We drove to Picton on the Northern tip of the South Island to catch our ferry over to the North Island, with our hitchhiker in tow, James the Canadian. The ferry took a 3 hour scenic trip over to Wellington. When we arrived we dropped James off at his hostel in the city centre...just as we were on our way to find our holiday park there was an almighty....CRASH!!! Laura took a disliking to a Mini Cooper and decided to take the wheel arch off! Ooops! We left o...

Blenheim is in the Marlborough Valley and is well known for its Marlborough wines, particularly their Sauvignon Blanc. We decided to join a wine tour, which was great as there were only 5 of us. There are around 400 vineyards in the Marlborough area and over 80 wineries, of which we visited 9. The area specialises in boutique, top-end wines and the industry in this area has been going for around 30 years. The wines are getting so popular now that the French h...

We drove through Mount Aspiring National Park, on the way to Franz Josef Glacier, which was really beautiful and very windy, which was a bit hairy with the campervan! Franz Josef is set in Westland National Park, part of the Southern Alps. The alps were formed where the Pacific and Australian techtonic plates meet and grind together. The plates cut diagnolly through the South Island and Franz Josef - so there are often earthquakes there! When we arrived w...

We headed to Wanaka slightly earlier than planned, thanks to an early morning call from Dad (5 am!) warning us of the tsunami that may be heading to NZ, but luckily it didn't materialize! So on the way we had time to stop and take photos of the beautiful scenery. We drove through the Otago Goldlands where we saw huge snow capped mountains and clear blue rivers. As we arrived into Wanaka we stopped at Puzzle World (no it isn't a children's attraction!!) to see ...

We managed to drive to Dunedin, on the Otago Penninsular, without getting lost once! But this may be due to the fact that there aren't that many raods here to get lost on...or it could just be our fantastic sense of direction and map reading skills?! Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh, so as you can imagine there were plenty of Scottish influences there! Even a Robert Burns statue, which meant that Laura wouldn't stop doing here "Rabbie Burrrns" impression! We ...