Our morning was spent doing a final van clean and finishing off our packing. Matt insisted on washing all of the windows too - I don’t think it has ever been so clean! We dropped off the van without hitch, and got to the airport early. It hadn’t sunk in that we were leaving NZ. It’s always strange when you’ve moving on to another destination rather than going home, as you never feel too sad to leave because there are more travels to look forward to. The flight over to Sydney was only three hours. It was a very bumpy take off and landing but smooth in the air. We felt strange being in a big city again after getting used to the wilderness of NZ. When we finally escaped the airport security we found a ... read more

Thankfully when we got up the sun was shining and it was warm. The sight of the sun cheered us up and we caught the bus into town with the intention of doing a bit of sightseeing. We arrived into the main square, which could have almost passed as European if it hadn‘t been for the fact that all the buildings were far too new. It was lovely and open, and there were a few sculptures dotted around so immediately we got the impression that we were in a creative city. We hopped on the tram, which was part of a fleet of old fashioned carriages that had been renovated to take tourists around the main sites in a 25 minute loop. A couple of stops along we jumped off at the arts market, outside the ... read more

At last the rain had stopped so we made the most of it by going to the Otago Peninsula. We drove right along the coast up to the tip, where the Albatross Centre was based, and then walked around the cliffs to see some of the nesting birds. There were plenty of spotted shags sitting on nests that hung precariously on the side of the cliff face. When we went into the Albatross Centre we found out that it was their nesting season so wasn’t possible to do the tour where you could view them. Instead we were told we could look around at building, which was full of information boards, and try view them from the lawn outside. There were no guarantees we’d get to see them but it was really our only choice so ... read more

The pounding rain woke us up a few times in the night and at one point we weren’t sure whether we’d be able to go anywhere as the van was being blown around so much even in the driveway. Luckily by the time we got up it had calmed down a lot, although there were still black clouds above. After showers and breakfast, we said our goodbyes and thanks to Gail and David and set off along the Catlins coast. The rain finally let rip and it stayed with us for the rest of the day, although at times we just managed to outrun it giving us a few minutes respite for photos before it caught us back up again. We attempted to see some rare Hector Dolphins and failed miserably. We did manage to see ... read more

We had arranged to stay the night with Gail and David, some friends that we’d met in the Cook Islands, in Invercargill. We didn’t need to arrive there until late afternoon so we set off late morning and had a leisurely drive, stopping at photo opportunities and generally going where the mood took us. We stopped for lunch by a beach with rolling waves braved by a few surfers, and spent some time enjoying the fact that we didn’t have to be anywhere else. We spent our time on the north island in a state of panic that there was too much to see and not enough time. When we arrived at the south island we quickly realised that there were more activities to do, but there wasn’t necessarily more to see, so we’d finally managed ... read more