It had to happen. After striking lucky with campsites and fairly lucky with the weather, our good fortune with both ended on the same day. As we drove (see below) down the east coast from the Banks Peninsula, the clouds gathered and by the time we reached Oamaru the rain was falling heavily. We knew the campsite was cheap at only NZ$20 a night, but had expected more than a bare field with a few caravans dotted around the edges. It would also have been nice to h...

Banks Peninsula and the picturesque town of Akaroa are about an hour's drive south east from Christchurch. It was formed from a volcanic eruption about 9 million years ago. We took the more scenic and twisty route towards Akaroa. One thing Richard and I both like about the road signage in New Zealand is that on bends there are sings suggesting the maximum speed you should take the bend. Very handy when in a campervan with pots, pans and a hob clattering about...

Christchurch is probably the only place we've been so far in New Zealand where we could possibly contemplating living. And even that would be a bit of a stretch. Yes, the scenery is wonderful pretty much everywhere and the people are uniformly nice, but there's a distinct lack of liveliness. Christchurch, however, manages to combine an energetic feel with a city-style café culture and the physical elegance of being set around a small river where punts carry tou...

In Kaikoura the campsite we stayed at had a heated pool and a couple of hot tubs. I quite fancied going in them but after the whale watching experience neither of us felt like it. Instead we decided to head for Hanmer Springs and get the real thing. Hanmer Springs is a small town, on a plateau with natural springs and sulphur pools, adjacent to a range of mountains. We spent two and a half hours driving up the mountainous road from Kaikoura, passing a coupl...

I have never liked being seaborne. I still have horribly vivid memories of throwing up in Ostende harbour... Spending the Bay of Biscay horizontal in a shared cabin, eating nothing but Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles because everything else reappeared swiftly... Bobbing endlessly up and down off the Corsican coast... So why did I agree to a whale-watching trip in the Pacific Ocean??? OK, 'the Pacific' makes it seem rather grand, something like an expedition taking ...