Tuesday 21st February Our last full day in New Zealand. We drove across country to Christchuch. Our timing has not been great as we have arrived as the city is commemorating the first anniversary of the massive earthquake. What a shock when we drove in to our hotel, which is between wrecked buildings and empty spaces. We all saw the TV pictures of the centre of Christchurch but the devastation is sobering. What we had not heard in England was that they have afte...

Sunday 19th Feb Went to to the Karawara Gorge Bridge to watch the lemmings throw themselves over the edge. Luckily for them they were attached by bungee cords! Jen wouldn't let me do it, not for any fear for my safety but more because of the £100 price tag. Good fun to watch though.We spent the afternoon at Arrowtown, a living community that started life as a gold rush town in the 1860s. It looks like something from a movie set. It was heavily developed by Chine...

Friday 17th Queenstown Walked around the Jubilee Park along the shoreline. Watched some locals playing a form of golf with frisbees! There were metal baskets set up all around the park amongst the trees and the idea is to get the frisbee in the basket in the lowest number of throws. Each hole has a "tee" and a number of throws for par. It is very popular. The highlight of the park was a black labrador that adopted anyone who was prepared to pick up the...

Tuesday 14th. A wash out. Rained all day on our drive South down the west coast. We planned to visit Franz Josef Glacier. No chance. We could not even see the mountains around us let alone a glacier. Wednesday 15th. The sun was shining Drove across the Haast Pass through to Lake Wanaka and Queenstown. Civilisation again after some days in the wilderness! We took a gondola ride to the top of the mountain that overlooks Queenstown. Some great views. We wandered a...

We have crossed to The South Island.First stop was Kaikoura where we went whale spotting. A 9 mile trip out to sea on a fast, bucking catamaran took us out to the 1600 metre deep chasm where the whales live and feed. It took a while but in the end we did see a 70 ton sperm whale as it came up for air. What a great sight. Our next stop was at Springfield for an overnight stop at what can best be described as a pub with a few rooms. It was clean enough and fine fo...