Leaving Invercargill meant the start of the second section of the Southern Scenic Route. Unfortunately the weather wasn't going to be kind and it was a very overcast and a windy day for most of it. There were not as many "highlights" as the first section so my trip through to Te Anau and on to Queenstown was done in relatively good time. But driving in NZ does definitely take longer than back home. Lots of curves and mountainous sections and the ever presen...

Well it was time to leave Dunedin and head towards Invercargill via the Southern Scenic Route, through an area known as The Catlins. Kiwis speak about this area with an air of reverence, and it is not hard to see why. I wished I had a chauffeur, as the countryside was stunning, and it was little challenging to take it all in whilst keeping my eye on the road at the same time. Rolling green hills, mountains, rain forest and dramatic coastline, it had it all. A...

Welcome to Dunedin! What better way to get a feel for a city and its culture than head off to a rugby game. So 2 hours after arriving in this beautiful city I was sitting in the Platinum section of the Forsyth Barr Stadium to watch the local team, The Highlanders, take on an unfortunate Aussie team called the Brumbies. Not surprisingly it was a very pro Highlanders crowd, in fact I can't recall seeing a single Brumbies supporter. You know a city is proud of its ...

Today is the worst day weather wise I have experienced since arriving. It's 9 degrees, raining and pretty miserable. Not far from Christchurch they are predicting snow at 300 metres, and Lewis Pass, which I drove through a couple of weeks back, is closed. So, today is a good day for "blog writing". I hadn't planned for last week to be a week of walking but that's how it turned out. The Port Hills is an area between Christchurch and Lytellton Harbour. They dom...

Well it was time to make another foray to the inland of the South Island. Todays destination was Lewis pass and then Hanmer Springs. Lewis Pass is the most direct route from Christchurch to the West Coast. The country side was the usual. Grazing land, wide valleys with wide, shallow, fast flowing rivers and always with a magnificent mountain backdrop. Probably sounds as if I'm bored by it, but far from it. Enroute I picked up a couple of elderly hitchhikers. ...