Camping - Lake Wanaka

Luca went North and Yannick and I went South. We spent 6 hours trying to hitchike in the rain. 2 guys stopped and said they would have picked us up but their car was totally full but just wanted to stop and wish us good luck. People travelling in the other direction who would have picked up were quite funny. We almost got a hitch from some americans but ended up pointing them in the right direction. They were fist pumping and shouting etc. Was quite demoralising.

Finally, we got a hitch from 2 Belgian girls. We're lucky they came when they did because we were just about to call it a day! They were really cool they let me connect their phone to their speaker and I was car DJ for an little bit. The best bit of the journey was when one of the girls started singing hotline bling. One of them is from Queenstown and they gave us a load of little places to go off the beaten track. One of the girls said I should go bungee jumping just because Mum told me not to do it. There headed to Queenstown and one of them is planning to do skydiving.

When we arrived at the campsite 2 guys came up to us and apologised because they came past us and couldn't pick us up as they only had 1 space. As I walked down to the lake, I was suddenly reminded of why I decided to come to New Zealand. We're camping in some woods 2 seconds from the water. This lake is Interlaken 2.0 it's so beautiful photos cannot do it justice. But I've tried anyway. I've never been to a place so quiet that all you can here is water lapping on the shore and birdsong. The only bad thing about this campsite is that sandflies are bastards.

It's nice to be off the west coast. We're now in otago county. The land is so rugged and ungulating it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Arriving here has been the perfect end to what's been quite a tough day. Slept for about 11 hours camping, one of the best nights sleep I've had since I got here.

Dad and Fred Gatley would love the driftwood here. There's tonnes of it!