A quick overnight stop between Kaikoura and Christchurch finds us in Hanmer Springs.  At first glance it reminds me of a Centre Parcs village, and second glance too!  We are here for the thermal springs, along with half of Christchurch it seems - not knowing it's the weekend can really be a pain sometimes!  After a quick look around town we head to the main attraction.  Having found a particularly good voucher in one of my many acquired leaflets we ...

From the ferry we decide to head down the East coast to Kaikoura.  Another small town, but with very big residents - sperm whales!!! We make the most part of the journey by day, taking in the new found scenery of the South Island, but arrive at night and check in at the first camp site we find.  Our first day is spent exploring the area.  We head up to the peninsular look out where you can see for absolutely miles!!!  On a clear day you...

And so the time has come to pack up the mighty Bongo and move on again........ The final week before we left, New Zealand had ANZAC day which is the equivalent of our Rememberence Sunday.  So we trundled off down into town to watch the parade.  Which was nice horses and a donkey, then the local army regiment and the rest of the town's sevices.  Raglan has been a good place to spend the summer and we've meet some good people along the way. So we hit th...

So, our first real road trip since arriving in NZ.� Needless to say I was very excited, not only at the prospect of leaving Raglan for a weekend, but actually seeing something other than Waikato Hospital!!!� Amazingly I was also looking forward to getting back in the van and living on a campsite.� So once we were fully loaded we set off. The drive itself was pretty dull til we got to Rotorua as we'd seen it all already.Ã...

"I've found something for you to do"  were his opening words on returning from work.  "Ok, what is it?"  "You're going to make stuff for Soundsplash!"  Not quite knowing how to respond to a suggestion that involves me actually leaving the house and doing something when unfortunately "making stuff" is far from my forte - boredom won, "I'll do it!" Soundsplash is an ecco reggae f...