28th & 29th October, thursday and friday After driving all day to get to Picton and teh Marlborough sound on thursday we had hoped to hire mountain bikes or just go tracking for the day but on friday morning it was raining and looked likely to rain all day. So here we are in Picton having eaten a lovely Fush 'n' Chups lunch and armed with a ferry ticket for 7pm we are ready to leave the south Island and to meet up with the relies again. Doug and Jane have ki...

25th to 27th October 25th With the weather being glorious and feeling better after sleeping in a van rather than the floor of a tent we decided to do a couple of day walks and tackle the Abel Tasmans from the other end so drove north to Pohara. We did very little else but sit around (opnm our fancy camping chairs donated by a friendly german fellow about to leave the country)in the sun and read our books and dry our sleeping bags which hadn't spun in the w...

21st to 24th October 21st, thursday Feeling fit we intended to spend a good few days tramping the Abel Tasman Coastal track at teh far north of the south island so we headed up to Motueka, a cool little place full of the woodstock generation. The weather was great so we passed through and drove further up to the beach at Kaiteriteri where we stayed for the next couple of nights taking things easy and sunning oursleves. 23rd saturday With our camping...

20th October, wednesday We stayed in Punakaiki just long enough to see the little know pancake rocks on the coast. It cheered us up loads to find that actually ther eare far mor curious that we had expected. They are basically towering rocks being battered by waves that have formed in well, erm pancake shape layers or more like stacks of casino chips. Worth a quiick visit which is what it got. Acording to the Lonely Planet, which we had begun to read wi...

17th, 18th, 19th October The next few days after Queens town we spent driving up towards the west coast to the famous Glaciers. On sunday we headed up to Wanaka (reputed to be the next Queenstown) via a short stop in Arrowtown. It has a reputation for being like a wild west town and very pretty. I'm sure it is in the Autumn. It does however host another famous LOTR location where the Wraiths were washed away. (you know the bit although you will need your ima...