Finding 'big' things in a very Scottish looking New Zealand...

So with our introduction to campervan living going smoothly we left the confines of the beautiful Akaroa and drove on to another small campsite before leaving the area. Turns out this campsite, although we'd pretty much stumbled upon it, was slightly insane. I think we may have said this before about another place but it was like walking into our friend Clarky's head. The campground itself was small but had many bits and pieces coming off it. The stream which cut through it was flanked on both sides by furniture, small sofas, wicker chairs, seats shaped like eggs hanging from trees and even a chaise-long. As we ventured further into the trees we stumbled upon another area of weirdness, a giant mud toboggan. This area also had a wooden stage. We went further. At the top, with fantastic views down the valley were two white single sofa's, comfy chairs to watch a perfect sunset. Awesome. Bit of a strange place but a great find, seems perfectly set up for a small boutiquey festival or the setting for a bad dream.

That night we would start to feel the cold. This being essentially NZ's equivalent of October things are starting to feel very autumnal. Although the days are beautifully sunny in the most part, the nights have been clear but chillingly cold. Still, the bed in the camper is humungous! We just have to sleep in our wooly hats...

So the next morning we were on our way, this time away from the Christchurch area and out into NZ proper. We had planned to stay a night in a place called Methven but after arriving got the feeling that this wasn't really a place worth staying, not unless the rusty hammer museum took your fancy. From there we headed on to an area on the edge of the alps called Peel Forest. Completely deserted and totally devoid of other tourists we paid the DoC (department of conservation) fee and settled in for the night. The next morning we woke early to take on a trek through ancient Podocarp forests, essentially trees that have been untouched since the age of the dinosaurs. We walked though steep forest tracks, mostly in thick mud for about seven kilometres. We even managed to get a hug off of one of the worlds biggest trees, a massively impressive Totara. It was just one of those moments when we just both stood there slack jawed for what was in front of us. It just made you realise, in some little way, how small and insignificant we are when measured up to the size and significance of these remarkable trees, some more than 1000 years old.

From there we travelled through a mix of backward and interesting towns until we reached our next destination, Lake Tekapo. All along the national highway, never bigger than one lane. After pulling off the main highway we were introduced to a lake of the most stunning blue you can think of, much like the rest of NZ's water. Turns out what makes it so blue is actually a type of thick sediment ironically making most of NZ's lakes very unclear, Birmingham has unclear water's but they don't look like that! Anyway dodging past the hoards of Asian tourists we visited the Church of the Good Shepard, a small but amazingly positioned church sat strikingly on the edge of the lake. Also, a few hundred metres away sat a tall bronze statue dedicated towards the collie dog, apparently so instrumental to the success of the area as a major wool producer, from the sheep, not the dog.

Lake Tekapo is also famous for it's clear night sky with it being surrounded by tall mountains and being so far from any largish town. The skies here were astonishing, not quite as clear as when we were in Laos but clear nonetheless. Problem was that it was so cold outside, maybe something approaching freezing, that it made standing outside with your neck tilted a bit of a tough one. Still, at least the old man in the next campervan next to us would fill us with happiness. Or maybe not. Essentially the guy has cancer and his daughter, who he travelled with to this part of the world a few years ago, died of cancer too, so he was basically on some kind of nostalgic trip. Naturally, we felt so sorry for this poor guy but he talked about death in a way that made us both just want to sit in the dark for a very long time. In the end, and I think this is where you have to salute the guy, you just have to see the funny side. Not bad going for 8am.

The next chapter of our journey involved a long trip down a road that seemed to have not a hint of a bend for 80km. Fortunately the views were just out of this world. We had arrived at Mount Cook, Australasia's tallest mountain.

After posting our site fees through the letterbox we parked literally below one of the surrounding glaciers. Waking the next morning was just unbelievable with the sun shining directly on it with a distinct chill still in the air. In fact in the dark it just looked spooky, like a giant, silent White monster. The next morning we took on the three and a half hour trek to its base which happened to be the remnants of a huge glacier. In the lake below were icebergs which had fallen off the adjacent glacier but this being right at the end of the summer meant that the ice had been more than taken over by dirt and debris from the surrounding area which gave the whole scene a bit if a messy look, it still looked amazing. Before driving on we also did a short 40 minute climb over to the Tasman glacier, the Southern hemispheres biggest. Although staggeringly huge and visually arresting we found the same issues here as with Mount Cook, the time of year meant a distinct lack of glowing white.

All in all the area was beautiful, we'd never really seen snow capped mountains before and now we have seen a whole park full of them. To wake up to that will be hard to beat anywhere.

From the middle of the country we took a long drive south eastwards towards a town called Oamaru. On the way we passed even more mountains and huge lakes and our first sighting of NZ's famous winery's. Upon arriving in Oamaru it seemed like we had pulled into a horror movie set. The fog horrifically dense and the locals peered through the mist like League of Gentleman extras, it did not look inviting. Even so, we checked into a site, whacked on some hot food and bedded in for the night. Fortunately the next morning we were greeted with a much more appealing proposition. Oamaru is a great place to spend a day. Within five minutes of parking up a guy whizzed past on a penny farthing, this would set the scene for the next few hours. Essentially, Oamaru contains the highest number of preserved Edwardian and Victorian buildings of anywhere in the southern hemisphere. Harbour street, it's main historic thoroughfare, essentially had not changed one iota since maybe 1887. It was extremely surreal but highly appealing. 150% better than the night before!

From there we headed south towards Dunedin, stopping in briefly to check out the Moeraki boulders, around two dozen perfectly cylindrical boulders that seemed to be placed in patterns half submerged in the sea. After driving for another 20kms or so we also stopped in at Shag Point named appropriately for it's native bird species it still made for a good cheap photo laugh. This stretch of coastline also houses several important colonies of fur seal, it was fantastic to see them up close as well as a very rare species of penguin called the Yellow eye. In fact all of Otago, the state we are now in, houses nearly all of NZ's marine animals, mainly due to it's location further south and being the biggest land mass between here and say, the Antarctic. Unfortunately for shell, the worlds biggest penguin fan, they didn't start waddling in until after dark. Unfortunately we couldn't wait that long, we had a city to visit!

I don't know what we were expecting to find in Dunedin, but whatever it was it certainly isn't there. Grey, depressing and dull. I think we envisioned a small Edinburgh or maybe even a few cobbled streets. I think we were just a bit stupid. It has some fantastic architecture but it really did feel like a place at the edge of the world. We couldn't wait to leave.

So there you go, Dunedin is the gateway to the Otago Peninsula, which is where we currently reside. A beautiful stretch of land that has the feel of an island. It is jam packed full of seals, sea lions, penguins and albatrosses which are all free to explore in the many inlets and secluded beaches. Apparently David Bellamy has called it an environmental marvel and you can't get a bigger recommendation than that.

Tomorrow we head as far south as it is possible to get in NZ and will be the furthest from home we will have ever been and is possible to get. Ironically, it is here, among the rolling hills, the changing colours of the trees and the weather beaten faces that we feel as close to home as we have for seven months.

Happy chocolate egg weekend. All our love and if anyone reads this, we miss you all a lot. Tommo and Shello xxxx