We arrived in LA on the Monday lunchtime and after a sleepless night and feeling like sh*t the next day, we hire a car to get the hell out of there. (It’s true what they say - flying east is far worse - we were zombies for the best part of 4 days!) After an hour and a half, we were just out of LA (believe me, it’s just HUGE) and on the dusty highway to LA. Now we thought it was hot in LA but when we eventually made it to Las Vegas, the heat just hit us (after checking [View Full Entry]

---

---

OK, we were in Fiji for 2 weeks, however, it was not quite what we thought (read in to that “not impressed“). So I’m not going to regurgitate the day to day stuff that we did but instead, just put a few photo’s up for your perusal (however, if you're on facebook, you'd have already seen these). [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well after we left Glacier country, we went up as far as Greymouth and stayed there a couple of nights as we had to get some work done on the van. Grey is certainly the operative word - we arrived on a cold, drizzly, overcast day and being frank, the place is a dump. There is nothing to see or do there - we felt sorry for the tourists coming off the Tranzalpine train journey for reaching such a nondescript, bleak, dingy end of route! The place has an air of ageing industrialism and being in a real back water - [View Full Entry]

---

---

So back down to earth with a bump. After leaving the Remarkables Lodge, we headed south then west and arrived at a place called Te Anau - this was the last proper town before heading on to Milford Sound. After our night at a campsite, we woke up to a murky, overcast morning. While filling up with petrol, we checked about the road to Milford as we’d heard that it was compulsory to carry snow chains during particular winter months of the year. However, on asking the attendant, no snow chains were required today. I felt better after hearing that as [View Full Entry]

---

---

This end of the south island, we’ve had to retrace our steps back from Milford Sound to Te Anau and on to Queenstown. Just after leaving Queenstown while heading east, we take a left and head north to Wanaka. Wanaka is a nice little town next to a beautiful lake with the backdrop of mountains. In spite of the weather and the fact that it’s off season, it has a very holiday-ish air about it. People walking alongside the lakeshore, cyclists, people having lunch outside - nice holiday feel to it. We stopped here to break up our journey and the [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we left Arrowtown the next day and drove the short distance to Queenstown. As it was lunchtime, we parked up at the holiday park and walked down the hill into town. The first thing I noticed was the huge number of outdoor clothing shops - literally every other shop sells coats, fleeces, ski jackets and boots, etc etc. Then there were shops that sold “bungee experiences” or “jet boating on the Shotover river”. The rest were café/bars and then a couple of travel agents. We had lunch; Paul bought a new coat, and I found one I loved (slight [View Full Entry]

---

---

So where have we been since we left the wonderful city of Christchurch? Well we continued along SH1 until we got to Timaru. We only stayed there for one night and just walked around the town centre which had nothing of particular interest to see. The one thing you are meant to see if you visit Timaru is Caroline Bay - which we only read after leaving the place but to be honest, we’ve seen that many bays and beaches that we could quite happily live without seeing this one. The next day, we drove on to Oamaru, which was a [View Full Entry]

---

---

The next morning, we wake up to blue skies and sunshine, although it’s getting pretty cold now and we wrap up in fleeces. There is a bus stop right outside the campsite so we head off to the Bus Exchange in the city centre (aka the bus station), disembark and get our bearings. We walk up to the Cathedral Square to see the Cathedral and also the silver chalice sculpture that was erected in 2001 and see the trams which pick up here for the circuit of the city centre streets. After taking pictures, we walk through the square over [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a lie in (hurray!), just a few miles south of Farewell Spit, we drive back south and stay over at Richmond, south west of Nelson. The next day, after stocking up on food, gas and petrol, we head south and after a few hours drive, we stop at St Arnaud - a tiny village in the middle of nowhere surrounded by lakes and hills - also known as the Nelson Lakes There is a general store/petrol station, an alpine style hotel/café and a sprinkling of houses, most of which seemed unoccupied. There is a department of conservation camp site here [View Full Entry]

---

---

Without sighting any nudists (disappointment or relief? You decide), we left the camp at Mapua and headed north and stayed overnight just south of a small town called Motueka. The next day, we headed not only north again, but this time, up into the clouds - we were heading into the hills and there were loads of low clouds so that underneath it was a cloudy, overcast day. However, reaching the top of the hills, there was brilliant sunshine and the surrounding slopes were wreathed in mist. We carried on for half an hour or so and then turned off into [View Full Entry]

---

---