Greetings from the end of New Zealand!

But first let us enlighten you how we came to be in this temporal position.

We left Gillespie's Beach in Fox and drove down to the little town of Wanaka. I should state that we love Wanaka! It's beautiful little town with cheerful atmosphere and a backdrop that people would kill for, a crystal, blue lake surrounded by towering mountains. Plus the ice cream shop, Tangos, provided very generous portions. We camped nearby at an equally impressive lake and spent our time BBQing, swimming and enjoying the sun.

Sad to leave Wanaka, our next destination was Queenstown which by and large was a massive disappointment. People bang on about it but as far as we could discover it consists centrally of about three streets so to call it a town is generous, even by kiwi standards. Furthermore, you'd be lucky to find a Kiwi in this tourist saturated location. The place just felt fake, like a model 'town' held together by the promise of adrenaline sports that can be experienced anywhere else in the world with the right equipment. Seriously the only noticeably real thing about the place was the lack of substance so obvious it should have been signposted. So we didn't much like it. We stayed outside of Queenstown at a beautiful lakeside campsite at which we met Olly and Beth a British couple (who we'd met on numerous occasions in China and once before in NZ) and a couple of German's, Marco and Veronica (who we had bumped into at the campsite close to the fox glacier and in Wanaka). From that point on we agreed that we had become an unofficial convoy, destined to meet at the next few campsites on our intertwined routes. So despite Queenstown we still had a good time (and gained some good friends) in this large village.

After tearing ourselves away from Queenstown we moved further south toward the glacier carved landscape of the Fjordland. This was what we'd been looking forward too since hearing about it in Roturua, we were going to kayak the Millford Sound. If you'd like to learn more about Millford Sound please visit your local library but for all intents and purposes it's supposed to be beautiful. So all excited we went to sleep in the car (to save putting the tent down at 6:30am). Now, being as close to the Antarctic as we were in the Fjordland, it's bloody cold, and apparently cars don't trap heat very well. So we've had the worst night sleep on the trip so far. Luckily as the sun rose around 5am it was warm enough to get some sleep. Unfortunately this encouraged us to sleep through our 6:30 alarm and we woke at 7:15am in the cold, hard realisation that we had just 1hour 45 to make a journey we'd been told to leave 2hours 30 for. Throwing everything in the back of the car and bickered as we sped from the campsite. After some creative driving from Paul we made the journey in 1hour 15, much to the admiration of the kayak company skipper (apparently the best time is 50 minutes on motorbike). Though not too proud of ourselves we were happy to make our kayak time and enjoyed the experience all the more in the aftermath of our panic.

After spending another night at the campsite we fled with haste we were sad to say goodbye to the German contingent of our convoy who were heading south towards Invercargill. A now wholly British convoy made its way to the Otago region of the South island (on the West coast, South of Christchurch).

The Otago region is a total eye pleaser with rugged mountains running in every direction and more hawks than you could shake a stick at (if you felt inclined to do so). What could improve such a beautiful area I hear you ask? Well how about a cheese factory. We pushed this on Olly and Beth, but truth be told they required little convincing. The cheese was stunning to say the least and orgasmic to say the most. Whilst in Omaru (in the Otago region) we also took some time to see some penguins! These little guys come ashore in the evening and you can just about make them out when your cameras at full zoom. Saying that it was cool to see them come ashore with the classic penguin waddle. Sadly no batman though.

We had one last night with Olly and Beth and made a paella, some drinks and said some goodbyes before we left for Christchurch the next morning.

During our second night of camping we met a kiwi gent called Nigel. Nigel had been cycling from Auckland to Christchurch and offered us a place to crash for the night we would spend in Christchurch. So taking up his generous offer he met us at our rental drop off depot, pulled a bicycle out of his car, drew us a map of how to get to his and handed over the keys. On the way to Nigel's in his little Nissan Micra, we took a detour (recommended by Nigel) to see Christchurch from a mountain top, which was stunning! Once at Nigel's we borrowed some sea kayaks and his Ute (Utility Truck) and sped off (slowly) to the beach. We learned that we cannot kayak waves. It was comical to watch Amy tumble trying to get back to shore, and it was comical to watch a laughing Paul get caught by a wave from behind and also tumble to shore. Dinner-wise Nigel had a surprise for us. Basically he's built a living space away from his house with an outdoor clay oven. The oven was still in progress but it made a mean lamb dinner and (although taking a while) an amazing apple crumble. Well fed, we told stories and played cards late into the night. The next day we left Nigel's with a sense of being well looked after, hopped in the camper we had signed up to relocate to Auckland ("Yay back to Auckland!") and set off knowing that our next real stop was Fiji.

Waiting in Auckland Airport we are aware that Fiji has been experiencing severe floods that have claimed the lives of 6 people. So, erm, yeh. Wish us luck.