Wanaka and Mount CookJanuary 30th - February 3rdStayed at a great campsite overlooking Lake Outlet which was beautiful. We went a bit crazy and decided to climb mount Rob Roy on our first full day and it turned out to be higher than Ben Nevis! We managed it in 4.5 hours return which wasn't a bad effort and the views of Wanaka were spectacular - well worth a few blisters, but was bloody steep! Didn't hang around too long at the top as it was really cold and win...

Queenstown and Milford Sound January 26th - 29th Got into Queenstown at a decent time and got our bungee jump booked straight away for the following morning - best to get these things out of the way. We were both pretty terrified on the drive there and I'd had about 3 dreams/nightmares about it the night before. At least they got it over with quickly - we turned up and within 20 minutes we were looking out over the edge of the Kawarau bridge (the world's...

We decided to break the journey from Abel Tasman down to Franz Josef Glacier at a DOC campsite just outside Hokitika on the west coast, at Lake Kaniere. On the way down there, we stopped off at Pancake Rocks - a natural phenomenon caused by the way the sea erodes the rocks, forming them into stacks which look like piles of pancakes - and reminding me of the pancakes with bacon, banana and maple syrup we had courtesy of Kate T - yum yum yummy! It's called Punaka...

So after our Phoenix nights escapade, we headed up towards Abel Tasman, via a lovely little art centre at Mapua Wharf. Whilst we'd been failing to buy Dad some RM Williams boots in the only RM Williams shop in NZ - it was a no, when we picked them up and saw the $450 price tag (would have been useful to know the need for these in Australia, home of Mr RM Williams perhaps... ahem), we got talking to the shop manager who'd recommended a campsite up at Kaiteriteri ...

We picked up the campervan in Christchurch and headed north to Kaikoura for the night with Paul reassuring himself with the mantra... only 2 weeks in the van... only 2 weeks in the van... Fortunately this one is in better repair than the Aussie one. We stayed in a beautiful campsite just outside Kaikoura right on the coast, which was very windy and dramatic with all the driftwood on the beach. Made the most of the fact it doesn't get dark til much later than A...