A KIWI CHRISTMAS

The arrival into Picton on the South Island of New Zealand is stunning - the Marlborough Sounds are lush hilly fingers of land snaking up into the Cook Straits, and are almost deserted apart from the occasional house or boat. A beautiful entrance to the South Island, which has very different geological and natural characteristics from the North Island.

As we were driving and trying to keep clear heads, we reluctantly decided against spending a day doing tastings in the wine region around Blenheim, and pressed on down the east coast to the sealife Mecca of Kaikoura. Here, our campsite was quite a highlight. Just outside of Kaikoura, along a twisty turny coast road, our site was right on the seashore, so we could sit and watch the waves lap the shore as we ate dinner. Next day, we had the brilliant experience of swimming with seals. We took a little boat out to a colony where there were loads of seals sunning themselves on the rocks and occasionally slipping into the water to cool off. Wet-suited up, we resembled the seals ourselves, and they seemed more than happy to play and swim with us in the water as we snorkelled around them. Emma was a little freaked out when a parent seal charged her early on for getting too close to her babies, but they didn't seem to hold it against her and carried on playing regardless.

We had a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short space of time so, after our swim, we headed on to Hanmer Springs, another thermal springs resort, and climbed Conical Hill for an energetic walk to a lookout over the town. Rather than having a soak in the pools in town, we pressed on via the beautiful Lewis Pass to Mariua Springs where we stayed the night at a Japanese spa in the valley, and sat in hot pools absorbing strange black algae that the signs insisted were 'goodies' for our skin. Next day, suitably cleansed and purified, we headed west to Greymouth and down the west coast to Hokitika, stopping en route to pick up three drenched young hitchhikers who were in New Zealand to learn to be missionaries, having discovered God after going off the rails with two much coke and marijuana in the UK. With just three dollars each per day to live on, God would have his work cut out looking after these guys, but they seemed to be coping OK so far.

Further down the coast, we were disappointed not to be able to climb Franz Josef Glacier, which was an incredible sight - a massive wall of ice bearing down on the town below it - because the area was flooded. The walkway to Fox Glacier, just a few kilometres further on, was also shut off, so we couldn't catch a glimpse of it, sadly. We drove on, spending the night at Lake Wanaka, and passing through Queenstown the following day to make a few reservations for the Christmas period. Then we went on to Te Anau, a pretty villlage with New Zealand's second-largest lake, where we could watch the sun set over the lake from our campervan site.

Te Anau is most visited as a launch-pad to Milford Sound, one of the 'must-dos' of New Zealand. The drive there takes about an hour-and-a-half, and is one of the most notorious in the country, particularly in winter when the roads are covered in ice. Good thing they weren't when we visited, as we found the drive a massive challenge as it was, with loads of hairpin bends and long steep ascents and descents, where our clutch-control was given a real test. A very steep very dark tunnel, which goes on for about ten minutes, was particularly nail-biting. But we made it, stopping en route to take photos of some fantastic views and meet a kea, a massive parrot-like bird that seemed almost tame, walking around the car-park as if he owned it. One of the stops was at the Mirror Lakes which, when the water is completely still, give a crystal clear reflection of the mountains around them. When we were there was a slight breeze so the effect wasn't perfect, but it was nonetheless beautiful.

We took a cruise out into Milford Sound, which really is as picturesque as it's cracked up to be. It's a big fjord, surrounded by mountains, of which Mitre Peak is apparently the most photographed in the country. The cruise lasted about three hours - we saw some great waterfalls and managed to get a glass of pure mountain-filtered water from underneath one of them, a golden waterfall with a rainbow of colours, seals sunbathing and even managed to get out into the Tasman Sea where some dolphins came to play around the boat. We got absolutely soaked under the waterfalls, but somehow it all added to the experience. We had a lot of photography practice here, but couldn't possibly compete with the amazing photos that must have come from some of the industrial-sized cameras some people had on the boat. Afterwards, we drove back to Te Anau as night fell, practising our adventure driving skills again.

We were well ahead of our original schedule and made it to Queenstown, where we planned to spend Christmas, with a couple of days in hand. This is the extreme-sports capital of New Zealand, and you can do any activity you've ever wanted to do here, provided it's of the terrifying adrenalin-rush white-knuckle variety. On the banks of Lake Wakatipu, it's in a really lovely setting and sitting on the shore of the lake , the view is almost like one of those pictures in the Usborne books we had when we were young to learn words, with this page being about water-sports - parachute, waterskier, kayak, sea-plane, diver, skydiver, sailboat, banana boat, hang glider, etc etc. And in the winter, add skier to that list, as it is overlooked by the Remarkables mountain range, where there's apparently some great skiing.

