We arrived in Christchurch at 6pm in the Saturday, just in time for drinks at the Robinsons and a lovely meal at Saggio di Vino, after which we caught the tail end of a concert in Hagley Park (claimed to be the 3rd largest city park in the world) and fireworks which Tim and Catherine had kindly laid on for us. Sunday brunch at Brigitte's set us up for a stroll round the city, including the botanic gardens, the Arts Centre ( included Rutherfords Den, NZ's most fam...

The road north from Dunedin took us past the strangely compelling phenomenon of the "world famous" Moeraki boulders. We also stopped at Oamaru, an attractive town and home to colonies of both blue and yellow-eyed penguins. We watched a couple of the latter waddle ashore at Bushy Beach then pushed inland along SH 83 through mountain landscapes as far as Twizel for an overnight stop at a DOC site. It had been clear and sunny all day so we were relieved th...

The late decision to go down to Dunedin on Wednesday 26th was a good one as we had somehow overlooked what the Otago Peninsula has to offer. The landscape became drier and more barren as we drove south east, stopping for lunch at Alexandra, reputedly the driest town in South Island, but had a good second hand bookshop run by a Canadian! We arrived eventually at a Kiwi site in Dunedin for an overnight stop before driving next morning along steep windy roads to the...

Nice sunny but windy drive as C&Mheaded south on Saturday alongside Lake Wakatipu, past Kingston where the Kingston Flyer, a turn of the century steam train,still chugs along to Fairlight, The countryside towards Athol and Five Rivers was reminiscent of parts of Scotland, which is probably what drew an eccentric Scotsman to this part of the world to set up a specialist fly fishing shop, Stu's Orgasmic World Famous Fly shop.As we drew nearer to fjordland there...

J&J set off to Wanaka on the Saturday to meet up with T&C for a few days. Lovely walking on Sunday along the western shores of Lake Wanaka , taking in spectacular views. Great start to the day on Monday with bright sunshine. Jon, keen to catch trout, set off in the van to investigate a new area where Jane could walk and he could fish. We discovered the perfect spot, the upper section of the Clutha river which runs from Lake Wanaka outlet to Albert Town an...