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Sunday 29th June - Drove for 10 hours to Wellington and caught the ferry to Picton. The passenger window fell of its runners in the mountains. We slept in th car and waited for the ferry.

Monday 30th June - The garage in Picton put a chunk of wood in the car door to hold up the window and we drove to Nelson. We were knackered and crashed out.

Tuesday 1st July - Booked the car into a Nissan garage and they orderd the part. We drove to the Harwood Hole and the beach at Kaiteriteri. Then returned to Nelson for the car to be fixed on wednesday.

Right is the road to Harwoods Hole and below is the view from the lookout, they used this area for when the hobbits exited the Shire in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Wednesday 2nd July - We took the car to the garage and they asked when it had last been serviced as we didn't know we told them to do it. Then we went swimming and to the cimema.

Thursday 3rd July - We dropped off the car again and sat drinking coffee all morning. When we picked up the car they rushed us for $1000. So we drove to Westport for a stiff drink.

Friday 4th July - We drove from westport to Cape Foulwind and the Pancake Rocks. Our days drive ended at the Franz Josef Glacier. We stayed in the nicest log cabin in the woods.

Saturday 5th July - We walked to the Glacier and ignored lots of danger signs. We drove to Lake Matherson that has pretty views of the mountains. We then drove across the mountains to Wanaka.

Right are the pancake rocks (cos they look like a stack of pancakes) and below are Franz Josef Glacier pictures.

Sunday 6th July - We went to puzzle world which was very cool. Then we drove to Mount Cook. Lake Pukaki on rout is the brightest blue and the views from the motel of the mountain are amazing.

Monday 7th July - We walked in the mountains near Mount Cook, saw an avalanch and had a snowball fight. Then we drove to Methven near Mount Hutt and considered skiing.

Tuesday 8th July - As this is the start of the school holidays and the first day the mountain is open we decided that the ensueing chaos would not be a good place for us to learn to ski. We drove past Lake Clearwater to the location of Edoras. (in The Two Towers) The road into the mountains was unsealed and covered in snow so I had great fun sliding the car around. We then drove to Hanmer Springs to stay for the night.

Below are some pictures from the mount cook area and one of the hazards of driving down south.

Wednesday 9th July - We started the day in the thermal pools and drove to Picton. Had a nice trip through the mountain and met cows on the road, as if sheep wasn't bad enough.

Thursday 10th July - We had a late start and then went on the Queen Charlotte Sound mail run. The people who live on the sound have no road access and so mail is delivered be boat. You can hop a lift on the mailboat to see the sound. We jumped on the 9:30pm ferry to Wellington.

Friday 11th July - (1:30 am) I had to drive from the ferry to Paekakeriki the nearest camp site. We woke late and Carla drove the desert road to Taupo. In Taupo we had a look at the falls and Aratiatia rapids bought some beer and got drunk.

Saturday 12 July - We drove to Hamilton and had lunch there and then continued onto Auckland all ready to start work again Monday.

This pic of lala is at Ship Cove on the Queen Charlottte Sound, the cannons and stuff are because Captain Cook liked staying here; it had shelter, fresh water and access to the open sea so he could run away if needed. He stopped here 5 times on his trips around the world and spent over a 100 days here.

The drop on the right is Huka Falls the guide book has it as a grade 4 drop with a grade 5 lead-in. The Government have a $10.000 fine if you are caught doing it, because too many people have died or needed rescued.

There are two other photo's worth seeing from our trip and they are both on the random photo's page.