progress!!! We settled instead for a walk along Lake Wakatipu, the enormous lake which Queenstown sits on. There were really impressive views, especially of 밫he Remarkables? a jagged range of mountains which were very aptly named. The weather once again started turning a little wild, so again we headed off to another DOC campsite on the edge of the lake where we had a good hard working afternoon sorting out diaries and photos for all you good people!!

The next morning it was time to try and get in touch with the visa people,. And after several frustrating phone calls to various departments at both the UK and US embassies, we got the same answer that we had to phone the premium rate number, with no suggestions on how to solve the problem that it appeared to be impossible! They suggested that we should ask the people at our hotel if we could use their phone, to which we replied that we

were camped in a van in a field!!! We finally gave up and went in search of a place who would let us use their phone. After a long search the Citizens Advise Bureau of all people came to our rescue, and the two lovely old dears in there allowed us to use their phone and pay for the call. Great we thought! Problems over! Actually they뭗 just started - there was a five week waiting list for an appointment, which took us to two days after we were supposed to leave New Zealand. Arrgggghh again!! We had to accept the appointments, and keep on calling back to see if we could get a cancellation. Two problems with that, firstly it was impossible from a public phone, and secondly, it cost a tenner each time we called! Can you believe that on a premium rate number which costs ?.50 a minute we were kept on hold for 5 minutes before speaking to anyone!!! The Yanks have got a lot to answer for in the money grabbing department!!!!