5th - 7th January (Wanaka and Haast)

On the way out of Queenstown we stopped for a while at the worlds first bungy and watched some jumpers. One girl went into the river from head to waist - that looked really cool and I was tempted to waste more money but didn't. We drove on to Wanaka, stopping at puzzle world just before we arrived, viewing all the perception altering displays and puzzles before spending 72 minutes in the hot sun wandering around the extremely frustrating first ever 3d maze. The 6th saw my first overcast sky of the new year. We drove along a long bumpy gravel road to the start of the Rob Roy walk, when we arrived it was raining so we sat in the car playing cards for a while, eventually we went for it, walked for one minute (there and back!), I was the only one with a waterproof jacket. On the way back the sky cleared and we stopped for a pleasant lakeside walk. Later, I spent a while uploading all of my Oz and NZ pictures on to flickr, so click on the flickr icon to the right to see the latest pics - but be warned NZ is very picturesque so I have taken lots of scenery pictures that are probably mostly boring and not very good, in the hope that there are a few of picture postcard perfection. Wanaka is very nice but the weather isn't. We didn't stay long, packed our tents and drove to Haast on the west coast. The weather was sunny and cloudy all day and I played with my boomerang for the first time (almost got it to come back to me), then drove north to Jackson bay where the lonely planet describes some beautiful red rock mountain views as 'unforgettable', I will never forget those views after a long, bumpy and windy drive, of completely unobscured f#ck all. There is nothing to stop in Haast for, if the sky is clear the route to and from Haast is quite scenic, just don't stop! The music in the car is an odd mix. Tom likes Britney, Hindi pop, Thai pop, Michael Jackson and thankfully the Beatles, Sasha has generally better taste although she is a big fan of Alanis Morrisette, at times the journeys are quite painful!