We picked up our motor home and are now touring the South Island. Like a snail, we now have our home with us. It's pretty cool zooming around the south island at your own pace, just pulling up at night with everything you need right with you. We're fully stocked with fridge, loo, shower, microwave and oven. The thing that has struck us so far is how much space there is here. There are very few other people or vehicles as we travel around. We have decided to take a few leaisurley days to start with, travelling down the east coast of NZ and then around the tip of the island. We are really able to see why so many Brits decide to make this place their home - so many of the areas we have travelled through are just the same as some of the countryside at home. The weather has been doing a pretty good impression of a British summer too and we have had our fair share of overcast skies and drizzle although this is now vastly improving. Once we left Christchurch we headed to our first town (more the size of a British village) to experience the Christmas Carnival of Timaru, which lasts for a whole week. It took both of us back 25 years to the old fairgrounds we would visit as kids. Rides that would have been more at home in a museum, a small circus consisting of a lion (docile), an elephant and a dog and everyone going crazy over the coconut shy! There wasn't any music blasting out from every stall and the kids were well behaved - maybe E numbers haven't got this far yet. Needless to say it was a short stop before moving on to our next location, Dunedin. This was a city settled in the 1800's by a group of Scottish Presbyterians. There are many sites around the city that link it with a Scottish heritage, including the Robbie Burns House and a large bronze Statue of him in the centre of the main square (actually an octagonal). They also established the first church in the area, based on the Scottish Presbyterian religion, which is still going strong today. The city is one of New Zealands finest examples of Georgian and Victorian architecture. One particular example, is the railway station, one of three to be built at the turn of the century. Built of two types of local limbstone and granite from Aberdeen, it was nicknamed the gingerbread house because of its distinctive design and colours (see the photos). Whilst in Dunedin we also decided to take a trip around the local Cadburys factory, which is responsible for producing 85% of the chocolate in New Zealand. The highlight of the tour was the chocolate waterfall, which had a staggering one tonne of chocolate fall from the ceiling in 10 seconds. We made an effort to stand underneath it with mouths agape, but the tourguide wasn't too keen. Next stop was Larnach Castle, the only castle in NZ, just 12km outside of the city. It was built by William Larnach in the mid 1800's for his large family of 10 children. Built on top of a hill overlooking the bay of Dunedin the family called it the camp because of its isolated location from the rest of Dunedin Society. Despite being a wealthy man with interests in various successful businesses and an influential man as an MP for the area, it didn't bring him happiness. Two of his wives died at an early age (they were sisters) and when he discovered that his third wife was having an affair with his son, he committed suicide in one of the common rooms of the Houses of Parliament. Rescued from delapidation 20 years ago, the castle and grounds are privately owned and are opened to the public to view the incredible story. Once we had seen the main sites in Dunedin, we set off down the east coast once again to the various points of interest along the way. The first was the Morakai rocks - a series of round, egg like rocks that sit in the waves of the beach. We were both in firm agreement that they were obviously Alien eggs in gestation and at some time soon NZ will be over run by their hached offspring! The serious explaination for them is that they are a geological formation of hard rock that has been surrounded by softer rock. When the softer rock is washed away by the sea it reveals these very spherical formations that are then washed on to the beach - we still think they are alien eggs! We were also able to visit the southern most point of the South Island - there is nothing between here and the south pole for some 4100km and it feels very isolated. The coastline all around the island has been beautiful, rolling hillsides (covered in sheep) and magnificent white waves that thunderously break on to the beach sending spray in to the air. On many occasions we have been able to spot a number of seals (various kinds) that treat these areas of coastline as their home. They are quite happy to bask in the waves and kelp of the coastal crevices and occasionally perform for sightsee-ers with a few acrobatics on the rocks - they are gifted performers. Once we had passed the southern tip of the island we started to progress north to the lake district of the area and with this weather it very much reminds us of home. The waters are beautiful, blue and very clear and not surprsingly some of them, with their glacial origins, are very cold. Thank god we have a shower in our campervan, neither of us would fancy a morning dip in these things! There are hundreds of lookout points around the multitude of lakes, where you can take in the beauty of the mountains that rise up from the waters, many of which still have snow peaked caps. From here it's up to Miilford Sound, a huge fjord, around 13 miles long, carved out by glacial activity through some very scenic countryside, dotted with waterfalls, lakes and raging rivers. The Sound can be navigated by boat, which is exactly what we did. It is surrounded by hugge cliffs and peaks, rising up to 5,000ft This place is really very beautiful (though Bariloche in Argentina probably has the edge) but we are now ready for an injection of energy into what has so far been a sedate introduction to NZ - Queenstown beckons (see seperate postcard). After the adreneline delights of Queenstown, it is up to the glacier region within the Southern Alps and Mt Cook. There are many glaciers here, but the two largest are Fox glacier and Franz Josef named after the New Zealand Prime Minister and the Austro-Hungarian emperor respectively. They are each about 7 miles long and move at upto an incredible 15ft per day down the valley. We were able to get very close up although you have to be careful as there are frequent rockfalls and chunks of ice falling off. This marks the halfway point of our journey around the south Island.