Cromwell Motel

... and loading them into trucks on the very narrow road. There are traffic lights but when they go green, as the first car I come round the bend and there is a huge pile of stone being loaded into a truck so I have to stop. They soon clean it all up and even wipe the road (well, wipe as in wave the large digger thing on the front across the road like some trucker clearing crumbs from a table). Then there is the usual assault course ...

... to have a competition, best of 6 runs, with 1st place 3 points, 2nd place 2 points and 3rd place with one point. It was really fun and competitive, with James nearly knocking me off the track (although after the race I wiped him out onto the grass verge ;)). After 6 rounds James was the champion (bugger) although I came in second. For the rest of the day we took a walk into Queenstown Gardens and walked along the lake playing ...

... the buildings/scenery and to top it off, we were the only ones in there (although we had gotten there a few minutes before the opening time of 10am and were a little amused by the fact we were outside in the rain queuing for it). With respectable scores of 86 and 83 (par of 68..but shhhhh!) we headed back to the van for some lunch before spending the afternoon at the Kiwi Bird and Wildlife Park where we caught our first glance of the infamous national icon - the Kiwi. It a ...

... the van with the air con on high heat we could feel the temperature dropping outside the van and we climbed through yet more stunning scenery to Mount Cook village and the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre. As well as the interesting history of the mountain and lots of memorabilia, we were treated to a fantastic planetarium and 3D movie show in a very impressive custom-built theatre. Outside was slightly tinged with disappointment, the view of Mount ...

... the remaining 40km to Clyde after a nice break in Alexandra know locally as Alex which is odd but kinda sweet. A great thing about cycling with this trio of Wellingtonions was the food, they'd brought enough for a army, so happily fed me, which was great. They also handed over all the left overs to me when they left, so I now have food for week! This morning after stuffing mall the food etc. into my bursting panniers I ...

... apparently went to the same school in stamford, in england, that sean used to go to! small world! first stop, the borumba dam. check it out, too many people to drop off family mice, take some pix. next stop, the mapleton falls. arrive in a rather jammed packed carpark, hide from the rain, tuna sandwich stop, take far too many pix again, realise here would definitely not be the best place to drop off family mice. next stop, kondalila falls. here, we are blown away by the number of ...

... a famous burger place called 'Ferg Burger' it is officially AMAZING!!! had to treat and get one they wre massive!! The weather was a little grey the next few days there which gave us all cabin fever, not good! We have decided that unless you constintly do activities in NZ theres not much else to do! We went to see Milford Sound which is the famous picture you see of the huge mountains reflected in the water, unfortunately it was really ...

Egy valamire nem szamitottam Uj Zelandon: teljesen kopar, vadnyugat jellegu tajra, es aranybanyasz fantom varosokra. Neha egy western filmben ereztuk magunkat, kulonosen, a szikrazo napsutesben. Az aranylaz itt nem tartott sokaig, hamar eszrevettek, hogy keves az aranyrog, de azert jo nehanyan meggazdagodtak. Meg lehet latogatni nehany regi aranybanyaszok altal lakott kisvarost ...

... from above. The theatre that ...

... we can't get near it, we jump back in the car and head out, to see even more sheep running around, raising the alarm that is no longer necessary. I don't have much experience with sheep, being a cow farmer's granddaughter, so this was an amazing exhibit for me. Cows are pretty easy-going, apparently, compared to sheep! We drive back north along the lake. I really like this stretch of road, which hugs the lakeshore most of ...