13th - 24th July - South Island - New Zealand After a smooth sailing across the Tasman sea we caught our connecting coach to Christchurch where we were greeted by our host s for the weekend Lee & Kiri. It was early evening before we got to Christchurch but the drive from Picton was certainly a sign of the things to come!! Blue skies, sea on your left side snow capped mountains to your right and green green green grass every where else. We were very excited to meet up with Lee (old school chum) & Kiri ( Mad Kiwi bird). We were treated to a lasagne and a chocolate self saucy pudding and of course a few bottles of beer whilst we caught up what we had all been up to!! A Kiwi fry up for brekkie before heading to the arts centre in the old University site in Christchurch. Lots of craft stall holders and street performers were all around. Pumpkin & chocolate muffins were an unusual choice with coffee but a were bloody lovely!! Lee played footie that afternoon and we watched the 2nd half of the 5-4 win over the local rivals!! Huge portion of fish and chips on the way home before togging up for the main event!! Tri nations rugby - All Blacks vs Spring Boks at the Jade stadium. We had seen the All blacks were playing in Christchurch when we first arrived and managed to contact Lee & Kiri who also wanted to go!! A great night and atmosphere at the game with the All blacks leaving it till the last 15 mins to turn on the magic every one knows they are capable of. They ran out easy winners in the end but a great experience!! Sunday consisted of a visit to Riccarton market which was huge and full of weird and wonderful things. Han picked up a bargain coat and we both picked up a new book. We caught up with Kiri who had been playing Hockey and watched her second half!! A visit up to Sumner beaches via the port hills and a nice walk along the promenade filled our afternoon before a guided tour of the Kiteboard factory that Lee works in and a lovely carpet picnic lamb roast dinner!! We ate enough for 6 people followed by New Zealands famous Hokey Pokey ice cream. Lee's birthday was on Monday and he had booked the day off of work!! He was made up with a home video that Steve Willis & Jay had sent from home. It featured Lee's family and friends sending birthday wishes from the UK and a message to Han & I from Jay. Steve & Jay phoned that morning and we all got the chance to speak which was really good. A visit to Christchurch Museum & Art gallery before a Mexican meal & game of 10 pin bowling finished Lee's day off with easy beating of the rest of us. Tuesday saw the start of the road trip. With only seven days till our flight out of Christchurch we had a lot to cram in a week but we were going to give it a good go. We picked up our Camper which happened to be a converted Toyota Previa with the Art work on the side of the Norton motorbike company. We said our goodbyes before heading over Arthur's pass over to Hokitika and onto Franz Joseph Glacier where we spent our first night in the camper. It was pitch black when we arrived but we managed to cook up a meal and set the bed up for the first time! Bloody hell was it cold or what!! We woke up early no surprise to find everything frozen. That morning we hit the road early and managed to see both Franz Joseph & Fox Glacier up close and personal as well as lake Matheson before deciding that Lake Wanaka was with in reaching distance. We put the peddle to the mettle and cruised through the Haast Pass toward Wanaka. Very dark and cold with no obvious overnight camping spot in sight we opted for a meal in the Speigths Inn on the waterfront of Lake Wanaka. Home made burger and chips and a beer warmed us up before our second night camping. The next day turned out to be another Windy Wellington kind of day. Porridge in the van with engine running to keep us warm set us up for what was an unexpected day. With not a lot on offer on a dodgy day we opted for some indoor rock climbing at Base Camp. This was a relatively new business with a state of the art climbing facilities. We both got stuck in and were soon scaling the 11m walls with the non climber providing the safety rope. We both loved it and enjoyed supporting and watching out for each other. Our Korean / American coach was very encouraging. We definately found something we both would love to do again. After cooling down we hit the road. Over the Crown range into Queenstown. By the time we arrived it was getting dark so we went and found a DOC camp site right on the lakeside about 6 km out the other side of Queenstown on the Glenorchy road. A beautiful spot completely on our own in the middle of know where. We cooked up a storm before the light left us forcing us into an early night. After assessing the budget over breakfast we decided skiing and parachute jumping was out of the question so headed back into Queenstown to enjoy it the cheap way. A lakeside walk, Potato wedges at winnies followed by watching the Paragliders descend from the skies above at the top of the Gondola. With stunning views over the lake looking across to the 'Remarkables Ski resort' we looked at each other and both said we really want to try Paragliding one day!!!One Day!! With time tight we decide to head onto Te Anau which would be our gateway into Milford Sound. We arrived late in the evening and had lost the light. With conditions worsening and temperature dropping below -5 we were advised by the locals to head on to Milford in the morning as we would face really bad driving conditions with black ice and snow forecast! We opted for a lake front sleep. We were up at the sparrows fart and started our 2 hour drive into the sound, The Scenary is amazing as usual and for a third visit for me I'm still in awe of the whole thing! The locals were right, ice every where but we managed to negotiate our way in right up to the visitors centre and in true British style brew up!! We caught the next boat trip which left the harbour. What an amazing place serene picture perfect mountains with snow caps!! Waterfalls, dolpins, tree avalanches all make up the awe inspiring place that is Milford sound. Our next stop unkown we hopped back in the van and decided to keep driving till we wanted to stop or wanted to get some where. That somewhere turned out to be Dunedin. We literally drove in about 5 hours from West to East and camped on the hills over looking the city.The following day was taken up with a walk through the city and we managed to catch up with Hayley for a coffee!! That afternoon we drove onto ackoroa