Whale watching, beer tasting and mussel chomping in Marlborough and Nelson...

It all feels a little strange really. We've been in NZ now for a month and we've had, believe it or not, only one day which was slightly wet- even then it was only a shower. Not bad for a wet country in the midst of Autumn! Everyday has just been beautiful, cold nights for sure but clear skies every day. Easy to get used to! With that in mind we parted Christchurch for a second time but this time heading north towards the wine regions and all that Sauvignon Blanc! First up was a small town a few kilometres inland from the Coastal highway, Hanmer Springs. As the Easter holidays had now finished and all of NZ were seemingly tucked up in their homes, the town was eerily quiet. Anyway, the next day we did what came out here for and paid our entrance money to spend the day in a series of geothermal hot pools. There were around twenty pools in total ranging from everyday jacuzzis to large, open hotpools, all between 35-40 degrees celcius. Apart from being stared at for the entire time by a strange lifeguard and sharing the pools with what seemed like New Zealand's entire nursing home population we had an awesome time, we came out like shrivelled prunes!

From the beauty of Hanmer Springs we drove onwards towards the coast past, amazingly, Sheffield, Rotherham and Chesterfield (really) and towards Kaikoura, a place most famous for it's abundance of wildlife, especially its whale population. It seems, according to our guide the next morning, that from the beach the sea depth is only around 80 metres and then all of a sudden, around a kilometre from the beach, drops almost 800 metres due to a huge continental shelf. Ocean currents then push nutrients that would otherwise lay at the bottom of the sea up from depths of nearly a kilometre to the relative shallow waters above. This creates a perfect feeding ground for large deep ocean marine life to feed so close to the shore. Although we've nearly run out of money we knew that whale watching would be one of those things, whatever the cost, that we just had to do. It was expensive but then the three hours we spent on the boat were some of the most memorable we have spent..anywhere. After getting to the freezing wharf just before sunrise we waited for the boat to pick us up and take us out to sea. As we stood there the sea and sky in front of us turned a kaleidoscope of different colours as the sun slowly but surely climbed its way over the sea's horizon. Reds, oranges and deep purples slowly appeared and the bright sun on our faces told us that we would soon stop shivering. Momentous news. Soon enough we were on the boat with a crew made up of genial Maori's, all explaining what we would be doing over the next few hours. After about ten minutes we caught our first glimpse of native wildlife as we sailed passed a pod of maybe a hundred dolphins, all vying to gain our attention. The guys only gave us five minutes to get acquainted with these beautiful animals before we were off again, in search of bigger mammals, a great sign of things to come.

After searching for maybe an hour (by a guy sticking a specially made piece of sound equipment to pick up whale communication in the water) we saw our first sight of this most impressive of animals, a giant, twenty-five metre Sperm Whale. We stood there on the top deck just staring. What a sight. It's in moments like these, on a boat in the Pacific, looking at one of the worlds biggest animals, that you understand exactly why you are here. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of gentle lolling we were informed by the captain that our whale had, well, fallen to sleep. We did return an hour or so later but by this point the whale was in an even deeper sleep, so much so that he was now vertical in the water with his scar strewn head bobbing gently out of the water. Different to what we expected but fantastic to see. On the way back, as if we had not already seen enough, we were lucky enough to see a huge albatross, a seal, many more dolphins and a shark. Such a great morning. One of the best.

In the afternoon, after our early morning exploits we found the nearest coffee shop and refuelled for a circumnavigation around the Kaikoura Peninsula, one of NZ's great walks. It didn't disappoint. We walked around the coastline for three hours in a large loop finishing 11 kilometres later back at the campervan. The walk took us past some of the old whaling grounds where we stood slack jawed after learning of the old whaling techniques at the turn of the last century. At least we finally got to know where, "there she blows!!" came from. From Kaikoura we headed north and into wine country. We had entered Marlborough district. One of the places we had both sat dreaming about on our sofa before we set off last September. Unfortunately, as the weather looked a bit dodgy for the next few days we decided to leave the wine-tasting-by-bicycle for a few days until something a bit calmer was forecast. So on we went, past Blenhiem and onwards towards Nelson, NZ's oldest town. On the way, due it's popularity and the fact that is just sounded so godamn tasty, we stopped in Havelock for some of NZ's famous Green Lipped Mussels. Moules Marinere this definitely wasn't. These buggers were monsters! If you can imagine the size of a normal mussel, you got it? Well these were five times bigger than what you've got in your head right now. The pot had 15 of these in and we struggled. Although they were delicious.

