Day 27 Murchison to Kaikoura I couldn't believe after last night's wonderful sunset and heat that we awoke to rain again and a horrible low mist everywhere; still really hot but where's the sunshine gone again. I never thought it was possible for a more diverse weather system than we have in the UK but they certainly seem to have it here in the South Island at least. The initial plan was that we would head for Nelson today but we decided as the forecast was a ...

Day 26 Greymouth to Murchison A bit of a grey misty start after last nights sunshine; a combination of sea fog and low cloud, weird to say the least as we are right on the coast. We took a walk after breakfast onto South Beach which was completely empty and strewn with masses of driftwood including complete trees! Think I prefer Bournemouth beach anytime. We drove the 6km into Greymouth to do some food shopping for the weekend and then hit the road towards Wes...

Day 25 Paringa to Queenstown The rain finally stopped sometime during the night and the day dawned bright and sunny. Lovely sight of the sun coming up over the mountains with wispy cloud hovering mid way and the smell of fresh rain on the rainforest. It was a strange experience being in a rainforest anyway but one where the temperature is relatively cold and not hot and humid as one expects is weird. We went to introduce ourselves to the people who run the sa...

Day 24 Queenstown to ParingaTre Well day dawned nice enough with blue skies and sunshine; a bit chilly though but Queenstown is a ski resort in winter so not unexpected. We left the campsite, which has just opened, a bit of a one man concern as he is running and constructing at the same time. All of the main blocks are converted ship containers, different to say the least! We then made our way to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, probably our only chance to see the nat...

Day 23 Te Anau to Queenstown Bloody hell, when it rains here it really rains; hell of a storm last night with thunder and lightning and rain of course, but when I mentioned it to the guy at the service station he just said "oh that was only toying with you, I've seen 6" in an hour"!!! Beautiful double rainbow this morning though; it's not often you can see the complete arc of the rainbow in duplicate. We drove from Te Anau to Queenstown with the weather improvin...