We had not realised the devastation that we would find in Christchurch. The city was hit by two earthquakes in October 2010 and February 2011. In the down town area 1,700 buildings are being pulled down, so far 1,500 are down. A few buildings are being preserved and propped up with huge scaffolding and in some cases shipping containers full of stones and sand. The only major building surviving is the museum which was excellent and next to a wonderful botanic gard...

Our final day was spent on the beach and visiting the Antarctic centre. This was a chance to relive the great exploits of Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton plus experience an Antarctic storm.

A lovely morning, bright sunshine perfect for having breakfast outside. We realised we had not really had a beach day on this trip and resolved to spend today enjoying the coast. Headed north from Dunedin up highway 1. We have followed this road almost its entire length from the Bay of Islands to almost the southern tip of the South Island. We stopped at a five mile deserted sandy bay with only seagulls and other sea birds for company. After lunch we went to se...

Last night we were in Gore a central crossroads town. The site was up for sale and we soon found out why. It had not been upgraded in 50 years. This area is the deer capital and every other field is full of deer. They are as many herds as sheep and cows. Today we went to Dunedin and visited the station which is a beautiful building. We then visited the museum which was excellent. The worrying thing was the number of exhibits we remembered from our youth. The si...

A fantastic day on Milford Sound, we were up early for a boat trip with not a cloud in the sky. The views are breathtaking and impossible to capture on the camera. We then went Kayaking, Sue at the front and me at the back. A good test of marital harmony! This was followed by a tour round the underwater discovery centre looking at a man made reef. Milford Sound is incorrectly named as it is a fjord not a sound and is named after Milford in Wales by the Welshman ...