Over in Nelson, the streets were packed with local producers selling they're wears at the biggest farmers Market I had ever seen. It was awesome, school children reciting Maori songs and dances including a spine chilling rendition of the Haka (don't look in their eyes!). We wandered around in a food and drink induced haze, intoxicated by wave after wave of amazing smells. Tantalising of course, but to save money we headed back to the camper for soup, truly heartbreaking! Anyway, Nelson was a cool little town with a funky local population and some awesome looking buildings, apparently NZ's oldest. on our way out of town we visited one of the many micro-breweries in the area to do a beer tasting. We were given six beers in total, the full spectrum of pale ales to heavy stouts and sat there pretending we knew exactly what we were talking about, "mmm very hoppy this one shell"....think we had a clear winner though.

From Nelson we ventured further around the coast to one of NZ's most visited tourist sites, Abel Tasman National Park. Looking more like the Thai islands than a windy south Pacific outpost the colours in this area were out of this world. Although we didn't have the time or money to do the full 60km Coastal trek (you had to pay for water taxis to take you to the start point) we managed to do a three hour trek and get a good feel of the area. The park is made up of desolate, pristine White sand beaches and beautiful little islands. Shame we picked a freezing day to see it all! So there we go, another immensely packed week on limited funds! We've had to make the executive decision to change our flight date back to the UK as we've already mentioned, were nearly out of money! Still, we figure there would be no better place to be skint than Fiji! It will only be a couple of weeks early though-nothing drastic! Anyway, love to you and happy Mayday, Tommo and shello xx

A mouse, jetboating and getting chilly at the glaciers....

From the majesty of Milford Sound we travelled back down the Milford highway for about 40kms, through the 2km Homer Tunnel to a small and very rural little campsite called Cascade Creek, run by the DOC. to say it was dark when the sun went down would be an understatement of mythical proportions. You could not see a sausage. Also, due to parking up with no one around and next to a large, dense forest seemed to give the whole thing a bit of the Blair Witch effect. To compensate for the lack of any light the night sky was simply staggering, a superlative justified on this occasion as we saw satellites, constellations and shooting stars. Back inside the van, after settling down for the night trying to ignore the various unsettling noises surrounding the van I noticed out of the corner of my eye, whilst we watched a movie, a small friend had joined us. A small and not-so-timid mouse. I thought I was seeing things but knew what I had seen. And so started the worst night I can think of. Seven hours of trying to hit a small rodent in my pants with a wooden spoon. I'll leave you with that thought for a while. The next morning, with our little friend seemingly on board (he had probably fallen after all his excitement sleep bless him) we headed onwards and towards Queenstown, stopping briefly in Te Anau for coffee. After a couple of hours and after passing at least two Lord of the Rings film locations we reached Queenstown. We had heard about Queenstown a lot both in the guidebooks and from other people, essentially based around it's popularity as an adventure sports Mecca. What no one mentioned was how stunningly beautiful it was too. After spending a night in a horrible campsite that had both the look and atmosphere of a building site crossed with a drug-fuelled youth club we ventured out the next morning and out into Queenstown to explore it's salubrious surroundings. It was beautiful, and made even more so by the time of year. With it being Autumn the trees had turned a multitude of different colours and leaves littered the floor and gathered in big clumps. The smells were amazing.

Anyway, despite it's beauty, Queenstown is, as mentioned, a place where exhilaration is what people come for. So with that fact in mind we scoured the vast array of activities on offer and decided that as a treat we would pay for a jetboat ride that would take us at insane speeds across the lake and along an adjacent river. It was unbelievable, roaring along at around 60mph in water no deeper than a couple of inches. Awesome stuff. From there we took a self guided tour around the town then headed west through another stretch of truly amazing road until we reached Twelve Mile Delta, a stunning conservation campsite situated next to lake Wakatipu. Just another in the long line of stunning locations we have been fortunate enough to wake up in. The next morning, after a brief visit into Queenstown for coffee we headed north down a half-forgotten dirt road for around half an hour until we reached Lake Moke. It was another perfectly sunny day so we whacked on the walkers and started out on a 8km lake walk. We even had the energy to run the last two or three kms together, Shell running-believe it!

