We left Franz Josef in the early morning for our drive down to Queenstown. Once more we had many stops on the way … the first already after less than an hour – at Lake Matheson for either an extended breakfast or – for the more active, as myself – a one hour walk around the lake with some fabulous scenario.

Here we also met up with those who left even earlier for a skydive over the Fox Glacier; we continued south with further stops at the Haast visitor center (with the option to try whitebait) and Thunder Creek Falls until we arrived for a good half hour stop at Wanaka – from here we continued for the last bit to Queenstown.