Grateful we'd remembered to ask Apollo for an extra duvet, it wasn't as cold as we'd expected sleeping in the van last night. We woke feeling super excited about the next couple of weeks, after our first taster of driving in New Zealand yesterday. Literally within a couple of miles out of Christchurch, the landscape opened up to something from a coffee table picture book and we had a feeling the best was yet to come.

Now in daylight, we realised we were parked in front of a gateway to a walking track, so we didn't hang around there too long. We drove back to Tekapo village, and made a really quick pit stop at a lookout just off the main road offering great views to Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain. After a few clicks of the camera, we then drove through Tekapo village and on to another gobsmackingly beautiful lake callled Lake Pukaki and pulled over for some breakfast with a view. We could have stayed all day, taking in the beauty, but we really wanted to reach Dunedin today so off we went...

Continuing the drive, passing hundreds of sheep and not many people, we eventually reached a perfect lunchtime pitstop in Cromwell. Second only to ice cream, Bret loves apples, so we couldn't drive past this teeny little town, which is home to plenty of orchards. We pulled into a gorgeously sunny roadside café and tucked into an apple cake for lunch, and then stocked the campervan fridge with cider for later. The Cider House Café and Bar also served up 'world famous' smoothies. Oh yes, we've heard of them. Haven't you? Anyway, Bret was so impressed with the cake, he couldn't resist asking the owner for the recipe; something she was only too happy to share. So far, we've found Kiwi's to be so welcoming…

Before carrying on the journey we had a little mooch around a farm shop and picked up some locally produced dried apricots to munch on during the drive. Apparently there's a national appetite for organic, locally grown artisan produce so we may as way get involved.

From Cromwell we crossed the Clyde Dam and joined the road which would lead us to that impressive valley pass we'd seen in the photography book back in Christchurch. That was until we got distracted by our tourism radio. This little GPS gadget was provided by Apollo, and connected to our radio. It played music, interrupted occasionally by information on the area we were driving through. Every now and again we'd hear 'bing bong bing - turn left for a fantastic look-out,' or similar. Anyway, as we drove along a never-ending main road (we maybe saw one other vehicle every 30 minutes) tourism radio suggested turning off for a five minute diversion to see a really old suspension bridge. 'Why not?', we thought.

Ok, so the bridge was pretty, but we realised our mobile phone GPS wasn't so sure about the diversion, and we ended up picking up the wrong road to Dunedin, missing the pass entirely. Shocking really, given we can probably count all the South Island roads on our hands, but by the time we realised our wrong turn it was too late to turn back. So after all that we lost out on that amazing drive as seen in the picture book, but never mind. We had an amazing night in Tekapo, and the route we travelled today certainly didn't disappoint. Driving by Alexandra and a number of other small towns, many from gold-rush days, the road wound through wide and rugged meadows reaching out to snow-capped hills in the distance. Think Scotland, but on a much more epic scale and with beautiful blue skies too.

As we approached Dunedin, we followed our GPS to the pretty town's central tourist i-site for advice on where to see penguins. It was mid-afternoon, but we read this was a good time to spot them on the beaches just outside the town. That's where we met our first grumpy Kiwi, who insisted it could only be done by booking on a really expensive guided tour. Not happy with her advice, we jumped back into George and drove out along the Otago Peninsular to see what we could find ourselves. The area reputedly has the South Island's most accessible diversity of wildlife. Albatross, sea lions, and fur seals are some other highlights of the region. So with faith in our Lonely Planet, we followed it to to Sandfly Bay only to be met by walkers who said the trek down the dunes to the beach was quite a long one. After a brief pause to enjoy the clifftop view of the beautiful beach below, we decided to head to a nearby campsite to charge George overnight and come back in the morning. Now, after a freezing cold shower (something which was certainly more pleasant in warmer Australian campsites!) we're cooking up some steak sarnies (!) for dinner, and catching up on the blog. Fingers crossed we'll find sea lions tomorrow, as well as penguins!