So here we are back in Nelson. Tomorrow is our last day in New Zealand. We love the country, it is truly very English here and after three months of Asia it was like coming home, but with a few quirks. The landscape at times seems like Devon or Cornwall, but with a tropical feel. However the "bush" as they call it here is very dense filled with trees, palms and ferns. Everywhere is very lush especially after all the rain. We arrived 5 weeks ago in early Aut...

Cyclone Debbie disrupted our travel plans today. We were planning on travelling to Christchurch and then back to Nelson up the east coast, but this morning her tail end was whipping around Christchurch and as a result several roads had been closed because of landslides or the threat of them. The only affects we have witnessed was heavy rain all night. So this morning we decided to continue onto see the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and to return back the way we...

It was a nice lazy start this morning travelling down the west coast road to Hotikika. Our accommodation tonight is a Birdsong YHA hostel overlooking the Pacific ocean. We stayed ahead of Cyclone Debbie which is creating havoc in the North as well as the top of the South Island. On our way down we visited Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks where the sea surges through blow holes at high tide and during rough seas. The rock formations are very striking but the se...

We said farewell to the chickens and have hired a car to travel around the South Island for the next five days before we catch our flight on Sunday to South America. We drove away from Nelson over the hills and arrived in Westport early evening. However as we drove the last hour, the clouds towards the west started turning a lovely shade of pink and then the peaks of the mountains in the distance turned a fiery red across the top. It was so breathtaking we had...

We left Palmerston North on Sunday to fly to Nelson on the South Island. We flew from Wellington in a Q300 (small twin engine turbo prop), which took 40 minutes. No conveyor belt here - luggage was wheeled off and left on the trolley for pick up as we left the airport. We stayed the night in Nelson and had time to look around and take a walk to the 'centre' of New Zealand, which was up a steep hill, but with a panoramic view of the bay and hills. There was a...