Our final stop on our New Zealand adventure was Christchurch. En route from Queenstown we stopped off for a night at Lake Tekapo where it was said you could enjoy spectacular views of Mt Cook. Unfortunately the 24 hours we were there the mountain ranges were bathed in thick cloud which was very impassive to see, however did manage to hide the largest mountain in New Zealand from us. Nevertheless we still spent a pleasant afternoon strolling and segwaying around t...

It was shortly after arriving in their Queenstown hostel that Claire decided she was too old for 'all this'. We had booked beds in a five bed dorm due to availability. Up until this point we had only ever shared with girls, the fairly quiet reserved kind. On entering the dorm we were greeted by a fellow resident, male, German and not dissimilar to Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, only this guy was much less hygienic. He spent approximately 2...

We embarked on another long journey, this one including the most scary and treacherous tunnel we have ever driven though. It was how we imagine the Vietcong tunnels only less structurally safe. Having successfully made it through without ending up in a scene from the film 'Daylight', we made it to Milford Sound. Greg hopped out and did a quick change into long trousers and sleeves to protect from the sand flies, managing to acquire approximately 20 sand fly bites...

We continued our journey South to Wanaka, a beautiful lake side alpine resort, where the sun was shining. We stayed in a very bizarre hostel which had a very alfresco feeling, with the dining room being outside and all the corridors pretty much outside too. We were glad we splashed out for a private room in this one. We relaxed on the beach, enjoyed a good coffee or two and spent over 30 minutes in an outdoor maze at Puzzling World. This is actually a fairly lon...

Our next stop was the Franz Josef Glacier, a full day's drive away. Lucky for us the route was one of the top coastal drives in the world. Stunning scenery with plenty of things to do on the way, including Pancake Rocks (exactly what it says on the tin - rocks that look like stacks of pancakes). We arrived early evening, checked into the hostel quickly and then headed straight to the glacial hot pools for a sunset soak followed by some Thai food in preparation fo...