The Rest of the South Island and Beyond...

Lake Tekapo is a beautiful lake to the east of where we stayed in Mt. Cook National Park. On a super clear day you can see Mt. Cook from here.

This is The Church of the Good Shepherd on the shores of Lake Tekapo.

It's beautiful inside.

Fairlie, New Zealand. For those of you who know Farley (the doggie) back home:)

Have you been to Broomfield, New Zealand? 2km down the road.

Black Betty has! This is the gate to the school. Besides a few houses, this is the whole town.

The Bueller River on State Hwy 6 on the way to Nelson Lakes National Park.

A swan coming out of Lake Rotoroa to see what we are having for breakfast, in Nelson Lakes National Park.

From Nelson Lakes National Park we made our way back to Picton. We took a very early ferry from Picton across the Cook Strait. Black Betty is patiently waiting in line to board the ferry. Lucky John got to drive Betty onto the ferry at 6am, backwards!

Picton from the ferry.

Wellington is New Zealand's capital city. We got to go on a free tour of the Parliament House. This is "the bee hive" where all the politicians offices are located.

Then we took the Wellington Cable Car up the steep hill into the nearby suburbs. The first cable car opened here February 22, 1902 to create easy access into the city. In 1979 they updated the cable car for safety.

Great view of the city from the top.

This is the old cable car on display in the Cable Car Museum.

We had a nice walk through the beautiful Botanical Gardens back to the city streets.

Another pretty flower in the Botanical Gardens.

Wellington from across the harbor.