Before we met our new bus in Picton we made a stop off at a seal colony just outside Kaikoura. We took a look down on the beach where plenty of them were chilling out enjoying the morning sun on the rocks – these fella’s must have some blubber because it felt about -5 again!! We left the beach and took a short walk up through the Ohau stream – through a forest to a small waterfall and rock pool and couldn’t believe the number of seals up there!! There ...

When we were still in Sydney we looked into what way we were going to travel around NZ. The choices were one of the 3 main bus companies – Kiwi Experience, Stray and Magic bus or driving it ourselves in a campervan! The Kiwi experience is a party bus for 18-22 year olds who go drinking every night – not for us! We were told Magic could be like going on holiday with an old folks home – not for us either! We were looking at renting a campervan and driving...

Tena koutou!!! (hello in Maori!) - We have arrived in New Zealand!! Our flight from Melbourne was delayed 3 hours so we finally got in at around 2am local time – we were knackered! We flew through immigration, security and baggage reclaim and out to the shuttle bus waiting at the front door! We must have been in bed 45 minutes after getting off the plane - excellent! We were a bit nervous of being in Christchurch given all that has gone on here in the pas...