Picton, Wanganui & Tongariro - 28th March 2009After leaving Abel Tasman, we decided to carry on west to see what we could see before we ran out of land. However, after several more kilometres of winding roads, we decided that we were just doing it for the sake of it, and that we'd be better off driving back east to Picton so that we could catch up on our blog and relax for a day before the ferry back to the North Island on 30th March.The place where we planne...

Marahau & the Abel Tasman National Park26th March 2009After an easy morning in Kaikoura drinking coffee and reading the paper, we set off towards the Abel Tasman National Park. To be a bit more specific, we were aiming for a placed called Marahau which is just on the southern corner of the park. To anyone following us on the map you would see that this is not exactly en route and involves going through Picton (the Ferry port back to the North Island), and alo...

Hanmer Springs & Kaikoura - 23rd March 2009We leave Christchurch and rather than heading north to Hanmer Springs straight away, opt for a cruise around the Banks Peninsula, stopping in at Akaroa, stopping for a coffee at the Hilltop Cafe on the way in - the view from the back windows here was gorgeous: through a valley and down to lots of tiny little bays and turquoise waters, with more lumpy bumpy hills in the background, dotted with trees, cows and sheep.Ho...

Christchurch18th March 2009After the last couple of days of sunshine, the weather was back to low overcast cloud for the drive to Christchurch. As we said goodbye to both the sun and the mountains, we drove along what could have been English country , past English looking farms and a couple of nearly English looking towns before arriving into Christchurch.Everyone said that Christchurch was the most English city in New Zealand, but you still don't realise what th...

Mount Cook Area16th March 2009Before leaving the Dunedin area we drove out along the Otago Peninsula. The stunning coves and rock faces made the trip worthwhile but the plan of seeing an albatross was scuppered by both the price and the weather. This time it wasn't the cloud that gave us a problem but the lack of wind. Albatross need the wind to glide on, so on calm days, just like this one, they tend to stay on the ground. At $26 to go and see them sitting down,...