We're heading for the most unpronouncable place so far - Paraparaumu - not matter how we pronounce it, it's wrong! We're heading for the only campsite ready for our boat trip the next day. Amusingly we thought we'd seen everything when it came to campsites, clearly not. We're "greeted" by a guy who to be perfectly honest looks like he hasn't a clue why we're there! We quickly discover why. The campsite is basically a small village of people that ha...

As if proving a point, the second that we leave Nelson the weather turns bad - we procede to drive all the way to Picton in rain and grey cloud!!! The drive however is amazing as it takes all the way through the Marlborough Sounds and we stop over and over to take in the views. We stop the night in Picton ready for our ferry the next morning. We're greeted by fog the next morning. Damn. The crossing is obviously essential, but so much more enjoyable on a g...

And so we've got to that time of the trip once more where we need to try and earn some money - accidents permitting of course! We've decided on Nelson as everybody says how nice it is there, plus it's meant to be the sunniest place in NZ (which is most definitely true!) Things get off to a flying start with an amazing find in the way of a room. We just happened to park outside a house with a "room to rent" sign in the window. We check it out and agr...

Heading North once more we stopover in Westport after our hard day's graft in Barrytown! Up and at 'em the next morning sees us finally change direction as we make our way East to the Tasman region. However there is of course a stop along the way! This time it's Buller's Gorge, home to NZ's longest swingbridge, and also the epicentre of the 1929 earthquake. The swingbridge itself is extremely narrow and around half way across I realise that I'm not actually a...

Fresh from our great train escape we're back in the Bongo and heading North once more. Our next stop is one of the West Coast's strangest sights - Punakaiki, home of the Pancake Rocks. Through some serious erosion the soft limestone rocks have eroded into what looks like stacks of pancakes (minus the maple syrup!) Beneath these there are also loads of blowholes carved into the caverns and at high tide the sea shoots up through them. Unfortunately we missed high t...