An early start after showers and breakfast - some distance to cover today as we head south. Firstly back onto Highway 1 across Canterbury Plain, mile after mile of straight roads in very flat countryside, a major dairying area. Extensive irrigation systems across large areas of grassland. Through Ashburton and onto Geraldine the gateway to the southern lakes. We passed the first arable crops we had seen in NZ. As we headed into Mac Kenzie Country we saw large her...

After breakfast when the traffic had cleared we headed out of town on Highway 7 towards Lyttleton and the Christchurch Gondola. The temperature was in the low 20's with a gusty wind. Before going up in the gondola we were warned that due to the wind that it may be necessary to delay or suspend operations. We had only got a third of the way up the 945 metre slope when the good laugh stopped and we were left swinging in the wind. After a couple of minutes however ...

A later start this morning and after breakfast we went on a forest walk and it eventually took us to the village where we stopped for coffee before getting back on the road. On the first part of the journey we retraced our steps of the previous day. Temperatures hit a balmy 29 degrees as we continued towards Christchurch via a very mixed landscape and further large areas devoted to winemaking. Ask we neared the coast we stopped for lunch at Leithfield Beach - we ...

We left the coast and started to climb - our destination the thermal springs and ski resort of Hanmer Springs. The journey of about two hours was again through amazing countryside both mountainous and flat and temperatures had increased to a very nice 27 degrees. Some of the mountain sides were blanketed with yellow broom which is an introduced species and becoming a big problem in some areas. On the flat it was apparent that they had been suffering from a lack o...

Another early start - need to be at Whale watch station for 06.45. Fortunately we were very close and only had to go through a hole in a fence and across a railway track and we were there. After usual safety briefings etc we were transported (about 50 of us) to South Bay where we boarded Aoraki a specialist whale watching boat. The weather was amazing - bright blue sky and little wind and the captain that this was as good as it gets and they were lucky if they ha...