We said our goodbyes to John and Lynn and boarded our toy plane to Christchurch. The view from the plane was amazing clear blue sky and snow covered mountains it was exciting to see what was to come.Once we landed we headed straight off to pick up our campervan. After doing I don't know how many circles of Christchurch's bloody one way system we parked up for the night and tried to figure out how the heck to put the bed up (always a confusing one). The next morning we set off to Akaroa the weather was pretty naf so we couldn't see much, but what we did see was good and if the clouds had parted we would have had a back drop of snowy mountains. The town was nice it's based on a French town so all the street names are French and the shops too.In the morning we started to make our way down to Dunedin the scenery was spectacular the whole drive down was snowy mountains and the weather was great too so we could really take it all in. So there are some advantaged to coming in winter everything looks pretty with snow on it.Before getting to Dunedin we stopped at a few towns on the way down to have a nosey they are all such small places but with the amazing backdrop of the mountains. We also went to shag point to go seal and penguin spotting we didn't see penguins but we saw lots of cute seals.Once in Dunedin we hit the Cadbury chocolate factory yum yum! It smelt amazing we were like Charlie in Charlie and the chocolate factory. We got lots of tasters and watched things being made (it was interesting honest) then lastly saw the chocolate waterfall no pictures allowed unfortunately but you can imagine we wanted to dive in.In the afternoon we drove on the Otago peninsular it was very scenic and we went seal spotting again but we weren't so lucky this time. Back in Dunedin we had a walk on the beach not soaking up the rays this time.The next day our plan was to head to Milford sound but all the roads were blocked with snow even to Queenstown so we took a detour on the southern scenic route to Invercargill. There really wasn't much to see at all there so seen as it was raining we just went to the pub.In the morning we set off to Te anaou the town before Milford Sound, it was all going well but the sky got very white and soon after we were surrounded by snow the roads were still pretty clear and we only had 15km to go so we carried on. The snow got thicker and thicker and soon too think we came across another camper and a few cars that were stuck so we started getting our snow chains on. Silly Camper Company gave us the wrong size! (We later tried again and they were the right size we were just putting them on wrong duh!) We tried to turn but got stuck so we ended up having to reverse the whole way back down the hill. By this time we were getting low on diesel so instead of being able to just carry on and get to Queenstown we had to drive all the way back to Invercargill for diesel very annoying! But it's always fun and games with the happy campers. The day after we eventually got to Queenstown it was snowing pretty badly but we made it, again the drive was amazing Queenstown is surrounded by mountains so you can imagine. So Queenstown being a ski town naturally we had to take some lessons. We were picked up at 7am for the shuttle to the mountain once there we got our gear and went for our first lesson of the day. It was -8 and very poor visibility. My hair actually froze like an ice pop, it was sooo cold but once we got moving it was all good. I was complete natural much better than heiki he! We had two two hour lessons it was so much fun can't wait to do it again. By the next morning it was beautiful blue sky although we would have loved to stay longer we had to get going up onto the west coast as we were already behind. One the west coast we went to firstly to Fox glacier to have a look, we walked to the terminal face it was like being on the lord of the rings set we half expected a hobbit to come popping around the corner, it didn't.Next was Franz Josef Glacier which we could see more of, we would have liked to have done a glacier walk but they were all booked up, I suppose we do have to save some activities for next time.After a night in Franz Josef we carried on up the coast to Greymouth, not the most exciting town but we did the Monteiths brewery tour we got lots of tasters in the bar afterwards it was very impressive im not a big beer drinker but some were very nice. Look out for it at home they do export it. My fave was the Raddler heikis was the Golden.We stayed over in Greymouth then set off to hanmer springs. The roadside was still high with snow as we were driving but luckily it decided to stay fine for us. Hanmer springs is a very small town in the mountains with a beautiful spa that has fantastic views, so that's how we spent our afternoon, soaking in the pools with the snowy mountains in the background.Moving on from Hanmer springs we drove the Alpine pacific triangle to Kaikoura which means "to eat crayfish" in Maori language. Again it's a small town but with a seal colony of approx 9000! We took a walk over the cliffs of the peninsular and cut down on to the rocks to get a closer look at the seals fast asleep as usual. We didn't see the one that was right next to us and it gave us a grunt to let us know we weren't welcome so we moved on (but not till we got some good pictures). In the morning we finally got to go whale watching after missing out in Australia it was a treat! The whales we were spotting were sperm whales they were fascinating and so close! They were plodding on slowly and giving us a flash of there huge tail fins as the dove down (up to 1000metres) it was all very exciting. Luckily the sea wasn't so choppy that day. On leaving Kaikoura we stopped at a near by beach to set up camp for the night before making our way back to Christchurch.