We were a little concerned that homesickness might get the better of us at Christmas, so we had booked up a few things to look forward to, although they were relatively tame by the town's standards. The night we arrived, we took a cable car up to the summit of the hill overlooking Queenstown, and got competitive on the luge track which was great fun. On Christmas Eve, we went white-water rafting on the Shotover River, which was brilliant, even though Emma managed to get bumped off the side of the boat and ended up floating down the river. Then on Christmas Day we had to get to the centre of town for 7.30am - we hadn't been up at that sort of time on Christmas Day since we were kids. We were picked up and taken out to Glenorchy nearby, for a jetboat safari along the Dart River. We sped up the river, which was shallow and sprawled over a wide valley, taking in the scenery and doing 360° spins on the way. Afterwards, a Maori guide took us on a rainforest walk, pointing out how his ancestors used trees and plants for food and natural remedies.

In the afternoon we went for a wander round Queenstown where lots of tourists were doing the same and there was a fun holiday atmosphere with street entertainers making a killing. We opened the presents and cards that our families had sent from home, and ate the Christmas cake and pulled the crackers that Emma's mum had sent over, putting on our party hats. In the evening we went for a special meal to a lovely seafood restaurant on the lakefront, from where we could see the beautiful century-old steamship, the TSS Earnslaw, returning to port. Given that turkey with all the trimmings wasn't on the menu, we started with oysters, then shared delicious lobster and groper main meals, topped off with Christmas pudding and a cheese board. After dinner, at about 10pm, we left to find a pub, and were very disappointed to find that we couldn't get a drink anywhere due to crazy licensing laws which prohibited pubs from opening until midnight, after which it was no longer Christmas Day, so the restrictions no longer applied. Crazy. Instead, we headed back to the campsite to share a bottle of wine, call our families and celebrate our 100th day on the road.

Boxing Day, and we were on our way again. From Queenstown, we headed north to Twizel, where we went for a long bike ride around the man-made canals and dams that generate a large proportion of NZ's hydroelectric power. Next day, we drove up the east side of Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in Australasia, which the Maoris call 'Aoraki' or 'Cloud Piercer'. We went for a hike around the national park there, where we saw a monument to all those climbers killed in the mountains in the area - there was a disconcertingly large number of them and it seemed that new little plaques were being added on an alarmingly regular basis. We drove on, then, to Lake Tekapo where we spent the night, and the next day we had our longest day distance-wise as made our way back across to the east coast, to Akaroa.

This cute little village was settled by the French, and there's a very French feel here with lots of little cafés and French road names. We even saw a 2CV and a guy in a French football short. It's a bit of a b**** to get to, as it's hidden away in a cove behind a series of steep hills with windy narrow roads, but it's well worth the trek (and the driving practice) as it's really sheltered and peaceful. Our caravan site was high up over the town, and the sun-set over the bay was lovely. The main reason we made the effort to get here, though, was because as we hadn't managed to go swimming with dolphins in Kaikoura, we were very excited to find out that this was pretty much the only place in the world where you could swim with one particular variety and also the smallest, the Hector's Dolphin. After one false start due to the boat that was supposed to take us breaking down, we finally got into wetsuits and puttered out into the bay on a little boat. There were two main rules about swimming with these dolphins: they had to not have any calves (babies) with them, and they had to be interested enough in us to stick around the boat before we could get into the water. After ten minutes sailing out into the harbour, one pod of dolphins swam up to us to check us out, but failed to find anything worth hanging around for, so quickly swam away. Another five minutes later, however, we spotted another pod, and this time they seemed keen to play. We quickly jumped into the water, and were told to hum music into our snorkels to entertain the dolphins. Emma supplemented this music by hitting two small stones together, which the dolphins seemed to love, as they came back again and again to dance with us all to this rather untuneful music. The guides we were with told us to spin around in the water as the dolphins swam near, which we did and they swam around us. This was a really special experience, and definitely worth struggling up those hilly roads to get to Akaroa for.

Afterwards, we drove on to Christchurch for our last night in New Zealand. After over 3500km of faithful service in 17 days, we said a sad goodbye to Nobby, who we dropped off near the airport, and went for a wander round the town, which had a nice laidback vibe and a very English feel. We had a few drinks and dinner at a couple of the bars along Oxford Terrace, the main night spot, and reflected on our time in the country. We had had a brilliant time there - tourists are so well catered for that caravanning around is incredibly easy, and it has so much to offer in terms of amazing scenery and exciting adventures. We were sad to be leaving, but with a five-week jaunt round Australia to look forward to next, we couldn't get too despondent. And now that we've got to know our extended family over there, we know that one day we'll definitely have to return to New Zealand.