Ellerton Country Homestead South Island

On the Sunday we decided to head down to Queenstown via Mount Cook National Park. Mount Cook is the biggest peak in Australasia and again is surrounded by beautiful countryside. Before leaving Lake Tekapo we went and has a look at the tiny church on the shore of the Lake (Church of the Good Shephard). This was very pretty and behind the pulpit was a big (panoramic in fact) window that just looked out onto the Lake and mountains behind. We ...

... internet. We then set off back up the coast towards Greymouth and stopped at Hokitika for lunch and food supplies on the way to Arthurs Pass. It was a pretty hairy drive with lots more winding roads and steep hills which Daisy struggled with once again. We had a brief stop at Deaths Corner which overlooked the road we had just driven up. We eventually reached our campsite which was literally just off the side of the road. <br><br>

... some of the local seafood as the lady running the campsite had suggested one of the spots in Bluff but after standing around for ages and ringing the bell for attention I gave up &#8211; this was late afternoon but what I realize now is that in many places, there are fairly set eating times. I did manage to find something later in Invercargill &#8211;so no need to worry I didn&#8217;t starve.<br><br>Leaving Invercargill I had hoped to keep to the Southern Scenic Route ...

... a little dirty &#8211; kind of like snow in<br>DC after a couple of days. That's because the force of the water/ice<br>carries rocks and stone from the mountain so it mixes with the ice to<br>get that look. Higher up there is less rock &#8211; and the glacier looks<br>more blue. <br><br>That's what boggled us the most &#8211; how blue the ice was, the<br>pictures do not do it justice. Throughout the day we had chances to<br>walk ...

... a river bed, with millions of stones all over the place. And the stones were beautiful, with all kinds of colors and stripes, I wanted to bring them all home with me! But of course, to do that I would have needed a bag the size of a glacier! <br><br>When we got to the base of the glacier we put our crampons on our boots. It made it strange to walk on the rocks, but it made it quite easy to walk on the ice without ...

... is Lake Mahinuapua which is a smallish lake but is known as a reflective lake, these lakes are common in New Zealand, something in the water makes the water a blackish colour which acts like a mirror, these provide for some stunning photos.<br><br>The next morning was tough for everyone, as most had been drinking to the wee hours but everyone managed to get the bus, well we had no option either way as the Pub is a far way from any town and there isn't anything to do ...

... you had to drive through Haast Pass - which is the lowest point you cross the Southern Alps. We went past a beautiful river and, as the day went on and it kept raining, more and more waterfalls either side of the road. We got to Haast around 4pm and Fox Glacier was on about 1.5 hours away so after a sandwich we kept on the road. The rain got heavier and ...

Day Nineteen - Fox Glacier<br><br>I enquired about doing a half day hike up Franz-Josef, but the morning tour was booked out. We planned on being in Wanaka by the evening, so I decided not to wait for the afternoon hike. We drove for half an hour to the Fox Glacier, and took the one minute walk from the car to the viewing area. Anything closer was closed off due to a recent landslide. I ...

... tours from, dropped off lunch, picked up some movie relics, and switched to smaller vehicles. Since the drive to Mt. Sunday includes driving through several rivers, the tours try to be as environmentally friendly as they can, so Paige and I along with several other tourists squeezed into the back of one truck while the other half of the group fit into another truck and we drove through the cattle grazing fields and halfway up Mt. Sunday, as far ...

... coastline, and snow capped mountain range in the farthest<br>view- probably Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook, which we'd be staying at this<br>evening.<br><br>8:00 AM - After returning to the resort to check out<br>and driving south for about an hour, we stopped at a New World<br ...