Christchurch, New Zealand

Tuesday 4th June

Today we flew from Wellington to Christchurch, a 40 minute flight.

We jumped on the bus at the airport that took us through the Centre of the City. It was quite surreal to see Christchurch since it was devastated by an earthquake a couple of years back. It had a completely different feel to the last time we were here. Last time we travelled, we spent a couple of days in a busy, beautifully laid out City with great open spaces, architecture & things to do. Now it resembles a rebuild after a war. There are cranes everywhere, buildings propped up from all sides to stop them collapsing, hardly any people anywhere & very little traffic. It's a sad scene when you think back to how it was & can't imagine that it will ever properly recover. The fact that it was very wet & that horrible drizzle was coming down didn't help.

We walked to 'Wicked' to collect our FREE campervan. I managed to get them to honour a four year old credit note from our previous travels! We were given 'Marlon Brando' for our 10 day trip, it's quite subtly decaled so we shouldn't get too much unwanted attention! The only controversial quote is on the back of the van: Breasts without nipples are pointless!

We set off South West towards Pukaki on the main highway, & the weather never really improved, in fact it got worse. We grabbed a Burger King lunch in Geraldine, then continued onto Lake Tekapo. By this stage it was snowing heavily & the gritters & snow ploughs were out in force.

We did make it safely to the lake, nobody else was there which made a difference from last time we were there. Snow covered everything as far as the eye could see & the lake was giving off a slight steam in the freezing air. Then 2 Japanese tour buses pulled up at the same time & we dived in the car to avoid the rush & also because we couldn't feel our fingers & toes!

Onto lake Pukaki next, the weather was still pretty bad & the clouds ruined the views up to Mt Cook so we didn't stop for long.

Twizel is the next town & it really was a tiny place. We checked into a motel room for the night, chilled out & went to a great Thai restaurant in town. The only other people that we saw that whole night were 3 other English guys in the Thai.

Wednesday 5th June

Wanaka, New Zealand

Today the sun was glorious & there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The excess water on the road from the snow the night before had frozen solid so we had to be careful but we decided to go back to lake Pukaki for a walk & get some decent photos. It was stunning!

After about 40 minutes of taking in the scenery we jumped back in the car & headed back through Twizel towards lake Ohau. We took a few pics & skimmed some stones & then drove through the Lindis Pass, a stunning road straight through the heart of the Mackenzie ranges. It was covered in snow as it's over 900m above sea level at the roads summit. The roads were slippy in the shady spots but generally pretty safe.

As we came down the other side of the mountain we were arriving in Wanaka! There were skydivers falling through the air every minute it seemed but we weren't there for anything exhilarating, just a bit of golf & some digs for the night.

We stopped at 'Have A Shot', which is a sports complex with different activities to try such as a driving range, archery range, clay pigeon shooting, rifle range, mini golf & others. We opted for the driving range, attempting to smash televisions for cash prizes, it didn't happen. The owner of the place was telling us that a skydiving photographer landed on the driving range in November which we thought was a strange story until he said it was because his parachute didn't open....... that confirmed to us that we were right to not do it again!

When we arrived in the town we took a stroll at the side of the lake, grabbed some lunch & sorted our accommodation for the night. The scenery was beautiful & the panoramic mode on the camera was fully abused again.

We discovered that GolfCross, our favourite NZ game was closed for the winter so we couldn't have a round. Gutted.

On the evening, Darrell met us at a bar for some food & drink & a bit of a catch up as he was working 5 minutes away. We got an early night & slept terribly.

Thursday 6th June

Queenstown, New Zealand

This morning we grabbed a Subway breakfast & drove to a lookout on the lake which wasn't as good as half of the views we got on the drive there. Then we headed for the Crown Ranges to get to Queenstown.

The drive through Crown Ranges was a little scary, there was a lot of ice on the road in the shaded sections & people not driving appropriately for the conditions. We did eventually make it out the other end, around several hairpins & down to Lake Wakatipu & Queenstown.

Our first stop was the indoor mini-golf that we played with Ed & Sara the last time we were here. As I'm a gentleman I offered Carly a 15 shot lead from the start but I still managed to scrape a win! It was as fun as we remembered & Carly must have thought one of the holes was a 400 yarder because she drilled the ball all the way to the last hole, almost hitting someone.

Then we took a ride on the Gondola to the lookout platform. It was a slightly uncomfortable experience, it's steeper & longer than we remembered & made a lot of creeky noises. We did get some awesome shots of Queenstown from above though so well worth the trip.

We grabbed some lunch back in town, wandered the shops & waited for Darrell to finish work so that we could get our accommodation sorted. His Irish friend Darren offered to have us for 3 nights which is awesome, so we went to his ready for a night on the town.

Introductions were made, we jumped in a cab to town, met Kev, a Geordie working for Darrell & started sinking way too many beers. Killer pool, shuffleboard, a stuffed bear, Fergburger & a taxi home followed & we were ready for a hangover.

Friday 7th June

We woke up with no hangovers amazingly, we put it down to the giant burgers we had from Fergburger. That place is famous within NZ & we can see why!

This morning we ran a few errands with Darrell then headed for lunch in town. Kev & Darren were back on the beer by mid-afternoon so Darrell & I met up with them while Carly did some window shopping & strolled around the lake.

