We set off north along the SH1 to Kaikoura, in search of seals and whales.As we approached the town, we could see many seals along the rocks in the sea, as well as one on the side of the road!We planned to do the coastal walk around the peninsula, but the rain started to come down quite fast, and the thought of a 2-3 hour walk in it was not appealing!So, we took the van instead, down to Point Kean, which is a seal colony.As well as there being numerous New Zealan...

We really liked Christchurch.As the largest city in the south island, with 500,000 people, we found it to have lots to offer but not too busy.It is school holidays here, so there were lots of kids clubs running, and many parents and children in the parks and museums, but still it did not feel overcrowded. We stayed very close to the centre at Stonehurst, and spent most of our time walking around the city.The first day it was raining a little, so we did lots of i...

We took the SH80 for the short ride to Mount Cook.We had bought a walking guide leaflet the previous day, so planned to do a long walk.It was quite cold up there, so I bought a woolly hat and Graham bought some waterproof trousers ready for our long trek, and we were very pleased that we had.We did the Hooker walk from the 'i-site', so it was an estimated4 hour trek, and with the icy conditions it took us 3 and a half hours to do.The walk took us over 2 suspensio...

We headed back on the Southern Scenic Route and stopped off at Sinclair Wetlands.This is home to some of the rarest birds in NZ, but unfortunately most of them seemed to be hiding whilst we were there!It was a really nice place though and we did get some fantastic views when we walked up Lonely Hill, and a great rainbow. Next we headed for Dunedin city centre.We spent an hour walking around, taking photos of the historic buildings.From the little time we spent t...

INVERCARGILL We headed off down the SH6 towards Invercargill, but had to take a quick detour on the way to go and take a look at some VW's Graham had seen the day before when we were on the bus going to Milford Sound! We also stopped to buy a swede from a farm, as many were selling them on the road side with honesty boxes. They were only $1 (about 45p) and they were huge! (see photos) We arrived at Invercargill and it was quite a gloomy day, so we went into t...