After sleeping at the ferry port at Wellington we head on up the west side of the North Island. Stop at Stratford to watch some local rugby and then hit the "Forgotten World Highway" no joke thats whats its called, and ten mins into the drive we relise why, apart there being nothing else on the roads which are the most part gravel the road is really windy and hilly but some good views are admired through rainforest, gorges, valleys, tiny villages and rolling hil...

Left Queenstown after relising that a bungee was obviously not a financially worth while experience obviously and headed to Milford Sound a 5 hr journey with only Te Anau to break it. Drive down in rain whcih creates loads of waterfalls over the mountains in the valleys which is awesome and upon arrivng in Milford take refuge from the rain in a hostel which seems to be the only thing in Milford apart from boat trips. We head out to the van in cold rain to kip an...

After defrosting the van and ourselves we hit the Cardrona valley and headed to Queenstown on the Crown Range Road. The Townace did us proud driving like a dream through the snow. When we got to the top of the mountain it was still snowing so we got and admired the view as well as a quick snowball fight to make up for all the snow we have missed at home! When we arrived in Queenstown it was grey and cloudy, we parked up and meet up withVicky and James who had b...

Drive down to Lake Retorua which is beautiful and has St Arnaud range mountains as a back drop. We hit the road south along the 6 highway when the unmanageable happens - the Townace picks up a speeding ticket coming into Murchison. 120 fat ones to chew on. It's a 100 limit on the long roads and then suddenly goes down to 50 in the town (which consists of a house, farm, hut and petrol station - not the built up area im used to). Police car follows the TA into the ...

Today we ve driven up to Mt Aspiring near Wanaka, a really nice layed back town which is preparing itself for he ski season. The road to Mt Aspiring was unsealed and gravel all the way, the Townace has been driving through rocky streams 4x4 style, and we past a sign on the way bak saying road for 4 x 4 only. I am writing the postcards (in rough) at the foot of Mt Aspiring in an amazing valley, just been on a tab (walk). Sitting in the camper after another Nick...