We were awake bright and early and picked up by Lyndal at 7 am for our long trip to Kaikoura. It takes nearly 3 hours to get there but it was a beautiful sunny day and wonderful scenery along the way. At first it was very flat along the Canterbury Plain with plenty of those fantastic New Zealand sheep to admire along the way. It's hard to believe that there are actually a great deal fewer of them than there used to be! The nearer we got to Kaikoura the more we we...

We were picked up by our guide, Lyndal, and driven into Christchurch. Our first stop was a fabulous native garden at the home of Jo Kerr. The weather was a bit less than perfect today and Jo showed us around before the raindrops could fall, pointing out all the beautiful trees and plants along the way. We were accompanied on our journey by Jo's two cats, both British Blues and very entertaining with their crazy antics. As the rain started to fall Jo took us insid...

We had mixed feelings when the phone rang at 4.10 am. On the one hand we really don't enjoy getting up that early, but on the other hand it meant that the weather was looking good and that it was all systems go for our balloon trip! Needless to say we were up and ready for our 4.45 am pick up, in body if not in spirit. What followed was a fantastic and definitely not to be missed experience. It was still pitch dark when we checked in for the tour and joined the ...

We got away from Franz Joseph in good time and set off on the drive to Greymouth up the west coast. It was a very pleasant drive and we were making good time, but there are so many lovely places along the way to attract your attention. We stopped briefly at Ross, the old gold mining centre. It is so quaint and interesting, a fascinating place and we would have loved to stay longer if time had allowed. We will be back!! From there we travelled on to Hokitika whi...

After breakfast we took a walk to the lower end of the glacier to admire the view, in itself an awe-inspiring sight. Thinking that it was definitely time for a bit of exercise we had considered doing a half day guided glacier hike today, However, when we saw an advertisement for a heli-hike which whisks you high up onto the glacier and gives you the opportunity to explore the ice formations up there then our imaginations took flight and we decided that this was t...