From Oamaru, we took a scenic route northwest through more lumpy bumpy vibrant green farmland, through some cool limestone cliffs, then turned west up the Waitaki valley and made our way further inland.

Along the way we stopped at the Elephant Rocks, big rounded outcrops of limestone dotting a field in the midst of the idyllic green countryside.

The road up the Waitaki valley took us past numerous lakes of incredible powder blue water in smooth-sided wide valleys of golden grass tussocks. The lakes were created by the numerous hydroelectric dams and had Scottish names like Aviemore and Benmore. We stopped at one of the dams before carrying on, approaching the Southern Alps once again, this time from the east.

As the mountains came closer the scenery became more and more impressive, until we turned north and drove through the flat golden valleys up towards the lakes, the huge snow-capped mountains off to our left.

Our next stop was at Lake Pukaki where we had an incredible view down the length of the lake to Aoraki, standing out tall and crowned with snow against the bright blue sky.

From Lake Pukaki we made our way northeast to Lake Tekapo, arriving not long before sunset. We had time to get down to the lakeside beside the quaint Church of the Good Shepherd, a small stonebuilt church overlooking the perfectly placid lake ringed by beautiful mountains, to enjoy the view before it started getting dark.

We skimmed a few stones and took in the scenery before finding our way to our holiday park, stopping off to buy some cakes on the way. With the thick frost on the ground it would have been easy just to stay in the van with the heater on all evening, but we got out and made some dinner, before walking the short distance up the road under the clear starry sky to the hot pools set in the hill beside the lake.

We got changed and braved the freezing air for a few seconds before climbing into the lovely warm pools and floating around in the water under the stars for the best part of an hour. Suitably warmed up, we got changed and nipped back to Happy Diwali before settling down for the night.

The next morning we managed to get up at a reasonable time and, after breakfast, jumped in the van and made our way back to the hot pools. We had opted to buy a return ticket the night before so we could have another go in the pools and did exactly that, this time enjoying a view of the lake below us, with the morning sun painting the hills on the far side a beautiful golden shade.

After another nice warm-up we jumped back in the van, managing to resist the lure of the ice rink beside the hot pools, and made our way east. Leaving the mountains behind once again, the landscape around us turned back into lush farmland as we made our way across the Canterbury plains up towards Christchurch.

Skirting Christchurch, we continued east out the Banks Peninsula, with Lucy ably handling the narrow, twisty roads which wound up and down the hilly terrain of the peninsula. We enjoyed the views out to sea as we made our way out the peninsula, eventually driving down into the beautiful town of Akaroa, nestled along the shore of a large natural harbour cut into the peninsula.

With our petrol very near to completely empty, we filled up and, after a wee drive through the town and along the waterfront, we doubled back and up the hill behind the village to our holiday park.

After plugging in our power and relaxing for a bit, we decided to head down to the village for dinner. Armed with our headtorch, we made our way down the steep path and stairs from the holiday park to the village, and got some dinner in the local hotel.

I enjoyed my meal, splurging on a surf and turf with ribeye and scallops, whilst Lucy found her green-lipped mussels mediocre. Nevertheless, we were both full and energised for the hike back up the dimly lit, steep path to the holiday park where we collapsed in the van for our penultimate night.

After vacating the holiday park the next morning, Lucy once again took on the winding road back towards Christchurch, this time carrying on towards the city. We were a bit apprehensive about seeing the damage of the recent earthqaukes in the town, and were quite shocked as we drove past the town centre. Glimpsing down streets off to the side as we passed, we could see fences closing off the roads in the centre, with cranes and diggers at work clearing rubble and widespread damage evident. Even on the roads we drove, we saw a number of buildings - sadly, mostly the older and prettier ones - with collapsed walls and broken windows, often with wooden pilings supporting the still-standing walls and fences blocking off the damage. We passed blocks where diggers crawled over piles of shattered rubble, buildings which had been badly enough damaged to have been knocked down. The worst sight were peoples' houses which had huge cracks in walls and windows and in some cases whole walls missing, with all their belongings still hanging in the rooms.

Not wishing to spend too much time looking at the damage and thinking about the poor people whose lives had been ruined by the earthquakes, we made our way to our last holiday park and spent the majority of the afternoon packing and clearing out Happy Diwali. At one point in the afternoon we felt the van shudder slightly and, after checking online, discovered there had been a large earthquake (6.5 on the Richter scale) near Taupo on the North Island, which must have been what we felt.

Our last night was a comfy one and considerably warmer than the last few. In the morning we boiled up our last batch of eggs and packed the rest of our stuff, before heading to the depot to drop off Happy Diwali. After bidding our farewells to our faithful companion, we hopped on a shuttle to the airport where we managed to get checked in first and relaxed for a few hours before our flight to Melbourne.