Next morning we thawed ourselves after what was a bitter night and got back on the road towards the first of the two famous Glaciers as you work your way south down the coast, namely, the Franz Josef. The Fox and the Franz Josef glaciers were originally called 'Albert' and Victoria' after originally being 'discovered' by an early english adventurer but were since re-named in honour of more 'deserving' folk. There are also actually around 60 glaciers along the w...

Kia-Ora folks, from Milford Sound! Right, its been a while since our last update so ill attempt to give you a run through on the last weeks events since our Whale watch 'experience' (does that seem like AGES ago to anyone else?) So, after we left off in the last blog entry we headed out of Kaikoura south towards Arthurs Pass. As seems to be the norm here at the moment it was cats and dogs outside so we decided to spend the night just short of the pass in the ho...

27th So today we bid farewell to the North Island and boarded our ferry across to Picton on the South Island. The ferry was pretty uneventful even though it took 3 hours 20 minutes! We didn't realise it would be that long. Thankfully they provided free entertainment in the form of films so we watched 'Happy Feet' and 'Make It Happen'. Happy to say Mark made it across without emptying the contents of his stomach, much to the fellow passengers and my delight!! He ...

So today we awoke to the sound of rain beating down on the roof of the camper. Good start to the day! Unfortunately it didn't get any better the rest of the day as we were drenched with the fine rain that soaks you through. We had planned to do the walking tour from the lonely planet guide but didnt feel too enthusiastic about that idea with the current weather so we opted instead to pay a visit to the local cinema to see 'International' starring Clive Owen. &q...

The first thing you see as you approach Taupo is the huge lake and it is an amazing sight as you come down the highway with forest either side and the huge crystal lake in the background. We only really stopped at the I-Site here as Max and Caroline wanted to find out if they were going to be able to climb one of the nearby mountains, with the bad weather that had been forecast. Anyway, it turns out that the track to the mountain was going to be closed until Sun...