The Campervan Diaries

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This blog comes to you from the side of a deserted road, about 20 miles outside Queenstown, where we've just discovered something our van doesn't have - a petrol warning light! Ok, ok, so we saw that the gauge was down to "E", but we assumed a light would come on at some stage as well. Anyway, another car came along eventually, and Neil has managed to thumb a lift back to Queenstown to sort us out - all very "Wolf Creek".

So - that's us in the South Island! NZ's most famous wine region, Marlborough, is just a 30 minute drive once you're off the ferry from the north, so it'll probably come as no surprise to hear that we made that our first port of call here. There are more than 50 wineries within about a 3 mile radius, and we managed to visit a fair few of them, alternating between big brands we'd heard of and some smaller boutique labels. We were expecting them all to be full of tourists, and were surprised that we were the only customers in all but one of the ones we visited. Especially when we realised that nearly all offered free tastings!! With absolutely no pressure to buy either. Of course, just because there was no pressure doesn't mean we didn't buy anything - although I think we were admirably restrained given that we had our own transport and could have carried a lot more. Pretty ridiculously though, given our current living circumstances, one of our purchases was a bottle of dessert wine, so we've taken the gourmet camping experience up a notch there, enjoying a drop after dinner in the evening with some nice cheese - in the back of a van and using plastic glasses!

Our South Island experience has pretty much replicated our time in the North - mile after mile of amazing scenery, lots of natural wonders, and funky little towns to stop in overnight. Despite being in the adventue capital of the world, we didn't, however, indulge in anything too extreme. I was adamant I was going to do something or other, and was trying to decide between skydiving and paragliding, but got my reality check when I got really nervous travelling up a bit of a hill in Queenstown on a really very sedate cable car ride and had to get Neil to help me get off it at the top, as it went all of about, oh, 1 mile an hour.

Next stop, Oz!

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Photos

Stranded!!
Pretty gorgeous place to breakdown though!

Amanda in her spiritual home
Amongst the sauv blanc vines at Villa Maria

Quadbiking!
I was too chicken to take my own bike, but think it was even scarier to go as neil's passenger

On the way to Fox Glacier
We couldn't get any pcitures pf the glacier itself as it started to pour and it was too wet to even take the camera out.

Incredible scenery
There was an amazing photo opportunity literally every 2 minutes in New Zealand.

Me spoiling the incredible scenery
No-one around for miles.

Lake Wanaka
If we were forced to choose, the town of Wanaka might be our favourite in NZ.

Me on the lake
Note the lifejacket. We were on a pedalo.