Hi everyone, thought I would send a (not so) quick update from the South Island in New Zealand, whilst we found some internet that works in this place! Had a fantastic time in Australia - can't believe the time went so quickly, but definitely time to move on to NZ!

After getting up at 3am to make it down to Sydney airport - we arrived in New Zealand to spend the entire first day sitting in Auckland airport waiting for our (very delayed) connecting flight to Christchurch - so we were gagging to see something more of the country by the time we arrived at 10pm! We stayed with some family friends, Sara and Richard, who were kind enough to wait around at the airport and bring us back to their beautiful home in Christchurch! We were so looked after, once again, and were seriously lucky to get a break from smelly hostels and the pitfalls of traveling! They treated us amazingly, feeding us, lending us thermals (much MUCH needed!!) and DVDs to take in the campervan! They took us around the Banks Peninsula in Christchurch, through the flat plains to a beautiful harbour, and out to Sumner beach where we had a nice warming cup of tea! Then they took us out for an amazing lunch in a French restaurant, before cooking us the most amazing dinner we've had all trip! Too too kind.

Me and Sean spent the time in Christchurch wondering around the city wrapped up in our ski jackets - I think its quite hard for the body to adjust from 30 degrees to 3 overnight, from shorts to thermals, but we'll get used to it - its no worse than UK winters, just without the Autumn in between to ease you in!

Christchurch is a very English-inspired city with a really beautiful cathedral at the centre of it, which we wondered around as well as the Avon river, Botanic gardens and Arts Centre. This was really great in some beautiful buildings, tons of galleries, workshops and theatres - really pretty centre. Em kept having déjà vu from places she had been to five years ago…spooky. We were sad to be saying goodbye to Sara and Richard - Not only after having such lovely company, (they were fantastic to us) but to leave their lovely heated house! Picked up the campervan which was super exciting - we were like kids in a candyshop (after the pain of having to pay out and go 200 pounds over budget immediately for insurance…turns out most New Zealanders don't have any and so you could end up paying their costs!). The camper is fantastic - room to stand up in, a mini kitchen area INSIDE (whoo hoo no cold cooking!) with sink, hot plate, grill and fridge! Only problem is when you are in the cheap campsites with no electricity its FREEZING! Still, please forgive all our cheesy 'us-and-the-camper' snaps!

We had a fantastic drive out of Christchurch - through 'Arthur's Pass' to the foot of the Southern Alps, and following them down South. We passed Mount Hutt, a great ski area, and stopped off at Lake Tepako. Stunning views of the Alps across the lake, with the gorgeous 'Church of the Good Shepherd' - a tiny church for about 50 locals, with the most stunning views of the lake & alps. We then headed down past Lake Pukaki, again stunning views of Mt Cook, the tallest of the Southern Alps, clad in mist (which we then attempted to drive through!). Its pretty much not accessible in Winter time so a look was all we got! Traveled through Twizel, where for $14 fisherman will catch a fresh whole salmon out the stream for you to take home and cook, and arrived with just enough light to Ohau, where we camped out at the bottom of the mountain to head up to the ski fields for the day - an expensive treat, but the one thing we both really wanted to do in New Zealand! We feel we could spend all our lives driving in New Zealand its so beautiful, and keep getting jealous of all the locals who can just drive to the mountains for a weekend skiing in Winter! But its hardly like we can complain…

Our ski day was fantastic - Ohau is a tiny club field, with only 1 chair lift, and about 10 slopes, but it was so fantastic and novel to spend a day on the slopes, especially as a few days earlier we had been in the Australian tropical rainforest! We had so much fun, Sean boarded really well, and instead of relaxing after a day on the slopes we decided to hit the beautiful drives even harder, and headed to Lindis pass on the way to Queenstown to camp for the night. Woke up to a chilly start at Lindis Pass. Drove alongside the mountains (another site in the LOTR trilogy, but there's so many you just get lost in them!) through central Otago to the old God towns at Cromwell - a fruit growing region where we stopped to buy fresh apple juice from one of the orchards, to have with breakfast by Dunstin lake - beautiful start to the day!

We then took the amazingly scenic route through to Queenstown - as hectic and expensive as I remember - all the great shops, cafes & beautiful houses on Lake Wakatipu. We did an exhausting STEEP walk up the Queenstown Hill - through amazing pine forest, and the viewpoint would have been amazing, except for the low-lying clouds - You could just about see the Remarkables ski fields poking its peak out of the clouds! Still, good to get out of the van, otherwise it would be tempting to spend 4 weeks sat on our bums!

New Zealand just kept getting better and better! We drove down from Queenstown to Milford Sound on an amazing scenic route through Te Anau - one of New Zealand's 'Great Drives'. The roads were a bit icy, and there was snow right to the edge, but it was an absolutely fantastic drive. We stopped off at literally every viewpoint (it took us hours!) and at the Mirror Lakes, and eventually made it down to the beautiful Milford Sounds. This part of New Zealand is so inaccessible, and being winter, was so quiet it was fantastic. We parked up in an amazing camp site (we even had sofas!!) and caught the last cruise out onto the waters. There were only 6 of us onboard, and the surroundings were as breathtaking as I remembered. We saw New Zealand fur seals, not lazing about as usual, but dancing, jumping, flipping and playing in the water. They are juvies, kicked out of their colonies so they come to Milford to chill out and grow up for about 3 years then return to their colonies when they are big enough! Amazingly, we also had dolphins, adults and babies, swimming along with our boat - it was fantastic. Milford is so beautiful, I guess I'd put that down to being discovered by a Welshman….but then I am biased! We were super lucky (as in the rainforest) not to get any heavy rain, as this area of NZ has the second highest rainfall in the world. I guess that's because there are only two countries, Argentina and Chile in the way of NZ and the sea, so literally it only takes 7 days for each storm to circle the world and return back to this area - so it gets pretty rough!

