damage where we were.