Us lads played some darts then hit the smallest casino known to man. Darrell walked away over $500 in profit so the food & drink for the evening was on him! I went home early with another Fergburger & watched TV with Berg. Darren was only an hour behind & then we got an early night.

Saturday 8th June

Arrowtown, New Zealand

This morning we dropped Darrell at the garage to pick his truck up then headed on to Arrowtown.

We wandered around the Chinese settlement camp from the goldrush era in the 1860's. It was quite interesting & a few of the huts had been restored to their original state. Then we grabbed a pie from the Cafe which several people have recommended & it didn't disappoint. A quick stroll along the leafy high street, then back in the car towards Queenstown on the Coronet Peak road. The scenery was amazing as always in these parts.

We grabbed a coffee by the lake & then took a walk around the public gardens.

It's been a little warmer today, the icy roads are pretty safe & we haven't seen any crashed cars today! This afternoon we are chilling at the house. It looks as though the other lads are coming to Darrens to watch the All Blacks take on France tonight. We plan to leave reasonably early tomorrow morning & head towards Dunedin to spend a few nights with Deb. We are very excited & can't wait to catch up.

Sunday 9th June

Lake Waihola, New Zealand

This morning we got up fairly early and headed to Red Rock to grab some breakfast with Darrell before we left. A good feed & some chatting later & we were on the road towards Debs & Marks house in Lake Waihola just south of Dunedin.

The drive was spectacular & it seemed to fly by. We were at our destination by early afternoon & Deb had a leg of lamb in the oven & the log burner blazing to take the chill off. Their house is incredible! Everything about it just leaves you gobsmacked, the views, the gardens, the size of the rooms, the number of rooms, the workshop/office/gym/garage area.

The village itself is very small, basically one street with houses along one side & the lake on the other.

We had a massive catch up & had the pleasure to finally meet Mark, Debs husband. After dinner we went to the local pub for a few drinks & met a few of the locals, mainly poms.....

Monday 10th June

Today, while D&M were at work we drove south to Kaka point, Nugget Point, Jack's blowholes & the Parakaunui Falls. All beautiful sites in their own right but it was very misty & we couldn't see a great deal! The drive back was very slow as we could only see about 20m infront of the car so it was quite dangerous!

When we returned to the house, D&M were already home, sick. We had a homemade chilli for dinner & played on the Wii & then watched a film.

Tuesday 11th June

Today we had a day together in Dunedin. It was great to be back in the city that we spent 3 weeks in last time we travelled.

We checked out the new 'Settler's' museum which was brilliant. You could spend a full on day in there easily! We learnt a whole lot about Dunedin & its history before heading to the Speights Brewery for a guided tour followed by a tasting session & a meal in the restaurant. It was a good tour & very informative but as they are rebuilding/expanding the brewery there were a lot of zones restricted that are usually included on the tour.

On the evening we visited the Observatory for a talk on space that D&M had booked onto. It was quite cool & we got to see Saturn through a proper telescope which was awesome, you can see the rings & everything!

When we got back, Mark grabbed the telescope out & we saw Saturn again even clearer & got to see about 5 shooting stars.

Christchurch, New Zealand

Wednesday 12th June

Today we made a breakfast for everyone & hit the road reasonably early. After our goodbyes we drove straight through Dunedin to Moeraki, home of the Moeraki Boulders.

These boulders were just randomly situated on the beach, hundreds of them. They went through some sort of erosion process & worked their way up from under the beach. My understanding of it was a bit s***! They were quite impressive though & we got some good photos.

Then we carried on to Christchurch with a few pit stops along the way. We were staying with Jon & Lena. Jon went to school with Carly & has been living in NZ for about 9 months.

It was late when we arrived so we dumped our things, went for a Thai meal around the corner then had a few beers back at the house before bed!

Thursday 13th June

Jon & Lena had work so Carly & I drove the van back to Wicked as our hire ended today, then spent the day in town.

We couldn't get over how much damage was caused during the 2011 earthquakes. The city was so different to the last time we were here, almost like a ghost town. All the major office buildings had been pulled down & pretty much everything else was closed & declared as dangerous. Meals are still on the plates in restaurants, clothes on the racks in shops, computers on the desks in the offices, very weird.

Almost all the businesses in town now trade from custom made cargo containers with glass fronts & stacked no more than 2 high.

We stood & watched an office block being dismantled by 2 huge crane thingys. Fascinating to watch but you could see the desks & filing cabinets, etc just toppling from the top floor down to the ground below. It was a slow process & the city will take a massively long time to recover if at all but they are certainly working hard on it.

Carly started feeling poorly so we headed back to the house & she went straight to bed. Lena made a few concoctions to help remedy Carlys bug & made a big soup for dinner which was yum! We had a bit of a chat & then went to bed for an early night as we fly out to Wellington early the next day.

Modes of Transport so far - 9 planes, 3 Taxis, 11 Tuk Tuks, 6 VIP Bus, 3 shared taxis, 6 minivans, 3 speed boat, 2 slow boats, 6 ferries, 3 pickup trucks, 6 sleeper bus, 1 kayak, 1 moto, 2 Campervan

Countries Visited - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand

Beers Sampled - Chang, Tiger, Leo, BeerLao, Namkhong, Angkor, Anchor, Klang, Green Saigon, Red Saigon, 333, Larue, Caroune, Hanoi, Singha, Acha, VB & Tooheys Extra Dry, Carlton Cold, Mac's gold, Mac's Pilsner

Miles Travelled - 23,080