Happy New Year!

I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to post this because we seem to be in a dip of zero internet connection. We left Laidback Lodge on the 27th and said good bye to Catherine, Ceri and Nina. Thank you again Catherine for making that great few days possible, we really appreciate it. As we headed south the weather got cooler. We hit Greymouth in very bad weather and after spending the night there moved on quickly. We decided to try and do the drive all the way to Invercargill in as few days as possible so we did a very long drive all the way to Wanaka that day only glancing out the window at both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. The scenery on the way was amazing. Tall, tall mountain ranges with snow on the higher peaks. We finally arrived in Wanaka and were blown away by how beautiful it was. The following morning we walked along the lakeside in the hot sun and then visited Puzzling World. Puzzling World had a Labyrinth that was really tough. Matthew and Mick managed to find all 4 towers but Emma and I bowed out after the first two and escaped the fierce heat in the cafe. We left then to drive the last few 100 Km to Invercargill and arrived in time for a barbeque at Sam's aunt and uncle's house. It was great to be see Jan, Sam and Holly again after not having seen them since they came over here in October. Luckily for us a friend of Jan's had very kindly offered us her house to stay in while we were in Ivercargill and we had plenty of room to spread ourselves out. It was a nice change to be able to watch a bit of TV after Matt and Emma had gone bed instead of all having to go to sleep at the same time like we do in the campsite cabins. Jan was fit to burst with her due date only days away and as luck would have it her waters went the second day we were there. She very kindly said that I could go with her and Sam for the birth and for the first time I really got to see a baby being born as Charlotte arrived safely at 5.10pm on New year's Eve weighing a healthy 8lbs 6ozs. She is absolutely sweet and looks very like Holly did when she was born. Since then she has been an absolute model baby only waking to feed.
We spent the next few days being treated like royality by Sam's parents, Cath and Tony, and eating like kings too. Thank you both so much for making us feel so welcome and part of the family. Mick and Sam went on a men only fishing trip to the Mavora lakes and caught 3 big troutand got bitten alive by sandflies. They arrived back triumphantly and the fish were gutted, smoked and enjoyed by us all. We had a fair bit of wind and rain in Invercargill but nothing that stopped us doing anything we wanted.

Doubtful Sound
After 7 days of being spoilt rotten we left and headed north to Doubtful Sound for a day trip. Doubtful Sound has the most incredible scenery that somehow doesn't look possible even though you're there looking at it! We got a boat across Manapori lake and a bus 220m below ground to Manapori hydropower station which is concidered to be NZ's most sucessful engineering project. The bus then took us over the mountain to Doubtful sound where we took another boat through the Fiord to where it meets the sea. Unfortunately the rain was absolutely flogging down for the entire trip and in our infinite wisdom we had decided to leave all our wet weather gear in Wellington so we were completely drenched but we did get to see a group of bottle nosed dolphins swimming alongside the boat and fur seals. The guide also said that there was a crested penguin behind us at one point but it was hard to see it through the teaming rain so we had to take his word for it.

Glenorchy
We stayed the night in nearby Te Anau and the following morning headed towards Queenstown and more settled weather to pick up our campervan. Queenstown is beside lake Wakatipu with high snow capped mountains all around it. Queenstown is where lots of Kiwis come to spend their holidays and there is no shortage of money around here! Our campervan is great. Lots of room and comfortable to sleep, eat and drive in. We drove from Queenstown to Glenorchy which is an hours drive from Queenstown and stayed in a caravan site last night. We will stay here again tonight and then try some 'freedom camping'. There is more impossibly beautiful scenery up here and we even woke up to some fresh snow on the nearby mountains here this morning.
Glenorchy is a small village with zero phone coverage or wireless internet connection but on the plus side it has a comprehensive possum fur shop selling everything from cushion covers to belly button warmers all made from possum fur. Possums are a pest here and are a danger to Kiwi birds so are trapped and killed. Tourists are also encouraged to run them over if the oppurtunity arises :)