We've been back in Auckland now for almost a week, staying in a backpackers' hostel until we fly to Sydney on Thursday morning. Sold the van after a couple of days for a pittance at a car fair. Timed it totally wrong me thinks! There's just hoards of travellers like us trying to sell their campervans before flying home at the end of the summer. No one was getting decent money for them and bearly even any interest! There was a couple of other brits accross from us trying to sell their van with no success so we ended up just having a bit of a laugh with them, making squeeking and clanking noises when anyone else went past on a test drive. I hate second hand vehicle buying and selling. It feels really dirty because everyone's trying to get one over on each other for the sake of a few bucks. Really felt like I needed a shower after the whole seedy business. So we decided to cut our losses, sell it to a breaker for $1000 (£400), get out of there and go and get drunk. Sweet as! Still see loads of people trying to sell for way over the odds. Think they're dreaming. Take the booze every time! 
Well here we are back in Auckland! After the Renwick wine jaunt we headed up to Picton where we caught the ferry back accross the Cook Strait to Wellington. Because we booked on an evening sailing we decided to spend the day taking in the last of the Marlborough Sounds as the weather was absolutely perfect. Jos opted for a wildlife cruise up th Queen Charlotte Sound while I decided to do yet more scuba diving, this time taking in an old wreck site right out on the headland. Great day out. The first dive started with a preliminary swim with a pod of bottlenose dolphins. We'd just got into wetsuits when we noticed the pod approaching the boat so all of us made a mad scramble for masks and snorkels and threw ourselves into the water. Unfortunately no one had had time to don fins so we kind of just bobbed around looking somewhat inept in the eyes of the passing porpoises as they sped past us in the persuit of whatever they were persuing. This happens when you interact with the dolphins. Some days they are up for stopping and playing around/ taking the piss out of humans' swimming inabilities which is fine (I'd like to see them try and skydive) but some days they just want to get to where they want to go and eat fish and stuff. It was still awesome though. They have this cheeky kind of knowing grin on their faces which has an amazing effect of putting in your place as a mere human being. Anyway off they went and down we went. Saw an octpus. Didn't invite us into his garden though. Shame. This photo was taken on the way back into port from the dive boat. Same pod we think, about 20 of 'em all surfing in the boat's wake. Not bad for our last day on the South Island of possibly the most beautiful country in the world, I'm sure you'll agree!
From Arthurs Pass we continued north to Renwick in the heart of New Zealand's Marlborough wine making district. We checked in to a backpacker's hostel and hired bikes from them to ride round the area taking in all the local vinyards that were offering cellar door tastings. Some of the wines were absolutely gorgeous, my favourites being the pinot gris from numerous places. We enjoyed this so much we stayed for a second day to take in yet more wine and soak it all up with an incredibly good lunch. How delightful. Stopping at Grove Mill vinyard, the first carbon neutral yard in NZ, we couldn't resist a quick game of boules between the vines! You'd like it he
re Dad.
Spent a couple of days in Arthurs Pass. More mountains and buckets of rain. Fortunately we managed to get a decent walk in before the weather turned. These pictures were taken on Bealey Spur. Because of the weather warning we didn't stay out over night in any huts and had to spend the evening in a bar drinking exceptionally fine single malt scotch. Tragic.
ry here, just a railway line and the pies in paper bags. Sweet as!
e DOC campsite the night after skydiving and set out early the next day on this 7 hour return walk in absoloutly perfect weather. The route was pretty busy with it being Good Friday bank holiday, but well worth it never the less. Apparently this was the first hill Edmund Hillary climbed before going on to scale Everest years later. Wh
at a place to start mountaineering! 
The second photo was taken at the top, Tom gazing serenely across at Mt Cook (vowing to do more summit climbs on our next trip).
The close up is a Grey Duck, kinda like Mallards, but not as common (classy ducks only please). While we were in Queenstown Tom went up a mountain, I went part of the way with him, then snuck back down to fed the ducks (and the fish actually, in a really cool underwater observatory). 
New Zealand generates 60% of it's electricity from Hydro electric sources. Lake Manapouri is home to the first one built in NZ and the second lar
gest. Built between 1963 and 1970 it can generate upto 700MW now that they've dug a second tail race to drain the water more efficiently away from the turbines into Doubtful Sound. After finishing our walk around the lake, we opted for an easy day so took a boat trip accross the lake to go on a tour of the power station. Geektastic! The main turbine hall is 200m down inside the mountain and you can go down on a bus and have a look. Impressive bit of engineering! In the 1970's it was the source of NZs first major environmental campaign when the idea of raising the levels of Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri to maximise efficiency met with massive opposition. Fortunately the plans were scrapped and now the
lake levels are closely monitored in order not to damage the surrounding environment.
teburn track, we carried on up to Milford Sound, a fiord named after Milford Haven by the Welsh guy that found it, although from what I remember of Milford Haven, I think this place is just slightly more scenic. The peak in the middle of the picture is called Mitre Peak and is just over a mile high from sea to summit. Which is pretty high. Although an impressive place it can get very busy with tourists, although it was pretty quiet when we were there because the season is coming to an end. In an attempt to get off the beaten tourist track a little bit I decided to go diving in the Fiord which is home to some deep sea species at much shallower depths due to a layer of fresh water on the surface which filters out light so you get things going on at around 20 metres which you would usually only find at 150 metres plus.
This is the view of Lake Wakatipu from the summit of Ben Lomond near Queenstown. Apprently the mountain was named after the Scottish version by a load of home sick jocks when they emmigrated in the 18 hundreds. You would have thought all the gold they found here would have cheered them up a bit!
This is the final hut on the track at Whariwharangi Bay at the north end of the Park. The oldest hut on the route, originally built by a settler who leased land off local Maori to farm. It was abandoned by the owner because the land was pretty poor for cultivating, leaving behind loads of de forested hill sides that had been cleaared for grazing. Since 1972 the land has been recovering and you can hardly see any of the signs of the previous clearing. The conservation work that goes on over here is pretty full on! This was our favourite hut on the whole track. Quiet with only a few other people sharing with us and with smaller separate rooms as opposed to larger shared dorms in the bigger more modern huts. I can honestly say I don't think I've ever experienced a more stunningly beautiful landscape in my life, but then we haven't been down to Fjordland yet... T
Check this out! The fourth day involved an early morning low tide crossing of Awaroa inlet and then a stunning walk through lush sub tropical rain forest to Mutton Cove (above). At this point we split up, Jos and Beck taking a shorter route to the next hut while I took a loop up to Separation point where you get some absoloutely breath taking views of the coast and far off mountains across Tasman Bay.