After arriving at Franz Josef (FJ) glacier the night before in brilliant sunshine we woke to cloud and rain. (The rain on the van roof sounds odd - like the tinkling of lots of aluminium can pulls.) Decided to check out the different trips for the glacier and planned to go tomorrow and hope the weather would be better. Bit of a chance as FJ gets 2 out of 3 rainy days, up to 250+ per year! We found an amazing Cafe - Full of Beans - that has free Wifi, such exci...

Unbeknown to us today was to be a day of mountain to beach, to bush to mountain, a real day of contrasts. Firstly thank you Jacksons Retreat for the use of your barn placing our motor-home out of last night's strong wind guaranteeing us a restful night free from thundering (torrential) rain on the roof and the van shaking in the winds. Even in shelter the sound was tremendous, not sure how the other Van-ners got on though, we slept peacefully on our own in the...

You just know when you've had the most amazing day because your mind is full of the wonderful things you've seen, heard and experienced, and today was one of those days. It began unremarkably with a grey cloudy day and a weather forecast of heavy rain for the afternoon. We had decided to drive over Arthur's Pass to Springfield and return - hopefully in dry bright weather and before the rain set in. Almost as soon as we set off the cloud melted before our eyes a...

We woke to heavy grey skies and a deep bank of dark grey cloud over the Tasman sea, a good day to be moving on! So easy to pack up a motorhome, not! The number of times forget to lock a drawer or cupboard, forget to put the table leg on the bed so it doesn't roll around....we'll get there in the end! Stopped off in Takaka to buy some mossie bite cream (when did they get us?) and some more food rations and a coffee to go. We drove back to Motueka - surely this ...

We had two wonderful down days with very little driving - we popped back to Takaka to explore further - and spent the rest of the time either laying on or walking along the (un-golden) beach under a clear blue sky and hot sunshine. Bliss! Oh and we didn't swim, a little too cool for us, Guernsey sea lol. Cooked steak for tea, thoroughly enjoyed a Spinyback Merlot from the Nelson area (do buy it if you see it, smooth and clean, Shirley should know she drank ¾ o...