We've been walking - 'tramping' as the New Zealanders call it - and believe it or not, we feel a lot better for the exercise! Because of various injuries, last year was terrible for our level of fitness (and fatness) and we have certainly noticed that since we've been here. But we've gradually been improving and have had a couple of good sessions in the past few days. After leaving Murchison, we spent a night in Nelson (we're going back there soon so we will wri...

As Chief Route Planner and Campsite Researcher I'd plotted our way from Greymouth to Nelson, calling in at Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks, and an overnight stop at Murchison. I'd favoured the Kiwi Campsite at Murchison over a serviced DOC at Nelson Lakes as it was on a farm and on its website I'd read the owners did evening farm shows. Richard agreed that although the DOC was a little cheaper, the show would make a nice change. The drive from Greymouth to ...

After leaving Okarito, we headed north along the west coast. The views were nice, but not as special as along some of the other routes we have travelled. One of the places we were due to pass through was Hokitika, which had become synonymous with us for bad weather because when we were planning our trip we kept reading about how much rain fell on the place. This view had been reinforced by the constant dark clouds and rain drops which seemed to be permanently f...

Before making the half hour drive from Fox to Franz Josef I wanted to show Richard the impressive sight of the Fox Glacier. So after our usual breakfast of Hubbard's Very Fruitful cereal we drove to the car park and took the short walk to see the Fox Glacier terminal face. Like me Richard thought it was spectacular and much bigger than he had expected before seeing my photos. We've since read in a newspaper that the body they couldn't recover from underneath a...

I'd been planning to do a glacier walk since we first arrived in New Zealand. I'd read the leaflets and websites over and over but still had two choices to make. 1) Which glacier? Fox or Franz Josef 2) Which walk? I was initially planning on doing a heli-hike which involves going up in a helicopter and landing high up on the glacier and doing a 2 hour walk. But at $399 it seemed a little excessive. With my knee improving I decided on the half day walk at $89 and...