Te Anau, Milford Sound, Wanaka and beyond

I have run out of superlatives for this beautiful country. To sum up the last few days.... Majestic, jaw-droppingly beautiful, awesome, amazing, stunning, fabulous - you get my drift. Our trip to Milford Sound was 2 hrs in the most luxurious coach ever driving through fabulous scenery, mountains, lakes, forests, waterfalls then onto our boat for the most beautiful trip there is. There was a brilliant blue sky and warm sunshine. Just a perfect day. The next day we drove to Wanaka which is in a lovely setting, but not as lovely as Te Anau where Dave wants to move to. Then the drive through gorges, mountains and more rocky streams and waterfalls to Hokitika. Another unbelievably scenic drive the next day took us back to Nelson.

We observed the 2 min silence at a viewpoint on a narrow coastal road with waves crashing beneath us and we spent the time thinking of what might have happened to us and of the people who have lost their lives or lost those close to them last Tuesday.

We stopped to admire extraordinary rock formations called Pancake Rocks at Punaikaki where alternating soft and hard layers of rock have been eroded over 1000s of years into what look like stacks of pancakes.

We are now on the ferry to Wellington, which I might add had a tremor of 4.7 last night! We are driving straight up to the Art Deco town of Napier, which was rebuilt almost entirely in the 1930s...... after a huge earthquake.

Leaving this beautiful place on Saturday, we will be very sorry to end this fantastic trip