We were finally on our way, unemployed, no fixed abode and only our van as shelter and it felt great. Rather than heading straight or the ferry we had decided to spend a couple of days with a family we first met in Tahiti. Roger, Joan and Paige (formally known as Kimberly but had now taken to using her middle name, very confusing) had invited us to come and stay as their guests on their very big and plush motor vessel in Nelson marina. Who're we to turn down fre...

Knowing that the children were going to be at the house for the weekend motivated us to take a few days away. Banks Penninsula is just a few hours from Christchurch and although we had been there briefly before when first arriving in the area, the weather had been colder and the village of Akaroa fairly deserted. We also knew there were a few pretty bays around the penninsula which were worth visiting so we set off on the Saturday morning. Enroute we stopped a...

We found out that the International Buskers Festival was on for a week in Christchurch and knew we'd have to get along to see some of the acts. We got Victoria Park where some of the acts were being held on a scorching hot Saturday afternoon. The first we saw was an impressive tumbling/comedy duo from Australia who performed for about 45 minutes. We were so impressed that we put $10 in their hat when they'd finished. Other performances we saw included a YoYo ac...

Once Olivia had decided that her foot was too bad to do the walk it left me and Katie to bag the track. We packed up our dehydrated food and some essential clothes in our backpacks and were pleasantly surprised at how light they were in comparison to what we carried in Torres for our 4 day walk. We decided that we were going to lend Adolf the Van to Olivia to use whilst we walked the track so we were lucky enough to get a lift to the start. This meant that we w...

Katie's friend Olivia arrived in Christchurch to spend 10 days with us before returning home to Melbourne. We picked her up from the airport on the Saturday and it was a happy reunion after 2 ½ years. We'd already planned and booked to do a four day walk down in fjordland so Olivia hopped into the back of our trusty van and we headed off down south. We went via the two lakes of Tekapo and ( ) , where Olivia was a blown away by the colour of the water...