With our vans gone it was back to using the trustworthy public transport... Damn! But before that we still had unfinished business up in Blenheim. Christabelle was kind enough to offer us a couple of nights in her hometown to show us the sights. It was safe to say that 4 gents 4 huge bags and all the borrowed blankets weighed the car down a wee bit but we were soon on our way back up the east coast! On the way we stopped off at the in incredible ohua waterfal...

It was strange and a bit depressing to think we'd only got 3 nights left in our vans. Time certainly had flown and it only felt like the other day when we picked them up in Auckland. But hey, that was over 5000km and 30 nights ago... From Murchison and our white water trip we continued across to Hamner Springs, an alpine town just off the east coast. On arrival we felt like we were up in the alps as the place had heaps of log cabins, huge fern trees and had tha...

The drive up the west coast progressively got less interesting the further we went past Franz Josef. Scenery soon turned to flat farmland with historic gold towns springing up. We first stopped in a town called Hokitika, famous for its view of the sunset, New Zealand greenstone and is also known as the 'place of return' by the Maori people as it was the place where European settlers had landed for the second time. The town itself was not very interesting but it ...

The drive to Wanaka was a very tiresome one. Mainly because I'd had no sleep from the night before but also due to the same scenery we were passing for the third time as we drove along the Kawarau river back towards Cromwell. Not to say that there aren't better things to look at... The extra snowfall the region had had brought with it a fresh experience. The weather was relatively nice though and the overcast clouds had warmed the environment up a little which wa...

We camped our next night south of Queenstown in a picturesque spot beside a lake. The wind was chilly which probably caused us to sleep in a little longer than normal but we awoke to a stunning view before hitting the road again. Milford sound is awe-inspiring and getting there is certainly part of the experience. The alpine route is described as one of the finest in the world which makes the relatively long journey even more unforgettable. We had to travel aro...