After a swim, a shower and farting around with petrol in Christchurch we headed over to the airport and left Muriel, without giving her a proper goodbye we're ashamed to admit, and headed to the airport. We have had a great time here, the scenery is really spectacular, especially as there is so much of it in such a small location, it's amazing all the different places we have visited although we did drive 3,856 km in three weeks and still didn't make it all the w...

We drove from Akaroa down to Little Akaloa giving Muriel a final workout over some windy bumpy roads as we wound along the coast of the tiny little inlets and bays. We then carried on our drive around Diamond harbour, Governor's Bay and Lyttleton Harbour before finding a campsite on the peninsula in Godley park. Arriving just before sunset we walked up to watch the sun go down over lyttleton harbour, a beautiful and tranquil hour on our final night on the spectac...

We reached the Banks Peninsula after driving from Lake Tekapo and found another layby on the Wainni road overlooking Akaroa harbour and most importantly after 104 hands the poker championship was ended with Steve being victorious. The following morning we drove into the tiny French town of Akaroa which is a small town that was originally settled by the French and now makes a considerable play on this history - that said we opted for fish and chips, none of that f...

After a special day we went to the St John observatory for a star gazing session at one of the best observatories in the world, a late birthday treat for Steve. The town of Tekapo has street lights adjusted to help viewing the stars and we were driven to the observatory with no headlights so that our eyes could adjust. We were given a guide of the sky before we were able to wander between telescopes viewing Jupiter as well as emerging stars and constellations, pl...

A really wonderful day. With the clouds hanging around first thing we had a couple of hands of poker before the clouds began to clear and we set off to climb the Sealy Tarns track which was a pretty steep ascent. We reached the top just as a little avalanche fell down in the opposite valley, it was a glorious day and we sat having our lunch looking up at the peaks of Mounts Cook and Sefton. After climbing down and using our solar shower for the first time we drov...