Day 17 - Queenstown - Sydney - Canberra

Our last day 😞.  I was up early and out the door to take a few last pictures.  Nobody was keen to come so there were NO whinges or whines or snide comments or horn tootling every time I stopped. Feel the serenity - both inside and outside the car 😀

Day 16 - Arrowtown

Our last full day in NZ so decided to go out with a bang!

Before any formal activities it was an early stroll to the bakery. It was quiet and peaceful, the morning light soft and there was nobody around...

And Emmy had a morning visitor. There were in fact two of these kitty cats, virtually identically except the one with Emily below had these tiny little fangs sticking out of his mouth - like a wee vampire bat. 

And after breakie first activity on the list - wine tasting.  The squids weren't fussed about going so it was just Steve and I who ventured about 18km down the road from Arrowtown to the fabulous Mt Rosa Winery.  We had booked a tasting with the lovely, smart, knowledgable Bindi who was studying to be a sommelier and meeting her made a great tasting even better.

And then it was off for some adventure - jet boating and white water rafting down the Kawarau River!  Whoo hooo.

And no cameras for the rafting BUT unheard of - the rafting company RealNZ took a whole bunch of excellent photos and shared them for FREE!  What the?!?  Love it!!  Here's some of the shenanigans 😁😂😅

Dog leg rapids - nearly 500m worth 😎

Standing up 

And then our last dinner in NZ was the best, mmmm mmm I want to eat it all again 😁

Daniel and Jeremy both had the rump steak, but it looked more like eye fillet and the first of our shared desserts - apply and cinnamon creme brulee.  Mmm mmm.

I had the burger on the top left and interestingly it was called a colourful burger.  It was pretty dull to look at buy was so damn yummy. It's late, we're actually back in Canberra and I should probably be asleep (work tomorrow 😜) but all I can think about is scoffing another one of those burgers.  Must have reinvigorated appetite after viewing white water rafting photos!

Clockwise from top left: Penny's colourful burger, Emily's fish burger, best cheesecake with even better rhubarb sorbet, Steve's chicken burger

Day 15 - Te Anau to Arrowtown

One last look at Te Anau and a final round of frisbee golf. Steve went up early and lost his frisbee - I got there next and couldn't find it then the kids turned up and Jeremy found it within a nano second - right out in the open and very obvious! The only good thing about it being lost for so long is Steve found someone else's frisbee and that got us all thinking.... How many were out there.  Em found one next and then Daniel found two.  

One very coveted one annoyingly had a name and phone number on it so there was a bit of a moral debate - ignore number and keep or call owner and return. Bottom line - Jin got his frisbee back.

And 'cos we know had a plethora of frisbees Em and I had a go too.  Not pretty!

It was a 2 hour drive back to Queenstown and this is the only photo...

Steve and the boys headed off to the frisbee shop to buy even more. They're all rated for speed, glide, turn and fade so there was quite a bit of research done before they bought 4 more!  Em and I cruised around ....

and ended up in the Patagonia Ice Creamery and Chocolaterie where we bought the biggest two scooper!

And then we headed out to our final destination for the trip - Arrowtown.  Our accommodation is a bit oldy worldy which made Daniel a bit twitchy - he's a modern kind of dude and the wall paper was messing with him.

Arrowtown itself is tiny but just gorgeous. We had a quick explore and then a drink and chippies at the Fork and Tap, before crashing.  All knackered and big day jet boating, white water rafting and cliff jumping tomorrow!

Day 14 - Te Anau / Milford Sound

We had the most gorgeous weather today for my third trip to Milford Sound. The previous 2 were wet, misty and rainy and as much as I liked seeing the sound in sunshine I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I prefer it in the rain!

Anyway were were up and at 'em around 7:30am.  The boys were angels - as IF! - they are ratbags in the morning and today was no exception.  Daniel, in particular, likes to argue about just about everything and the smaller the issue (i.e. and extra 3 minute lie-in) the better.  Admittedly we probably could have left a bit later as we did get to the Sound about 2 hours early - but that's not the point 😎

Moving on...  Here's some of the sights on the 118km journey there...

And because we were 2 hours early (yep - I'm hearing you Daniel!) we had time for a good look around.

Before jumping on board the Pride of Milford

And it was shortly after the above photos were taken that I dropped my lens cap over the side of the boat.😡

Excellent day, but so weary now!  Last fortnight catching up with us.  It doesn't get dark until 9:30-ish and have been going to sleep around 11:00pm each evening. 😴

Day 13 - Balclutha to Te Anau (via the Southern Scenic Drive)

Gasp - today was raining!  We have been lucky with the weather so this came as a bit of a shock.  The plan was to drive from Balclutha to Te Anau via the Southern Scenic drive, but yesterday's long day in the car coupled with the rain made us re-evaluate and go for a shorter option.

Except for Nugget's Point Lighthouse - that was a must rain, hail or shine.  

The far south is remote and the towns small and few and far between.  The rain added to the atmosphere and the trip to the lighthouse reminded me of the UK.  The rugged scenery and small walk through the rain was totally worth it...

The scenery for the remainder of the journey was nice but not as spectacular as it had been so just a few photos...

Until we were almost at Te Anau when the mountains reappeared.

And another round of disc golf on the best 18 hole course so far...

Top Right - Steve barely visible in the bushes retrieving frisbee

Which I only half paid attention to - the other half was spent finding things to take close ups of...