21st- 26th May It was a lovely drive from Kaikoura to Christchurch starting with a coastal drive then into hills and then mountains. We stopped in Amberley so Nath could get his hair cut then drove to the swimming baths just out of the city centre in Christchurch. After swimming, steam room, sauna and jacuzzi we drove to the city centre and went to the iSite to get some more info before heading to the free site we stayed at called Coes Ford. It was the only free...

18th- 21st May On the drive over from Greymouth we booked the whale watching trip for tomorrow, so fingers crossed it all goes to plan! Our last trip of New Zealand! Booo! The road over went through Lewis Pass (970m at it's summit) one of the three passes through the southern alps, so we have done all three of them now. On the way we stopped in Reefton, NZ's first town to have electricity and then in Hanmer Springs for lunch in the van, which looked like a very ...

17th-18th May We got to Fox Glacier early in the morning and had breakfast in the van before heading to the glacier car park. The track to the glacier terminal face was fully open today and the weather was a little cloudy but not too bad. The track had to be changed due to all the bad weather they have had lately and they had to lay big rocks in place over numerous streams to use them as stepping stones. You could see quite a lot of the glacier from the terminal...

15th- 17th May We had a very long drive today. 479km to be exact! But it was a lovely scenic drive. We drove some of the Inland Scenic Route 72 and then drove the Great Alpine Highway through Arthur's Pass. Arthur's Pass is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps. It marks part of the boundary between the West Coast and Canterbury regions, 140 km from Christchurch and 95 km from Greymouth. The pass lies in a saddle between the valleys of the Otira River, a tributar...

13th-15th May The drive from Lake Pukaki was about an hour so it was still early when we got here. We decided we would stay at a site and hook up to get everything charged, laundry done and get showered. There was only one site in the town, next to the lake, called Lake Tekapo Motels and Holiday Park. It was $20 each a night for hook up, then $2 for a 10 min shower and then pay to do laundry too. We couldn't check in until 12pm so we went to see the town and sig...