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...

We arrived late afternoonon the 19th in New Zealand's adventure capital and spent the first night at a rather cramped and characterless Kiwi holiday park, so after a good evening by the waterside at Pog Mahoney's, the first thing we did the next morning was move down the road to a more satisfactory Top 10 site, Creeksyde. After the west coast the traffic and buzz of Queenstown was quite a culture shock, with operators galore offering every conceivable adrenaline-...

Jacksons Retreat and Jacksons Historic Tavern, dating from 1868, make up Jacksons, but both were so good we stayed a couple of nights, to explore the mountains and lakes despite indifferent weather. The morning of the 18th greetedus with fresh snow on the mountain tops as we headed off to the west coast and Franz Joseph.We stopped briefly at Hokitika for refuelling and drove on to Okarito, where the entire population of New Zealands white herons breed at this tim...

The drive from Motueka took us back along Route 60 to Nelson and then 6 down to Blenheim in much better conditions than our previous drive through the Richmond Range. Before we set off we fished the Motueka river for a couple of hours and later stopped at Pelorus Bridge Scenic Reserve where there is a beautiful stretch of river, though it was too hot and sunny for the fish. We overnighted at the Top 10 Park in Blenheim and had an excellent meal at Roccos, the Ita...

The first day in South Island started grey and wet, so instead of exploring the Queen Charlotte Track, it was into Picton for shops, the Community Museum (interesting displays of Maoriand local history, and the Perano Whaling Station) and cakes at Le Cafe! We decided to head on to Motueka and the Abel Tasman rather than hang around, so we drove through the dramatic Richmond mountains without seeing a great deal due to persistent rain, until we approached Nelson.T...