We thought we would write a summary of our experience in New Zealand, mainly because we wished we had done it for the US, although that would be really hard as every state is like a different country! But we feel we have seen a lot of the country here, our camper mileage clock confirmed we had done 4400 kilometres (2734 miles) exactly. We really loved the south island it is so special and remote in places, We are also so glad we travelled in the van on our own not on a group tour again as we loved seeing stuff at our own pace. So here goes, here is some interesting (or not!) kiwi stuff;

Hitchhikers! We have seen loads, all ages even seventy year olds with big back packs on! We would have been tempted pick one up if we had a seat in the van as we were pretty sure they would have stories to tell.

The South East coast on the South Island looked incredibly like England.

There is so many one lane bridges and they can be pretty scary when you can't see the other side!

We had to drive over a few rail crossings that had no lights or barriers, you just had to look and pray eeeeeeeek!

On the West coast of the South Island we drove a few hours with massive cliffs and mountains at the side of the road with waterfalls coming down them, beautiful!

We found a great home comfort in cheap $1 stores. Just like poundland at home and Ash would get all excited when we found one! Becky calls them s*** shops but we needed them as plasters and stuff so expensive in pharmacies.

Motorways or highways were just like normal roads pretty much everywhere we went apart from Auckland where there was your three lanes(wow!) mostly just a one lane road and you may not pass another car for miles.

We saw so many cars left in the streets with doors unlocked and windows down, this would never happen at home for fear of it being nicked!

We drove through loads of little towns that had a claim to fame. It was quite funny, e.g. Sheep shearing capital of the world, gumboot throwing capital of the world, etc.

So many of the rivers and also the sea are a really bright bluey green colour, unlike anything we have seen before.

We found ourselves eating far too many McDonalds because it was so cheap and also because they do combos so you would get a big mac, a cheeseburger, fries, drink and sundae for $10(5 pound) this was called 'Mac and cheese' and Ash loved 'chicken chomp' where you got a chicken burger and chicken nuggets. Chubby!

We ate crap food all through, notably luncheon meat for sandwiches, we could not afford real ham, food is so expensive here. It was tasty though.

The weather is super extreme here, when it rains it really does pour, quite hard for Ash to drive in sometimes. Also they say you can get 4 seasons in one day and we agree!

The threat of natural disasters is inescapable, many adverts on TV are government warnings telling people they must have bottled water, tinned food, wood, matches, sandbags etc put away for times of flood, tornado, earthquake, etc. You also drive past fire warnings, one time the alert level was 'extreme' for risk of forest fires and we did not see a car for miles so it was a bit scary! Us Stokies are not used to this!

We drove through so many tiny towns that only had a shop and a pub and no other places for miles. Must be boring for the kids that live there!

You see uncountable dead possums in the road while driving along.

The sun here is so strong, we heard it is something to do with the ozone layer, you pretty much burn in cloudy weather and we both have good tans although we have only sun bathed a few times while here. There is the highest rate of skin cancer here in the world.

Ash's favourite place is Queenstown. He loved fergburger, fat badger pizza, the nighlife is really good and the town has a good feel. He also loves the extreme sports that go on here.

Becky's favourite place was hard to pick but was Kaikoura, as the beach was like nowhere she had seen before, the snowy mountains, black sand and blue blue sea. She also liked the pubs and the shops, it was a lot like a laid back cornish hippy/arty/surf town.

Ash's favourite thing he did was his bungy jump, which is closely followed second by his knife he made in Barrytown.

Becky's favourite thing she did was the heli hike at Fox glacier, it was not something on her bucket list so to speak but it was out of this world.