Well rested with the knowledge of sleeping in a free spot for the night we awoke to another luxury, a shower for two dollars. A classic looking old lady with blue candy floss hair sat behind the register to the showers and diligently scrutinised everyone that walked past her, any whisper of a sneaky, unpaid shower and she was on them like an alsatian. Refreshingly clean we made our way to the library and gave ourselves a quick recap of what to do in NZ's most no...

I won't bore you with the day I just received, this will be a brief one. Deciding that we were a little strapped for time in the South Island we decided to skip the somewhat boring town of Christchurch (having already spent a day there after our flight) and take the hit of driving to Nelson in one day. The drive was set to be a seven/eight hour one until we were told by a retired primary school teacher at our camp that we just HAD to go through Arthur's Pass ...

Oamaru's harbour is where all of its highlights are and despite a pallid sky overhead a small, local market was in full flow. The delicious smells of barbecued sausage were already filling the air, whilst two talented ladies strummed toe-tapping rhythms on their acoustic guitars and sang sailor style songs (which are always filthy and full of life). Sampling locally produced Manuka honey and nosing at all the local delicacies had distracted us from the harbour c...

Spending the night in a horse-racing track's car park was inspiring and we jumped straight back in the saddle for the mane road drive to Dunedin (I couldn't resist). Before leaving we heard an ingenious snippet of information from a potentially overly friendly Spanish girl: 'You should just shower in swimming pools.' What a stroke of brilliance! Following her advice we went to the local swimming pool and used their showers for a meagre two dollars - bargain! How...

As my eyelids grated across my eyesballs at 6:15 in the morning we got ready to head to Manapouri and its strangely named Pearl Harbour. We had a day cruise out onto Doubtful Sound and were looking forward to the exclusivity and the surroundings of the experience. The cruise would eventually end in us meeting the Tasman Sea and being at the most westerly point of NZ and a mere 900 miles from Tasmani. Brushing my teeth in the harbour's toilets while swatting NZ's...