So here we are, it's day 12 in the campervan and we haven't seen a single waterfall yet despite the fact that they're supposed to be everywhere. Well it seems that waterfalls in NZ are a bit like buses - you wait around for ages to see one and then 4 come along at once! The first of the waterfalls we got to see today wasn't far from our beachside campsite at Purakaunui and no prizes for guessing the name - the Purakaunui Falls, of course! It was just a 10 minute walk from the car park to see the beautiful [View Full Entry]

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The long fruitless drive around yesterday caught up with us this morning and we had a nice lie in and didn't end up leaving the campsite until midday. Today's journey took us in search of a free campsite in Purakaunui that the campsite owner had told us about. On the way there we got stuck in a typical New Zealand traffic jam - behind a big flock of sheep! We watched the flock trotting slowly up the road being herded by a trio of working dogs and a couple of guys in a pick-up truck enjoying a beer as they 'worked'. [View Full Entry]

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One of the cool things about New Zealand's South Island is the abundance of unusual wildlife that is available to anyone to go and see. Our campsite for the night was not far from a place called Shag Point which we drove to first thing to have a spot of breafast before wandering over to the cliffs and finding a handful of seals basking on the rocks below. A few minutes' drive away was a viewing area for yellow eyed penguins but we were there way too early and the penguins had all gone swimming for the day (well, the weather [View Full Entry]

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Now when I say to people that Glynn and I love rock, it never occurs to me that people might actually think we're into geology rather than guitars. Today however, was one of those days where nature had clearly misunderstood our meaning and so we found ourselves surrounded by rock after rock after rock, mostly in a good way though! It was a lovely morning when we woke up at the Dansey's Pass Campsite so we took the opportunity to go for a walk by the river running right alongside the site. We had no idea that the river cut through [View Full Entry]

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Staying by Lake Pukaki and Mount Cook has been an absolute dream and it was with a heavy heart that we made the decision to move on this morning. The weather wasn't quite as good as it had been for the last couple of days and Glynn and I were both nursing a bit of sunburn again despite all the sun cream we piled on yesterday. Poor Glynn got sunburnt lips so his morning wasn't much fun but that didn't stop him from taking one last dip in the glacier lake before we left. It was just too cold for me [View Full Entry]

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Along with our cheese toasties for dinner last night, we thought we'd add a touch of sophistication by cracking open a bottle of white wine. New Zealand produces some fabulous wines but unfortunately most of them are well out of our price range so the cheap Black Label wine we picked up at the supermarket before leaving Christchurch was far from the best. Flavour-wise it was quite nice actually but the way my head felt this morning made me vow never to touch a drop again as long as I live! Luckily we weren't going far today. Well, in fact we [View Full Entry]

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It was a cool and windy but clear morning this morning so I trundled down to the lakeside to feeding the ducks again (somehow I never get tired of doing this and the ducks don't seem to mind). It must have been too cold for the ducklings as they didn't put in an appearance this time which was just as well as the other ducks started fighting with each other over the bits of bread I was throwing in. We filled up our water bottles from a local spring and took a walk across the tussocky grassland towards a lone big [View Full Entry]

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One of the things we wanted to try and do during our 4 week road trip was get up early enough one day to watch the sun rise. As we were in such a beautiful setting at Lake Clearwater, we thought that this place might provide us with the ideal opportunity. We set the alarm for 4.30am and found ourselves cursing loudly as it went off in the dead of night. We had decided on 4.30am as I had woken up a couple of nights ago at 5.30am only to find it was light outside. That meant that sun rise must [View Full Entry]

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Today we continued our tour of Lord of the Rings movie locations by heading out to Mount Sunday, location for King Theodon's castle at Edoras. The weather was gloomy when we left the campsite but seemed to brighten a little as we drove away from the area. When we turned onto a quiet but still sealed road, I felt it was high time I took the helm and had a bit of a drive. The road was nice and straight so I had nothing complicated to do until the sealed road ran out and we suddenly found ourselves bumping along on [View Full Entry]

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Waking up this morning we were amused to find ourselves surrounded by a small hard of cattle happily munching away on the grass around the camping area. They were quickly rounded up though and went back to their daily business of eating elsewhere. Before setting off again, Glynn and I took another stroll on the beach and watched a group of local kids playing beach volleyball while a couple of the more adventurous one were out surfing or kayaking in the sea. We followed the river upstream for a while and watched tiny crabs scurrying around on the riverbed through the [View Full Entry]

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