The photo attached to this blog was not taken by me, and really does not reflect my impression of the city. We did not actually stay here, the night before we had illegally camped by Lake Waihola, which itself was a pretty spot. The South Scenic Drive was nice and reminded us both of being back in England, rolling hills but maybe a few more sheep than we're used to. We then ended up driving straight through to Moeraki, after a brief stab at the tourist attractio...

On advice from Sean (hitch hiker #1), we drive, for hours, and hours, and hours, eating up all our petrol reserves, to go and see a signpost in the rain. Yes, you have read this correctly. It was as rubbish as it sounds. To make matters worse, the only sizeable town we passed, Invercargill, was grey, industrial, and frankly just nasty. I pretty much said as much to the guy in the petrol station, and ended up buying a pack of Party Mix, his suggestion, to appease ...

4.30am - oh dear! We didn't actually realise this until we put the keys in the ignition to drive off! This is where our good luck and freebie trail starts to dry up. Some doughnut, aka Fiona, set her blinking alarm for what she thought was 7.30am. We did think it was little dark, but put it down to us being so close to the South Pole(?!). With no desire to hang around in the cold for 4 hours, we phoned the Canyon Swing dudes to let the know we'd be back through ...

So, last nights effort to keep warm was a partial success. Leggings definitely a keeper, in fact I invested in a new pair. The addition of the duvet was also a winner. Remaining issues: frozen faces, red dog noses and ice on the outside of our sleeping bags (well nearly). Not sure what the solution is ??? Maybe we need more wine ?? Anyhow, the roads on the way to Queenstown were mental! Hair pin bends and sheer drops lead to a slow and cautious journey, to liven...

En-route to Wanaka we stopped at Lake Matheson for a quick porridge break, which turned out to be a morning basking in the sun absorbing the breath taking views of the southern Alps and constructing amusing blogs for your reading pleasure. Finally we dragged ourselves away and were greeted with yet more spectacular scenery, in fact some of the best either of us have ever seen! Jackson Bay was our lunch stop for the day and a 100km detour, the lonely planet had a...