I wrote the last blog on Saturday morning in the library in Kaikoura. As the library shut at 1pm I had to hurry. As I left our plans had changed. We had previously decided not to whale watch on boats due to rough weather. Peg had now booked a helicopter flight to whale watch at 1-30 so we rushed over to the helicopter location. The copter was very small just the pilot, me and Peg (who was co-pilot!). We flew over the whale sighting area and as we arrived one mal...

We left Queenstown and drove a pretty drive to Te Anau which is the town nearest the Sounds. Typical NZ town by a lake mainly hotels/motels/cafes/shops/trips - properties apart from hotels are single storey. Again we noted many cows and deer in the fields en route. We have found that particularly sheep and cattle are very crowded in their fields, with empty fields next door. The number of fields with deer surprised us. Our first day in Te Anau we drove to Milford...

Well we left hotel in Christchurch -very helpful taxi driver who gave us advice both on area and driving camper van. Got to rental site -name different to what Tailor-made originally told us (We thought it was Kea but it was Pacific Horizon) . After instruction on use drove off towards Queenstown (Oamaru). Van was rough more like rent-a-wreck with 165,000 km on the clock - underpowered and a bit tatty - with such a mileage and driven every week or other week by t...

My update for Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th is under 17th Feb -Christchurch. Very confused by the dates on the headings which are UK time! We have lost Emma as she and family went off on spec to Napier - just noticed England are playing NZ at one day cricket there today so accomodation could have been a problem for her. I have set up this laptop in the hotel lobby to BBC website and WR10 2LX as location so each time I log in I get Worcs weather and news - I s...

We wandered around Wellington in the little time we had, then we went to Emma and David's room with a bottle of fizz and red wine to share room service, so the kids could sleep. The great thing about many NZ hotels/motels are the room facilities. In Welllington at the Bolton there was a full kitchen including a combined washer /dryer, so whilst we ate, I was able to catch up on all my washing, unfortunately they don't self iron!! Emma was spending Monday sortin...