We ended up staying around the lake that night as it was just too beautiful to move. The lake, almost split in two by a jut of land was two separate colours on each side and was circled by pristine hills on both sides. Unfortunately, it's geography, come night time, was it's ultimate downfall. The way the hills enclosed the valley and lake meant that cold air being pushed down became trapped. This meant that an already cold night was made so much colder. The ranger the morning after told me that it had got down to -4. Not record breaking I know but when living out of a metal box it was painful, literally. The next morning we left the beautiful Queenstown behind and headed for Arrowtown, a small but perfectly formed little place that seemed to have everything just right, maybe too right. Almost like a show home. It was a complete humdinger for tourists but then hey, it was beautiful. After drinking coffee in another great little place we took a walk around the town finishing down at the Chinese settlement. These little stone cottages, almost 150 years old were used by Chinese gold prospectors who not only had to compete with the brutally cold winters but also a local population who despised their presence. Fascinating stuff.

From there I convinced Shell to go for a hike, one mentioned in the guidebook as moderate to hard that would take 3-4 hours. I can safely say that in nearly nine years of our relationship I have never seen Shell so momentously pissed off. To be fair, once again the walk started steeply. In fact for about an hour we snaked up hill through a gorge in between two mountains until we reached a plateau at the top. By this time Shell was convinced that we were lost and were going to have to call the mountain rescue or something but we kept walking and eventually got to the end. We even passed a couple of seasoned hikers who looked at Shell in one of those 'are you a little bit insane' kind of ways. Anyway, from Arrowtown we once again headed north towards Wanaka, another stunningly beautiful town set beside a large lake, lake Wanaka. After travelling so hard for a few days it was really nice to relax for a day so decided to stay an extra night and check out Wanaka's most famous thing to do, Puzzleworld. It was astonishingly good. Essentially two halves, one was dedicated to illusions and tricks of the mind (we will try to attach videos) and the other half to a huge fenced maze. We had a great time here despite the hoards of irritating children (NZ Easter holidays) and totally rolled back our inner child once again.

Before leaving Wanaka we decided to drive the tedious 40km down a very rocky gravel track to a small car park deep within the mountains. This would be the start of the Rob Roy glacier trek, 10km of paths of which over half were uphill. At the end lies Rob Roy Glacier, a huge foreboding arc of ice surrounding by dramatic rock formations. Once again we pummelled our way through the trek, the first half was a good workout but we made it to the top to be met by yet another stunning vista. They are never ending. From there we drove for around three hours to catch a sight of, in the late afternoon, Fox Glacier. We parked up then set off on the 2km walk to the ice terminal (front of the ice shelf). Although mightily impressive, it had that same dirty tinge that we had seen at the other glaciers we had visited, probably the worst time of year to see them. Still, to see such momentous examples of the power of nature literally a couple of kms from the roadside and more amazingly, from the sea, is something which makes it even more remarkable. The next morning, after our usual coffee fix at one of the little alpine cafes (real coffee snobs by now) we headed out for part two of glacier watch, this time to Franz Josef. Arguably more impressive than Fox due it's size it was amazing to see and even more impressive how these beasts had gouged out huge valleys, with sheer, jagged rock faces on each side. We could only get 500 metres away from the shelf due to safety concerns after two Indian tourists jumped over the fence to 'get a closer look' at the glaciers in 2009. Turns out a piece of ice, about as big as my mum and dads 4x4 landed on them. Only one body was recovered. Idiots.

From the glaciers we once again followed the road north, this time for almost 300kms up the lonely and desolate west coast stopping briefly in small Coastal towns including Hokitika. What we haven't mentioned yet, I don't think so anyway, is the royal nuisance that are sandflies. They are pretty much everywhere in NZ but especially along the wetter west coast these demons are just horrible. Smaller than mosquitoes, they only bite during the day and are, fall all of their nuisance, slow as f**k. You feel a tiny bit of pain and see the little black buggers enjoying a bit of leg. Fortunately, if you are walking, which is pretty much all the time here, you can outpace them as they are incredibly slow. Our legs have literally been covered in bites from these pests though and they itch more than mozzie bites, arrrrrggh! Anyway from the West Coast we then drive inland and over the desolate and foreboding Arthurs Pass, a remote wilderness area that connects pretty much the entire west coast with Christchurch, on roads you wouldn't want to take a soapbox down in. We even passed the remnants of a huge accident where a huge lorry had smashed through the barriers and down a sheer drop. The roads here are crazy! Just so you know, Shell did an exceptional job of winding our way through the slalom roads and delivered us, after stopping for the night next to a lake, in beautiful Christchurch. So there we go, pretty much full circle of the south island before we head up to Marlborough and all that wine! We've had to come back to Christchurch to swap the van as old mousey I was telling you about, well, he just doesn't want to end his free trip. Anyway, as I'm sure you can tell we continue to drive, jive and thrive in this wondrous land. Ta ta for now. Love Tommo and shello xxxx

Abundant wildlife, the Catlin wilderness and Milford Sound... (7th-15th April)

After an amazing time on the peninsula, we continued our journey south along the southern scenic highway and boy did it live up to it's name!

