Today was our last morning in Queenstown, so Andy was up early for his customary 10k run into the centre for the final time.

After grabbing breakfast and enjoying the views from the outside patio, we jumped in the car and drove 25mins up the road to Arrowtown, the former goldmine centre.

Arriving into Arrowtown it was clear that some of the money that had been made in the past, through gold finds in the nearby river, had been retained as the place was awash with high end stores and fancy restaurants and bars.

A lot of the original buildings from the Victorian period have been retained and restored and put to alternative uses. In our opinion this helped to make the place, as did the numerous funky coffee shops with trendy baristas (mostly English) working their magic!

We have to admit we liked the buzz of Queenstown, but controversially I think we may have been even more impressed by the laidback feel of Arrowtown. Definitely going to try and return on our way back from a visit to Milford Sound.

The town is blessed with a tree lined strip that gives the Main Street an even more elevated feel and quite European/English in appearance.

We then went in search of gold in the stream and bush…despite a 20min walk our search proved uneventful and we returned to our car without any gold nuggets!!

The walk along the river was beautiful, helped by the wonderful scenery and colourful lupins on each side of the stream.

After a pleasant couple of hours in Arrowtown it was time to start our journey south and then west to Te Anau, our bolt hole for tonight before our early morning cruise at Milford Sound on Wednesday.

As we drove down Lake Wakatipu to Kingston, we stopped a couple of times to take in the views of the snow topped mountains and clear blue lake.

Even for someone who is not a ‘nature’ nut, this is incredible scenery and worthy of a stop or two to celebrate its beauty.

We decided to take an early lunch stop at Kingston and treated ourselves to another NZ pie, this time a bacon, cheese and beef Dad’s pie. As a dad Andy can confirm it fitted the bill and proved to be a great filler.

After another hour or so’s drive we arrived in Te Anau around 1.30pm and went straight out for a walk around a very blustery Lake Te Anau. It’s the gateway to the fiords and we came across lots of other people who are heading to Milford Sound tomorrow like us.

Despite the winds, the sun came out for most of the afternoon and having walked around for a good hour or two, we picked up some food for dinner and headed back to our motel for a glass of rose in the sunshine.

Tomorrow we have another early start for the 90min drive through the winding roads to the Sound and our 2hr cruise through the fiords in search of seals, dolphins and penguins along with waterfalls and stunning scenery.