We left early this morning & drove to Arrowtown. This quiet little frontier town had been recommend by an app I had downloaded. We had no idea about the history of the place when we arrived but immediately linked it to the American west with its styles of building. Later in the day we were to discover it was indeed a gold rush town, just in NZ. After Arrowtown we walked around the scenic Lake Hayes which took around 2hrs. This was a very scenic walk, which we...

After being woken in Kaikoura initially by the siren to alert the fire department, the evacuation siren in the motel was accidentally set off. We took this as a sign to get up & I had another go in the space age shower capsule. We suffered our first disappointment of the holiday when we arrived at the whale watch. The seas were too rough for the ship to go out, & we could not wait 3hrs to see if the next boat would go out. The skies did look very menaci...

Following Stu's suggestion we decided we would visit Hanmer Springs before going to Kaikoura. With new Sat Nav helping guide the way we made it within a couple of hours. We spent a great afternoon in the sun, enjoying the thermal pools. The springs had rock pools, & sulphur pools with temperatures between 36 & 42 degrees. We did engage in some swimming in the pool as well, can't all be about relaxing. After picking up some sandwiches we navigated ours...

An hours sleep was not enough to start & brand new day. Alan had decided not to sleep at all, utter madness. Our taxi arrived promptly at 03:45 & we made to the almost deserted airport for the third flight out of the day. The flight itself was only 2.5hrs & we received a good breakfast. We breezed through security & were soon in our rental car on the way to the B&B. The thistle guest house is a lovely home with a number of different rooms....