The land of the long white cloud, part 1

Arriving in Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand at an unsociable 11.30pm, we made a bee line for the airport transport which helpfully dropped us off at our accomodation for the first few nights, the Thomas Hotel, right in the city centre. Waking up the next day we were greeted with the wonderful news that Jenny (Kelly's little sis) had finally dropped, and baby Alfie had emerged; pink and a little wrinkly, into the world back in Blighty. We immediately made for the heart of the city (which is NZ's most English city) for some sight seeing and celebration.

Christchurch was nice enough- interesting architecture and very leafy but we didn't waste any time once we'd picked up the new and imporved Madge, (named Kyle as she was almost brand, spankingly new), in hitting the open road.

We headed South East to the Banks Peninsula and Akaroa which was a lovely little, quaint French settlement. We partook in some great walks and were rewarded with amazing views over the bays and their crystal clear waters.

After Akaroa we headed toward Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo. The lakes (fed by glaciers) were an astonishing shade of blue due to the rock 'flour' that had been ground up by the glaciers over millions of years and how it reflected the light. We found an amazing spot for our first real night of free camping right on the shores of Lake Pukakai- it was absolutely amazing watching the sun go down and the colours change.

Next we headed for the Southern Alps and the small settlement of Mount Cook- just at the base of the Maountain (Australasia's highest)- the place was pretty magical with picture postcard scenes wherever you looked. We took a trip out on the Tasman Glacier's lake and bobbed around with all the million year old icebergs and floating ice- quite spectacular! We celebrated our anniversary at the only place in town with an atmosphere and decent food and drinks (The Old Mountaineers Cafe) and wobbled home afterwards amidst the snowstorn which had decended on the valley. Waking up the next morning we enjoyed larking about in the 5-6 inches that lay on everything, completed the great Hooker Valley walk and then got out of dodge before the cold really started to bite in our little tin can of a vehicle.

We then headed down the coast passing some lots of forgettable small towns- the only noteworthy one being Omaru and it's lovely gardens. This is also where we spotted some Yellow-Eyed Penguins coming ashore at sunset (the rarest of all the Penguin species).

The nest stop of any interest was Moraki and it's famous boulders. The beach is littered with loads of these perfectly spehereical, alian like boulders (some weighing tons) which lay deep in the cliffs before they were eroded away by the sea- rock on!

The main thing that's struck us over the first few weeks of our stay in NZ (other than the cold) is that it's soooo dramatically picturesque- like waking up on a film set every morning!

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