Journey to the land of the rings

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Well here it is, the long awaited first installment of our time in NZ.
We arrived early on the 7th of July into a chilly and crisp Chirstchurch. We stayed in Cokers backpackers, a converted hotel with allegedly four bed dorms that were actually the original double rooms just with bunk beds thrown in. Due to the lack of backpackers around we actually had the whole room to ourselves and the rare luxury (in Australasia anyway) of a private ensuite.
Throwing caution to the wind we decided to see what vans were available to buy and were delighted to find an '89 Toyota Hi ace which had been converted to a camper for only $800 (which, on test driving it, instantly got reduced by the sellers to $500). Naturally we jumped at the opportunity and, after a look around the few sights that Christchurch houses, were on our way around the island.
Our first stop (after a very cold late night drive through the mountains) was Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki (famed for their strange turquoise waters) before heading on to attempt to see Mount Cook. Unfortunately the weather was 'mintal' (as the Kiwi's would say) and we simply got to see lots of rain blowing in horizontally by the extremely strong wind.
After that little let down we headed on through Twizel (and a quick stop at lake Ohau) towards Wanaka.
Wanaka is the sister town to Queenstown and is the feeder town for the ski areas of Trebble Cone and Cardrona (for those with an interest in LOTR the Cardrona hotel was used as the inn of the prancing pony interior shots). We camped up their in our van in the pouring rain waiting for a good day to hit the slopes for the first time here. The driving rain in the valley made for a big snow dump up top and two days after arriving we made our way up to the resort. Our first attempt was aborted due to an avalanche over the access road by the next day we used the vouchers we got cheap of some folks we met in a pub for a full day on the slopes. The snow was awesome and the resort had some of the best snowboarding terrain imaginable (not to mention the highest standard of boarders I've witnessed at a resort).
Job completed we headed on to most people's main event in South Island, Queenstown.
Having bought an ultra cheap package at the backpackers in Christchurch we had two nights of relative comfort in a dorm plus three days of lift passes to be shared between Coronet Peak and The Remarkables. We opted for the former on our first day but were confronted by some of the hardest snow imaginable (living upto its pseudonym of Concrete Peak) so our second and final day's boarding were spent at the excellent Remarkables. The resort itself (also used for much of the LOTR filming in the off season) overlooks the Lake Wakatipu/ Queenstown valley and provides some of the most stunning scenery any ski resort could hope for. After two days of hitting kickers and cruising the pistes we were ready to head on.
Our next destination was to check out the penguins on the east coast.
Oamaru is the normal destination for this and, after a bit of a hit and miss affair attempting to see a yellowed eyed penguin, we headed to the blue penguin colony in town for the night viewing of these little critters.
The following day we headed south to the Moeraki boulders, strange rock formations strewn along the beach there. Unfortunately our $500 van gave us some problems here as it decided to dump hydronlic fluid all over the car park and relieved us of another $500 for a new clutch. This gave us an unexpected two days in Moeraki and, thanks to the backpackers owner, Stan a close up view of yellow eyed penguins and New Zealand fur seals. A big thank you goes to Stan for really helping us out during a bit of a stressful time.
With the van back on the road we headed south once more, through Dunedin, the Catlins and finishing at Invercargil before heading Northward and on to Milford sound. Rain hit again and we didn't see the best of the region but on our way back towards Queentown we decided to look for a few of the LOTR filming sites in a little out of the way area of the Mavora Lakes. These lakes were so quiet and peaceful (thanks, not least ot the 39k dirt road to get to them) and we found ourselves camping in the middle of nowhere in the shadow of snow capped mountains around a roaring camp fire.
We snapped the locations described in our guide book and headed back through Queenstown and Wanaka to the West coast to catch a glimpse of Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers and the obligatory walk around Lake Matheson (again Mount Cook was hidden from us by cloud).
We followed this up by heading North to the pancake rocks at Punakaika before cutting back East through Arthur's pass for a spot of sperm whale watching at Kaikoura (which was awesome).
Driving further north we stopped for a few days in Nelson to relax and sort out the very messy van before heading back towards Picton to wait for the ferry.

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