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Arriving in Picton, we checked into Atlantis Backpackers and brought our bags into our 24 bed dorm (a record I think – it wasn’t as bad as it sounded though, with all the beds sectioned off well). The next morning, Ciara, myself and Claire set off to walk the first part of the Queen Charlotte Track. It is a really nice walk, especially on a sunny day like we had. We stopped for a picnic at one of the small coves. It is possible to do the entire walk over 3 or 4 days, including some nights camping and it’s something I’d like to come back to do in New Zealand.

Another day in Picton so we did the snout track walk – a couple of hours along the headland, and then went to the cinema as we were hanging around for the ferry to Wellington that evening. The ferry crossing was grand that evening and we the YHA hostel without any trouble, then headed straight to bed.

We left Queenstown at 4.30am to make our boat for the trip to Doubtful Sound. It was well worth it. We had beautiful weather and the small boat was a good choice. We had delicious food – scones in the morning, homemade soup, sandwiches and cakes for lunch and more cake in the afternoon. Doubtful sound is an endless tunnel of fjords and like nothing I had ever seen before. As an added bonus there were lots of dolphins swimming around the area that day. At one stage a school of four were swimming by with the boat for about 10 minutes. The captain said that it was likely that the dolphins were so attracted to the boat that day because of all the female attention they were getting! (Us six, plus the our or five other women on the boat had all been enthusiastically leaning over the side of the boat to see them).

We stayed in Te Anau that night and then left early in the morning to go and see Milford Sound. Unfortunately the weather was awful that day so we didn’t get to see much of the sound. It would be unfair to make a comparison but Doubtful Sound was a much better day for us!

After  20 hours on a bus, we arrived in Salta – a smaller pretty city in northern Argentina. By smaller, we mean 1.5million. As usual we started with a siesta when we arrived, then went into explore the town. But everything was shut – siesta here goes on every day from 2 to 6, our kind of place!

The next day,we took the cable car to see the whole city and surrounds, then visited the contemporary art museum and had a look at the archelogical museum.

Next day, we went on a great trip up further north, to visit Pumamarca and some other little towns, and saw the seven coloured mountains. The landscape here is very dry and sparse and the earth contains different minerals which give it the different colours. Some good weather for a change helped to make it a great day.