At the end of the long white cloud.

Josh & I enjoyed Wanaka we ended up staying on another day & ventured to this stunning place on the lake front and did a spot of fishing and sight seeing. From there we headed off to Queenstown, via Cardrona - the old pub was a must see for both of us & we weren't disappointed, it is filled with rural 'bloke/mate' character, and set in the farming highlands it's just great. "Good on y'r mate", just rolls off the tongue in that sort of environment.
Onto Arrowtown via the crazyest road immiginable. Arrowtown was lovely, Josh enjoyed Gold Panning on the Arrow river & I enjoyed perusing the shops and taking some of the many walks along the river bank. Josh's desire to strike gold was so strong that we ended up staying the night in Arrowtown and delaying our arrival in Queenstown.
The following morning we back-tracked to Cromwell to visit the historic Goldfields Mining Centre, by now we both had 'gold fever' and the thought of striking it rich was all consuming. The walk around the old mining town was interesting and seeing the machinery was pretty cool but we were focused on 'the panning'. Josh found a few flakes and I nothing, but it was well worth the trip.
From here to Queenstown, I must say afterall the hype I have heard about it I was a little disappointed. It doesn't have the character of Banff or the quaintest of Wanaka and seemed very, very commercial. We were only here for a few hours so I guess I need to give it longer next time. Oh but it is as expensive as Whistler - 1 packet of 4 batteries was $40.00!!
Then we headed all the way down to Invercargill we both wanted to see the southern most point of NZ as we had been to the Northern most on our honeymoon. Bluff was awesome, on the way down we picked up a hitch hiker - Brian, whose real name was Feng Lee, a Taiwanese tourist who had missed the bus to Bluff that morning, we helped him out and gave him
a lift. No Bluff Oysters though - very disappointing.
After taking the tourist route along the southern coast of NZ we ended up in Dunedin our 2nd to last stop on our amazing trip.
We have taken many, many photos which you will all be subjected to at some stage.
Luv rach