The persistent rain turned into snow as the bus drove south towards Queenstown. The driver was an irate type who had no patience for anyone who came back late when we had "comfort breaks" - though to his credit, he never left without them. We stopped at Lake Tekapo, which is meant to be a suprisingly vivid shade of turquoise, but on this murky cold day was a pedestrian grey. I bought a pair of woollen gloves in the village; I wanted to get a pair with sheep on them which looked like they'd been made by someone's grandma, but I couldn't fit my gigantor hands into them, so I settled for some boring navy blue ones.

We drove through stunning scenery of snowy peaks and tussocky grass and glassy lakes through to Mount Cook. I had wanted to stop off here as this is the highest mountain in New Zealand and there are some beautiful walks around. The weather was so inclement and I didn't really fancy tramping around on my own with avalanche warnings in place, so I decided to carry on to Queenstown. The bus stopped for a bit though, so I was able to potter around a bit and marvel at the awesome landscape. This is one of the locations they used during Lord of the Rings, so I tried to picture Orcs and Hobbits running around.