Arrived last night after a long drive from Methven, and woke up this morning to blue skies, warm air and snowy peaks descending into a shimmering sea. Knockout view. Something inside (so strong...song by Labi Siffre...anyway I digress) told me that Kaikoura would be chilled out and laid back, and that's exactly what this place is. Sleepy as anything and easy going. We thought we'd make like a donkey's fella and hit the road, but decided to do the touristy w...

On the hill in Mount Hutt today (28th) - bouncy day, Abi nailed the box boardslide-wise and me no landy landy on my turnip left knee. Stayed in Methven last night in the back of a motorhome, so far the bleakest place we've been to. Kind of a prefab town which has been largely forgotten about by the rest of the world, pretty much no redeeming features whatsoever. It's next to the mountains though so that'll do nicely ta muchly.

Stayed the nights of 25th and 26th in Fox, next to the glacier. Walked part of it the 26th, it's a huge 14km river of ice which winds down from the mountains into the rainforest. It's kinda weird hiking up through a damp and dense undergrowth, to then put a set of crampons (heavy flow) on your boots and tramp up over solid ice. The guide Pete was dead knowledgeable and made it fascinating - 4 hours well spent. 27th - jumped out of a perfectly normal and well...

What can you say about Queenstown? It's famous for being adrenalin-fuelled, and rightly so. Spent a couple of nights there, and everything was going so well in my simple "nice lakeview, all is chilled" head until Abi booked the Nevis highwire. For those of you who've done it, nice one. For those of you who haven't, it's a 134 metre high bungy over the Nevis river. Now, I'm a bit of a girly-pants when it comes to heights, however as soon as my esteemed travelling ...

After leaving Wanaka on the 19th with monumental hangovers, we got holed up in Te Anau for 2 nights because about a mile of snow had fallen between Te Anau and Milford Sound and the sound is so remote that they close the access road due to avalanches. Made the most of it though - walked through a bona fide dank rainforest, and also took a boat trip out to see glowworms in their natural habitat, ie the dark. Odd little things really - fine, they grow up to b...