Today we explored the limestone valleys in this gold rush area. We found a town called St Bathans near the Blue Lake. Here there was a thriving town in the 1800s and gold was extracted from the hills and the lake area. As the plentiful gold depleted they used hydraulics to pump water into the rocks and then they panned the stones forced out. Eventually so little gold was being excavated they left the town.

It was so hot and people were swimming in the cold lake. There was a 50 minute walk all around the lake and so we set off, but the heat was too much and 20 minutes later we were back in the car with the air conditioning cooling down.

We have noticed some birds like lapwings but black and white with beige wings so we managed to take photo s of them today.

Just down the road from our hotel is a dammed up stream making a large lake in a conservation area. It has a gravel road down and we spent some time there this afternoon.

We both feel sunburnt tonight although we had factor 50 sunscreen on.

We move to Haast tomorrow to view 2 glaciers hopefully. If the roads aren’t to scary xxxxx