After leaving Timaru pretty late in the day we decided to head north only up till Christchurch and spend the night there without making any longer stops. In the end we didn't quite make it to Christchurch, but stayed a little towards south on a free communal camping ground that we found through a note we got from the visitor center in Christchurch when we started the trip. We made our way from the SH1 to a town called Springston and from there turned south toward...

Lately my entries have been little more than a very thorough diary, going over pretty much everything we've been doing in excruciating detail. One of the reasons for that is that lately I've found myself with excessive amounts of free time. On a road trip, once the sun has set, there's not a whole lot to do other than write about the things you've done. So each day swells up to at least a full page… It's a problem and I'll try to adjust my behavior from now ...

I'll state again that while the people working in the Department of Conservation (DOC) can at times be kind of annoying, they do manage to set up pretty amazing tramping routes. I'm referring here to my last post from Wanaka where I whine about not getting enough stuff for free, mainly in the form of freedom camping. They really don't want you to know about the places where it's possible and I don't know why. Take the place we started our day at: the parking lot ...

Just as a heads up, the following will contain whining about not getting enough things for free. There will also be some negativity about the important work of the Department of Conservation in New Zealand. Let it be noted here that they do a great job at managing nature reserves and tramping routes all over the country. That being said, here's what I wrote originally, before starting to feel bad about it: We had been driving around the south island in New Zea...

After a comfortable night at the Shining Star holiday park in Hokitika we used up the last of the offered facilities by uploading more pictures to Google Drive over the wifi and by emptying out our grey water tank. Then it was time to head to the road and fill up another tank with some unleaded petrol. It costs about 202 cents per liter here, which is about 70 cents more than it did in Australia. Luckily some supermarkets give out vouchers for a 4 cents per liter...