23rd January:

We weren't in any rush today, even if we were it wouldn't have mattered after the chill out day we had yesterday! We packed up our vans & waved goodbye to the lake. It's been a beautiful place to stay the last couple of nights & with the weather topping 30, it certainly helped!
We headed towards Twizel, a small sleepy town about 30km's south of Lake Pukaki. We booked into a campsite & spent the whole day there. It's amazing how boring a day can be when you take away the scenery & add other people. No stupid games, nothing exciting to look at, have to keep the noise down & to top it off, they didn't even have wireless!
By the time the sun had set we were all thoroughly burn't & looking forward to getting the hell out of Twizel. Me & Ed sat at the camp table & watched some comedy on his laptop while the girls read in the vans.

24 January:

We're all packed, ready to get on the road & leave Twizel in the distance when 'click click click', Ed's van had a flat battery! I assumed we were in for a long wait but the AA over here are slightly better than back home. The mechanic was with us inside 30 mins & fixed the car instantly. Now we can get going. Heading in a South West direction towards Cromwell we passed a sheep shearing place. It sounded quite cool so we asked how much it was to watch & have a short presentation. $20 each, me & Carly passed, a sheep having a shave isn't on my list of 'things to do'. Ed & Sara went in though & Sara ended up getting to shave a sheep! Exciting times!!
The road was a scenic route & we passed through Lindis Pass :), we saw an ambulance a while earlier & saw it pulled up at the roadside on a bend inbetween the mountains. A motorcycle accident was the reason & sure enough the air rescue were flown in minutes later.
After a lengthy drive we arrived in Cromwell, which seemed to be more alive than Twizel. It had it all, even a cidery! As it was late in the afternoon we booked into a campsite & chilled there. Within an hour we had seen 3 beautiful classic cars pull up, a Cadillac, an Impala & a GT 351. Apparently there had been a classic car show there earlier this morning. We were a bit disappointed to have missed it but soon realised that close to 40 classic cars were parked in the campsite for the night. Me & Ed drove around the whole place drooling & getting an occasional cheer for the graphics on the side of our van at the same time!! Nothing much really happened today from this point so I'll call it a day there!

25th January:

We headed into Cromwell town this morning to look at the cidery & a couple of boutiquey shops. Bought some food, fill up with petrol, the vans not us & hit the road again. Today's target was to get close to Dunedin ready to pick up Ed's new specs in the morning (his vision isn't what it used to be!). We passed through Alexandra because there was naff all to do there.
Carly suggested we stopped for lunch at Roxby Power Station (it sounds pants, but it's actually a river dam with amazing views if you imagine the power lines aren't there) & then headed to Milton, around 50km's south of Dunedin. There wasn't anything to do here either so we just carried on to the coast a bit further north. After an hour of searching for a suitable spot, we pulled up in a secluded layby right by the cliff leading to a beach. We larked (love that word) about on the beach, mainly whipping each other with seaweed. Watched a film called 'Eden Lake' after a supreme steak dinner. The film sucked but the food was great!

In case you were wondering why we are doing our Blogs in smaller chunks now its cause the internet always logs you off here - especially when you are halfway through a blog so we have been typing them on the laptop then just pasting - so check out the next one Kaka Point.

Much love Matt and Carly x x x