It's been a week since I could update this journal but her are the highlights of this amazing week. Tuesday 24th April: We left Franz Josef and travelled down to Fox and had a short walk around the lake and viewed the glacier from a distance. Th weather that day was not good and it was rainingf so we decided to spend most of the day driving so we could make up the ground to be in Te Anau by the weekend. We travelled through Haast and up to Wanaka where we spent ...

We stayed in Hokitika yesterday and had a bit of an animal day. We went to see some kiwis at the National Kiwi Centre as I think it is unlikely that we will see any in the wild. They are strange birds with no wings and a long beak. I knew they were flightless birds but they just look really odd with no wings. After that we checked in at our campsite and they had a small farm there. The kids loved it and although I thought the Llamas were the most interesting anim...

We,re in Greymouth today which, despite it,s name is a lovely little town. Today we have been up to a place called Shantytown which is a recreation of a gold mining town from the 1860s. They have built mines , shops , barbers, a fire station a jail, a schoool etc etc and the place is very impressive. They also have a steam train which takes you up on a short ride through the bush which was great for the kids. I think Poppy and Noah will be experts on mining by th...

We moved up the coast to Motuaka on Wednesday and had a great day. We took a boat trip up to the Abel Tasman National Park and were left on a deserted beach. We took a short walk through the forest until we reached another fantastic beach where we ate our picnic and waited for the boat to collect us later. We saw seals swimming in the sea and jumping off the rocks which was a real treat. On Thursday we travelled through Murchison and stopped at New Zealand's lon...

Well we are now in the South Island. We arrived in Wellington on Friday afternoon and are very grateful to Phil and Chloe for the hospitality they have shown us over the weekend even though it is 5 years since we last saw them. As I have said before there is usually a dilema that confronts us and Friday was no different. We have had problems with the toilet door jamming shut and up to now we have managed to free the lock with the help of a fork or a knife, howeve...