We made a quick pit stop in Dunedin to walk up the worlds steepest street. Honestly, you can't even imagine the incline of this street. From the bottom, the top section of the road looked almost vertical! We managed to walk up along with the many crazy drivers revving their cars so to reach the top - I'm pleased we left the van at the bottom. On the way back down we picked up our certificate, yes really, just in case you didn't believe us! Apparently there's a race every year called the gutbuster where people run up and down the street for fun, they must be mad!

Thanks to the good old lonely planet guide and the mass of leaflets we've managed to accumulate, we set out towards the catlins. It's an area renowned for fantastic scenery and wildlife encounters so we were both really looking forward to exploring the area.

Following our guide books, we pulled off the highway to make the perilous and somewhat bumpy drive to Nugget point. I'm loving driving the van but on nice smooth Tarmac roads, not narrow gravel tracks! The view from the lighthouse at the top was well worth the drive despite being battered by the wind. We found some shelter in the bird hide just before dusk to watch the yellow eyed penguins ride the waves back to dry land and waddle to their nests. We didn't have the best view due to gigantic zoom lenses and tripods everywhere you moved but we were pleased to catch a glimpse of a few before heading to our campsite for the night.

The next day, in search of our daily coffee fix, we found quite possibly the weirdest front garden we've ever seen. The garden was named 'teapot land' and was crammed full of any and every type of teapot you could think of, all neatly stacked and 'artistically' arranged around a water feature, strange people!

We continued along the scenic highway and stupidly decided to visit every 'brown tourist signed' attraction that we came to on the drive to our next campsite. It seemed like a great idea at the time..... We visited 4 waterfalls (all very beautiful and hidden deep inside amazing forests), 1 blowhole (a subterranean cave where the roof has collapsed), 2 beaches (deserted but lovely) and an old disused tunnel (creepy with a good echo). By the time we reached our campsite at curio bay we were exhausted! I was very excited though as we found out that there were penguins making an appearance down at the beach. We rushed down there and soon found ourselves up close and personal with the penguins. It was So much better than the day before as we were pretty much stood right next to them on the beach instead of being crammed into a bird hide. A Truly amazing experience and even better that it was all for free, no tours needed, bonus!

The following morning at low tide, we checked out the 'petrified fossil forest'. Basically it's a whole load of tree stumps and trunks that have been fossilised and uncovered by the sea. Tom loved it and spent ages clambering across the rocks and fossils whereas I spent my time watching out for more penguins!! We also ventured to the cathedral caves, which again can only be seen at low tide. They were huge caves in the cliff faces and got pretty dark and scary the further back you went. We forgot to take a torch, typical so ventured as far as we dared before chickening out and heading back! Our last stop on the catlins scenic trail was slope point, the most southernly point of the country. We took the obligatory photos as we stared out into the vast ocean in front of us. Crazy to think that the next land mass you would reach would be the antarctic!

Having fully experienced the catlins, we headed towards a place called te anau on the heart of fiordland. The landscape here was just amazing and I found it difficult to concentrate on the driving as all I wanted to do was take it all in. Luckily, there were lots of stops and Tom took lots of photos along the way, in fact I actually can't stop him taking photos (he's taken over my job!)

After checking out the town, we made our way to a place called rainbow reach (where there was actually a rainbow) to attempt to walk a section of the famous keppler track. It was a beautiful walk through forests and past some lord of the rings filmsets! Although I have to be honest, most of the scenery in NZ looks as though it's straight from the lord of the rings movie so who's to know the difference?!?

Having recovered from our walk the previous day, we set out on a 2 hour journey along the Milford highway. It is supposed to be one of the best drives in the world and we can definitely see why! The drive takes you into the heart of fiordland and allows you to access the stunning Milford sound at the end. The drive was pretty scary at times, horrifically windy roads and a huge dark tunnel that seemed vertical at points, through a mountain. We booked ourselves onto a scenic cruise and spent the next few hours being wowed by the completely amazing scenery. I don't think the photos do it justice at all. The sheer size of the fiord, the mountains and huge waterfalls either side was incredible! We were also lucky enough to spot some dolphins and seals from the top deck of the boat too. All in all a fantastic experience that I would totally recommend!

So that's us up to date for now and a very rare update from me I know, will have to pull my finger out! We are both happy, healthy and still very much living the dream :)

Love to you all, shello & Tommo x x x x

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