Grab yourself a seat and put the kettle on, this may be a long blog... Since our last blog we've visited Taupo, Wellington, Kaikoura and Christchurch. And we have fallen in love with New Zealand.

A few hours drive from Rotorua, we arrived late near Taupo and stayed in a campsite in the thermal valley. It was pitch black and freezing cold; the temperature hasn't gone much above 12 degrees so far.

The next morning we drove into town to see Lake Taupo, a lake as big as Singapore - it looks like the sea! There is a hole-in-one challenge on the lake where you can hit golfballs from the shore to a small pontoon set up as a green 112 yards into the lake. Out of 25 balls, Max did well to hit the pontoon and win another ball. Sadly, no hole-in-ones so we didn't win a big prize!

We were planning on doing a skydive over Lake Taupo but once again, nature defeated us. The sky was too overcast so we decided to give it a miss. What to do instead? We pondered this over breakfast in the coolest McDonald's in the world (not our opinion - it's actually labelled this!). Once you have got your food, you head outside and board an aeroplane to find a table.

We decided to head to the natural Thermal Spa Park. With our swimming gear on we walked the length of the park to a part of the river where hot, pure volcanic waters join it. It was a cold day but the river definitely warmed us up and we soaked under the hot waterfall. There were lots of people relaxing in the hot waters. It was a surreal sensation to walk a bit further out into the river where it ran freezing cold once again.

After Taupo, our next stop was the windiest city in the Southern Hemisphere and New Zealand's capital, Wellington. The capital sits on the coast surrounded by sea. Once again, we arrived late at night. On the app Wikicamps, we found a free spot to stay on a cliffs edge overlooking the sea. The only facilities it has are toilets. Max braved the wind and rain and set our stove up outside to boil some noodles for dinner.

The next morning we drove into the city to visit Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. It was interesting to explore the history of New Zealand, from it being part of Zealandia thousands of years ago to the Maori legends of more recent past to the Europeans that immigrated here to create the country we know today.

Our last stop in Wellington was the Mt Victoria lookout. Zosma took us around the mountain higher and higher until we reached a spot overlooking the harbour and city (and it felt like the windiest place on earth). It was a beautiful sight.

We got the 5.30pm ferry from Wellington to Picton, the top of the South Island. Just beyond Picton we planned to stay for the night in a free spot along the highway, but we got there and it was full of other campervans with no spaces left. We continued down the highway for an hour and got to another free rest spot and stayed there for the night. One word - cold! The stars in the sky are incredible, you just don't see them like this at home.

When we woke the next morning we realised what a beautiful place we had stayed at; we were surrounded by green hills and a blue lake. The people of New Zealand are very proud of their country, and we're always being asked if we're enjoying our trip - even in this rest stop while we were eating our breakfast.

The next hours' drive was the most astounding yet. Every corner we drove round our jaws nearly dropped and we said wow. The single lane highway stuck next to the sea as we approached the Kaikoura Mountain Range. Crashing waves on the left and snowy mountains on the right. On this magical journey, we stopped at Ohau Point and walked down the few steps there. On the rocks by the waves, a colony of New Zealand fur seals lazed around, some up to 2 meters long. It was fun to watch them in their natural habitat. A local man then said to us - did you stop at the waterfall? Oblivious, we said no, what waterfall? After his directions we headed back down the highway for about a kilometre and parked up. We followed a muddy track into trees beside a stream until we reached the said waterfall. But what was special about it was the dozens of seal pups playing in the clear pool below the waterfall. It was cool to see them flying in and out of the water chasing each other.

Due to the ocean conditions nearby, Kaikoura is a sleepy seaside town renowned for its marine tours, including whale watching. Sadly, we telephoned the company to reserve a spot for that afternoon but the weather conditions were such that they had to cancel all boats going out for the day. Instead we went and found a beautiful free spot to camp right by the sea on the peninsula. We did the peninsula walk around the coast to the town - a pretty walk overlooking the bay with the Kaikoura mountain range beyond it. Did we mention we have a DVD player in Zosma, and of an evening have been watching Game of Thrones. Never mind Lord of the Rings, half the time it feels like we could also be in a scene from Game of Thrones!

The next day, bright and early, we called the whale watching company once again. Sadly, all boats were cancelled again for the day due to sea conditions. Our schedule is so tight that unfortunately we couldn't hang around Kaikoura to try again the next day and we haven't ticked whale watching off the bucket list.

As there's not much else in Kaikoura (apart from the marvellous views we could sit and stare at forever), we thought it best to push on. It took 2 and a half hours to get to Christchurch, New Zealand's second biggest city.

As we drove into the centre it's surreal to see a city torn down. The 2010 and 2011 earthquakes are evident everywhere. Most of the buildings have been ripped apart, some boarded up, some with barriers around them stating 'to be demolished'. There's construction everywhere - the city being rebuilt. We parked up and wondered around the main streets in awe. In the central square, the remainder of Christchurch Cathedral stands with a gaping hole left where the front tower used to stand.

The entire shopping malls had been torn down during the quake. As the aftershocks continued for a few years, it was impossible to start rebuilding so soon. Consequently, the Re:Start Centre was put in place. It's a maze of brightly coloured shipping containers that now house shops, cafés and restaurants. It's really cool and a good way to get the centre back on its feet when building could not commence. We also visited New Regent Street, an oldy-woldy street full of shops.

Once again, we found another free campsite about half an hour drive out of the city.

After a make-shift fry up the next morning (there's only so much you can do with two hobbs), we drove the beautiful distance to Bank's Peninsula. We stopped for a few selfies along the way. It took about an hour to reach Summit Road, a bendy road on the mountain top overlooking gorgeous bays on either side. We stopped for lunch at the edge of Robinsons Bay. Again, more mountains in the background and we still couldn't believe how amazing the sight was.

In the afternoon we strolled around the French town Akaroa up to the lighthouse. We drove the insanely beautiful journey back to our free campsite near Christchurch.

On Friday morning we went back into central Christchurch to visit Quake City, a museum type place on the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The most heart-wrenching thing was an hour long documentary of interviews with victims of the 2011 earthquake, which took place at 12.51pm. Hearing accounts of the 6.3 scale quake really brought it to life for us and made us understand how the city is still suffering.

In the documentary, one local explains how after the main shaking stopped and she got up from the pavement, she exclaimed 'what was that?!' to a tourist nearby. The tourist replied 'I think it was an earthquake!' and the local thought well durr you idiot, what scale! It's funny that the locals here are so accustomed to earthquakes.

Time to finish Christchurch with a bang, at a Super 15 rugby game Crusaders vs the Chiefs! We found a campsite that was literally behind one of the stands of the AMI Stadium, so got to enjoy the build up and band warming up whilst we ate our dinner by Zosma. With our flags in arms and warpaint on, we went to find our seats in the stadium - 3 rows from the front. The Crusaders are pretty theatrical - they have a castle at one corner of the pitch, had cheerleaders with swords and knights on horses riding around before the game. I'm sure we're in Game of Thrones. To our dismay, the final score was 26 - 9 to the Chiefs.

As we were driving out of Christchurch this morning, we had the local radio on. To our astonishment, there was an earthquake last night in Christchurch - 3 on the Richter scale. We didn't feel a thing! We're back in Zosma now enjoying the New Zealand countryside as we head to Lake Tekapo.

Steph and Max x