The drive into Glacier country was pretty scenic we finally made it back to the coast after being inland for several weeks, but no surfing for Matty, not yet!!! There are two big glaciers and glacier towns the Franz-Josef and the slightly less touristy Fox, we decided to stay in the Fox. Our first full day was a Sunday and it rained lots, it was the first time we have had a Sunday experience in a while, we sat around doing nothing all day watching Star Trek, but the highlight was talking to and seeing for the first time Daisy Bailey, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Leaving our cool hostel in Manapouri and arriving two hours later in a dump of a hostel in Queenstown was a bit disappointing, we had to change rooms after an hour because the bed broke twice (and we weren't even getting up to any mischief!). When we went to the information to see what we wanted to do Matty booked himself onto the Nevis Bungy jump 134m from a suspended platform in the middle of a massive gorge. The following day we headed to Arrowtown to a Lord of the Rings location, it sort of looked like it. Nibby got a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nibby- You've got to love it, a vast wilderness of lush forest and blissful lakes. On the other hand, you can also hate it! Not the place, but the dreaded, blood thirsty, Sandfly! We found the most amazing backpackers, in a place called Manapouri, that was up on a hill and looked out over the lake with the mountains behind it. We had our very own hut with a kitchen and everything! It felt very special for us! When we had been in Christchurch we looked at booking on to do the Milford Track which is a 4 day tramp right [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nibby- Moving on from Dunedin we headed further south to the Catlin Coast. I hadn't travelled here before so it was a new experience for the both of us. The Catlin coast is thriving with wildlife. The first place we stopped off was Surat Bay where we found some massive male sealions chilling on the beach. For ages we wondered what the difference was between NZ fur seals and sealions and now we know! Sealions are so big and the guys have manes which the seals don't have. The weather wasn't the best so we didn't hang around for long. Further [View Full Entry]

---

---

After some Z's Z Z Z Z's we drove to Dunedin (Gaelic for Edinburgh) stopping on the way at Moeraki where we went to see some Yellow Eyed Penguins. There was quite a lot of them and we got some great photos. We also went a bit further down the beach to see some rare naturally formed boulders, they were almost all perfect sphere worn that way by the sea and wind some had what looked like veins in them. They seemed to photograph really well so we got some great shots of them. We also bumped into 2 Irish lads [View Full Entry]

---

---

The drive to Mount Cook (the largest mountain in NZ standing at about 4000m) was pretty long. We stopped along the way at Lake Tekapo, it was not the picture perfect scene, there was a lot of low cloud meaning you could not see the mountains in the background but with a little imagination it looked great!!! Tonight was the first night of Nibby cooking for 7 days and we head baked fish. Lovely only 6 more meals to go.. We walked the hooker track today a scenic walk along the valley to the base of the Mt Cook Glacier. At [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nibby- How wonderful to have a base at John and Margaret's up on the hill overlooking the city of Christchurch. They have only been living there a few months and there were a couple of things around the house still to do so Matt spent one morning helping John put up his fence around the driveway while I lazed around the house. We popped into the centre and had a look around the art museum before heading to the shops to get some warmer clothes. We have finally given in to the fact that we are leaving summer behind us and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Did you know that all comments on this blog will be inserted into it and when we finally reach home and make it into a book they will make it in too - so get commenting!!!! Next day we headed east and once at the east coast drove south a bit to the town of Kaikoura the weather was miserable we stopped to see lots of seals on the coast and got some more good photos. Matty had to get running repairs on his surfboard and got up early to get it to the menders within 2 hours he was ready [View Full Entry]

---

---

First landing on the South Island and we drove to Nelson a small town in the North of the Island, we found a market had a look around but we managed to keep our wallets in our pockets and not buy anything. We also went and checked out where the rings from Lord of the Rings were forged and it was not Mount Doom it was a tiny little shop and workshop and everything in it was way to much money for humble travellers. But by far the best sight of the day was a Wearable Art Museum and Vintage Car [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nibby- From Taupo we headed south of the lake to a place called Turangi. The next day was a tough one even by Matts standards. We had booked onto a shuttle to take us into the Tongariro national park for the popular Tongariro crossing trek which takes you up and over some volcanoes, giving you spectacular views over Taupo and the surrounding areas. It takes around 7-8 hours and is 18.5kms in which you walk over 1100 metres vertically up and 1300m down. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side and we struggled to see 5 metres in front of us. [View Full Entry]

---

---