A beautiful sunny day today. Yesterday we went to the LOTR locations with a bit of history thrown in. This morning we went on an adventure in a Landcruiser, on unmade tracks carved out of the rock in the 1860s, to see some more LOTR places and ended up being driven in a river and thrown around on rutted tracks made by miners. As we climbed out of Queenstown the valley had a blanket of mist with just the tops of hills poking through like islands. The morning finis...

Sunshine at last, Queenstown is bustling, full of backpackers. Popular with Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists, every restaurant has menus in their languages and staff from those backgrounds. Every other shop seems to offer thrill rides on the water. It's autumn, so no skiing at the moment but paragliding, jet boats, Lord of the Rings tours, a 1920s steamer vy with jet skis disguised as sharks, zip lines across a canyon, water jet suits. More mundane, electric...

From Kaikoura on the west coast, by train to Christchurch in the rain. The next morning we boarded the TranzAlpine which is one of the world's famous railway journeys. It climbs up through the Southern Alps, an incredible feat of engineering with dynamite, picks and shovels around the turn of the 19/20th centuries. The views were amazing but the photos aren't great. The observation car was closed because too many plonkers have been leaning out of the sides for ph...

Well, it was Conisbee weather in Wellington, absolutely chucking it down. We weren't able to see the scenic views from the InterIslander ferry as we crossed the Cook Strait. The Coastal Pacific Railway is supposed to be one of the world's most scenic. It probably would be if it wasn't raining, however the vinyards and farmland we passed through looked like they needed it. Kaikoura is a pretty little town known for crayfish, seals and whale watching. Yesterday w...

A 5 hour drive through the centre of the North Island, we passed through stunning scenery as well as some congested town that really need bypasses. Huge lorry/trailer combinations rumble through 100 year old main streets, it must be very noisy for residents. After a brief stop at Taihape, which is apparently the gumboot throwing capital, we arrived in the Government capital. Tomorrow we'll be on the ferry to the South Island and then the train to Kaikoura. Photo...