Well it's been a while since my last post so thought it was about time I waffled on about something! I'll start with Wanaka, though this has been a sort of 'two-parter' journey. So I'll do both parts in one go, and the in-between bits separately. Everyone ok with that? Ok, then I'll begin... As you may know, I arrived in Wanaka a few Saturdays ago in the afternoon. I stayed at a wonderful establishment with a view over Lake Wanaka. It was more of a 5-star hotel ...

I think it's quite safe to say that the journey to Greymouth is infinitely more exciting than the destination itself. Our first stop was Cape Foulwind and an hours walk along to coast to see the scenery and the seals at the other end. It was a nice gentle walk with great hokey-pokey ice cream at the other end! We then stopped at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks for another photo op and a walk. Saying it like that the journey to Greymouth doesn't sound that interesti...

After the wash-out of New Years Eve in Picton, New Years day was warm and sunny and I caught the Magic Bus to Nelson. Arriving late afternoon to my hostel I was a little shocked (but probably shouldn't have been surprised) to find that my dorm room contained 5 bodies and various empty bottles from the night before. Joy, and they were German - of course. The room was also tiny with 3 sets of TRIPLE-storey bunk-beds. So I took this as a sign that I needed to get o...

We rather eagerly left Greymouth early the next morning and started the journey to Franz Joseph. Although the weather was fine early on it quickly turned to grey skies and pouring rain. Shortly after leaving Greymouth we stopped in Hokitika for breakfast and I think we were supposed to spend lots of money in one of the many jade factory shops there. But at 8:10am it was too early for that and we all sat around having coffee and waiting for the bus to come back...

Well my last blog entry for 2011, and it's a soggy one. It started raining on the last day in Kaikora. Luckily I did the long walk on the first day there, and just did some shopping the next morning before the rain really started. So I did my laundry and went to the supermarket to avoid the rain. Ohh the glamour! Yesterday I got the Magic Bus and decided to stay on to Picton, as Blenheim has vineyards and not much else! We left in the rain, we arrived in the ra...