It was so fantastic to drive through the Southern Alps and come out on the Western side - the subtropical side, where all the vegetation gets jungly. There are also tons of Lord of the Rings sites around here which made for a dramatic days driving! Woke up to the beautiful surroundings of Milford sound in an unusual way…to footsteps on our roof! Turns out it was a Kea - native bird to NZ, very cheeky - known to eat through everything, tents, walking boots, even campervan tyres! Took the opportunity being up early to go for, literally, the most stunning (visually!) run I have ever done! Left Milford, to drive up the steep and icy hills back to Te Anau, where luckily the cloud had cleared a bit. Got some beautiful, if somewhat chilly (huge icy winds) views of the lake, and walked around it to the Wildlife park, where native birds are kept and rehabilitated - was quite an interesting little break from driving! We then headed through the Crown Ranges Road through to Wanaka. An amazing drive, on the highest road in the country (I think its almost 2000m) straight through the mountains - meant the descent into Wanaka was pretty beautiful.

Wanaka is a really relaxed and lovely place, and it gave me huge déjà vu as I remembered reading my book by the lake 6 years ago waiting for washing to be done! Still - we had to move on, driving the Haast Pass, through the central mountains, over to the west coast of New Zealand. It was a beautiful drive, right along the side of huge Lake Wanaka, and down a road that followed the Haast river. This gave us the opportunity to have a few fresh air breaks from driving, jumping off road to see some of the waterfalls and the 'blue pools' at the bottom. We then followed the west coast along, past some beautiful beaches until we reached the town by Fox Glacier. It was raining a bit, and I have never seen so many clear, bright and beautiful rainbows in my life (weird how they can fascinate you right from childhood through to being an adult-ish!). We stayed that night at the dramatic (and pretty inaccessible - dodgy gravel road!) Gillespie Beach - mainly because the campsite was free, but the stormy waves made a good backdrop for the night! Woke up literally the coldest I have been in my life (!), but the views of Mount Cook made it worth it!

We walmed up walking around Lake Matheson - nicknamed 'the mirror lake' as you get such perfect reflections of Mount Cook in its waters…that is, if there hasn't been an offload from the Kiwi Experience bus who were screaming around the lake, making all the ducks swim in it disrupting the water! But..now I sound like a bitter granny, so I'll continue the story!

We explored the Glaciers - Fox (where we walked to the foot of the ice, really interesting) and Franz Joseph - a hill viewpoint with fantastic views of the glacier as it was a rare beautiful clear day. We then started the long coastal drive along the west coast, stopping off in a few smaller beaches - Rapahoe being the nicest, where Sean was happy to find millions of skimming rocks to play with in the water! As the sun was setting we pulled into Punakaiki, where the Pancake Rocks are - some interesting rock formations in layers (not going to get more technical than that…got a bit bored with the terminology in the guide book!), to set off a pretty coastline as the sun set. This was soon completely ruined by the massive storms - tornadoes were hitting the west coast, making the drive to Nelson the most tiring I have done! Still, it made the rugged beaches look very dramatic and impressive!

Luckily we arrived in Nelson to clearer skies, and stocked up there before our drive into the Abel Tasman National Park - one of the most famous national parks in New Zealand with some amazing trekking (or tramping as they call it here - makes Sean laugh!) to be done. Camped overnight at Marahau, a tiny coastal village at the entrance to the beautiful park.
Had a fantastic days trekking in Abel Tasman - we were really lucky with the weather, tornadoes cleared to beautiful blue skies. We pushed hard and walked the first 12-13 km of the coastal track - along past Porters Beach up to Anchorage point, an absolutely stunning point in the headland with views right along the coast. It was so beautiful I didn't want to leave, but we had to head back - and at a pace…managed the 13km back in under two hours! In total we walked 25km through the bush and absolutely loved it (however exhausted we were at the end) as there were some fantastic views and lots of bird-life singing us tunes on the way round! Managed to find a free campsite further up north in between Abel Tasman and Kahurangi National Parks, right on the edge of Golden Bay - the 'gem' of this area (in which we managed to get our camper stuck...but being New Zealand, within two minutes an amazingly friendly group of workmen had spotted us and pulled us out!).

Unfortunately the gem is not so visible when storms hit! We woke up to thunder and lightning, and winds that meant we couldn't even get near most of the sights, and so we ended up heading back to Nelson to chill out (and get the luxury of a cinema trip in!) before heading down to the Marlborough wine region - home to Montana, Sean's favourite white! Needless to say, two backpackers in a smelly campervan - we didn't look like the usual wine tasters they must get!