So we stopped at Haast for one night. A rather bare site but the loos and showers were good! We followed the Haast River, south, stopping at various points for photos, mainly Thunder Creek, Fantail Falls and the Blue Pools. All beautiful! Stopped at Makarora for coffee. We followed the edge of Lake Wanaka and crossed over the mountains and joined Lake Hawea. Again views where stunning. Stopped for a stroll in Waneka and then picked up the scenic route to Quee...

Oh dear! As we got up on Monday 4th February it was raining. The first real rain we have had. It rained all night and we had breakfast in the Campervan. Our first meal in the van. A very grey and dreary drive south to Franz Josef. Low cloud, very wet and not very scenic. Stopped at Pukekura for a coffee and they had free WI -Fi so we were able to check e- mails. The Franz Josef was a very nice site but it was still raining. We delayed booking our glacier walk a...

So we left Moteuka and retraced our steps to Richmond and drove southerly until we reached Murchison. A good coffee stop with more ginger shortbread. We drove through Buller Gorge which was amazing. The river was very blue. We stopped at the Buller Gorge swing bridge, the longest swing bridge in New Zealand. Heather and Ray crossed with no hesitation. John had no intention of crossing and I dithered, started and went back. Then a guy encouraged me to cross and s...

On Saturday 1st February we caught a bus from the campsite at 8.30am. This drove us to Kaiteriteri, a beautiful bay of golden sand. There we caught a water taxi, from the beach and this took us around the bays of Abel Tamsan Natuonal Park up to Totaranui. It stopped at several bays as people got on and off. The views were stunning yet again. The sea was turquoise and the sand golden. Heather saw a penguin, the rest of us saw the seals but somehow missed the pengu...

We left Blenheim early and drove on to Picton. The guide books don't rate Picton except as a place to board the Transisland Ferry. However it was another beautiful day and the sun shining on the harbour at Picton was another stunning sight. We had breakfast there after a walk around the marina. We then took the Queen Charlotte Highway to Havelock. This gave us views over the Malborough Sound. We had to stop loads of times to appreciate the huge number of inlets. ...