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...

It was sad to say goodbye to our beautiful Azur Lodge where we have spent the past four nights but it was time to get back on the road. We picked up the car but were a bit slow getting started and finally headed out of town at about 1 o'clock. We knew we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us and the first section took us up over the Crown Range to the lakeside town of Wanaka. What we hadn't bargained for was scary hairpin bends, very steep drops off the side of the road...