New Zealand: a land bigger than the UK that contains only four million people - and 1.2 million of those live in the largest city, Auckland.Our task, if we chose to accept it, was a 3000 mile drive around both islands in a camper van that Kate had dubbed 'Bernadette' - a name I found acceptable, but that was mostly so that I could hum 'Bernadette' by the Four Tops every time the van was mentioned.With Petrol at approximately one pound per litre, it was also going to be an expensive 25 days as we drove up mountains, around lakes, through forests and along rivers.Armed only with a list of top tips from our Kiwi friends in Melbourne and a clapped out DVD player we set off on our journey.We had a lot to cover in less than a month, and the fleeting nature of this blog probably reflects the pace at which we were moving.It was a tall order, but I'm taller.

Our New Zealand adventure began in Christchurch, a town famous for English architecture, a grand Anglican Cathedral and a cosmopolitan tinge (or so says The Lying Planet).Although many of these things are true, the city was hit by a fairly dramatic earthquake in September last year, and was in parts a shell of its former self.Even so, we managed a nice walk around some extremely quiet streets the evening we arrived, and enjoyed the general ambience of calm that would come to epitomise the South Island.The following day, we wandered around some more, checking out the Cathedral, an arts centre, watched a haka that was performed by some local school kids and dined on gourmet bagels.Although we had not been there very long we quickly realized that the draw of the South Island was not its small and perfectly formed urban areas, but instead, its awesome rugged landscape. With that revelation, it was time to move on.

We put the pedal to the metal and Bernadette purred as we got our first experience of the magnificent scenery that New Zealand has to offer.We drove firstly to Sumner beach, which was calm and beautiful, and then further on around Bank's Peninsula, exploring various off-shoots until we finally ended up on a small grassy area by the side of a sea inlet in near Lyttleton, where we camped for the night.It was great spot and we spent the first of our proper nights in the van relaxing and watching the sun go down over the water whilst sipping on a local beer.The next day we headed off towards Lake Takapo, cutting inland across country roads.Unfortunately, we had chosen to follow the advice of our satnav, and it didn't take long before it had us driving down what I would call a questionable road.The situation only got worse when we hit a dry river bed that the satnav thought we should be able to ford in our little van (satnav gone wrong!).In a moment that I can only describe as Kate 'manning up', we clunked across the huge stones and one particularly large crevice to make it to the other side.It didn't take us long after that to find the 'use sealed roads only' button I can tell you.On arrival at the Lake we were wowed by its almost fluorescent blue colour and distant views of Mount Cook.We took on a three hour walk around the lake and up to a viewing point, and felt satisfied with our days work.

In the following couple of days we drove on to Dunedin, which is a nice little town that has a relaxed atmosphere, some good little pubs and a pretty cool art museum where we whiled away an afternoon, and then on further around the Otago Peninsula.At the top of one particular route we managed to spot an albatross, whose wings are spectacularly large, and some seals swimming around a quiet little bay.Unfortunately, we didn't quite have the patience to hang around for a couple of hours in what had turned into brisk sea breeze in order to see some of the local penguins.Instead we moved on and warmed up with our first taste of New Zealand fish and chips, which were tasty enough but those kiwis could certainly learn a thing or two from us Brits about the art of chipping a potato!

The next phase of our journey involved a huge drive across the country to get all the way over to the other coast and see the magnificent Milford Sound, a fjord on the southwest coast.I had needed some convincing to include this section of the country into our trip since it involves the world's largest cul-de-sac - approximately 130km of road that goes only down to the Sound with little else on route and no loop road back across to civilization.However, Kate regaled me with stories from her friends that had visited the area before and assured me that it would be one of the highlights of the trip, so off we set.The road there was actually pretty impressive with towering rock cliffs covered in waterfalls and some pretty luscious forest, but the sight at the end of the road was not.I can now tell you when not to visit Milford Sound, and that is when there is so much fog that you can't see past the end of your own nose.As the weather was so poor we decided against a boat trip and were slightly disappointed to find that there was very little else to do at Milford Sound bar a twenty minute walk around a small headland that involved being bitten to death by the millions of sandflies that inhabit the area.A not very happy Alan and Kate completed the 260km round trip and moved on to pastures new.

If Milford Sound ended up being one of the low points of the trip, then our next port of call, Queenstown, was most definitely one of the high points!Although we were enjoying the great outdoors, Queenstown offered us something we had not yet experienced in New Zealand, an electric buzzing atmosphere that continued well into the evening!We enjoyed strolling around the well manicured town and obviously had to take full advantage of this new, edgy side of the country when we spotted the lawn bowls club atop a hill in the botanic gardens.Neither of us had played lawn bowls before, but at 10 dollars each for as long as you could play and the offer of a quick training session from a stern, but rather dotty old lady, how could we resist?We had a great time curling the bowls around onto the jack, and especially enjoyed it when the aforementioned old lady popped by now and again to tell us how good a shot we had just made.It was a lovely afternoon and a novel experience that travelling is surely all about.That evening we drove down some more pretty sketchy roads to a beautiful camping spot by a lake; a wonderful setting to end the day.The following morning we were up bright and early in order to climb the local hill, Ben Lomond, which stands at around 1,750 metres high.Kitted up in our walking boots and with plenty of food and water on board we trekked across undulating hills and scrambled up some pretty challenging rock sections to reach the summit.The walk was hard, but the views along at way were absolutely stunning with the bluest of blue lakes cutting its shape amoungst some towering mountain surrounds.Back in town we treated ourselves to hot showers, munchedon pizza and a beer in a cosy pub and followed this up with some great local ice cream before heading off for a well deserved nights sleep.

Having enjoyed being settled in a vibrant town we were a little sad to be moving on, but as time was tight we dug deep and enjoyed a few days on the road, stopping in at Arrowtown, Wanaka and Cromwell.All of these towns are fairly small and pretty typical of the South Island, but served as interesting stop offs on our way north towards the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers.We had a great time looking around little streets full of boutique type shops and stopping in at the amazing ´puzzling world´ just outside of Wanaka at which we viewed optical illusions and conquered a pretty difficult maze!The glaciers at the end of this particular drive were also pretty spectacular, although unfortunately due to budgetry restraints (sorry, just doing my David Cameron impression) we were unable to take the expensive tours and actually walk on the glaciers, so we got as close as we could and just enjoyed the views.

The final stage of our time in the South Island were spent at Abel Tasman Nationak Park and the Marlborough region - two places that offered us premium oppurtunities to partake in some of our favourite activities - walking and drinking fine wine!When we arrived at Abel Tasman we were both under the impression that we could get full access to the area with our little van that can.Unfortunately, the coastal track, which is about 51km long, can only be accessed from either end, and requires a few days of camping to tackle the whole thing.With time on the short side we did what we do best and tried to make the most of the situation.On a glorious summers days we set off determined to walk as far aling the track as we could, leaving enough time to retrace our steps and get back to the van before night fall or death, which ever came first.We trotted along some of the best routes I think I have ever walked and took in the glorious views of lush forest and some of the most crystal clear blue waters you are ever likely to see.All in all we managed to get about 19kms along, making for a round trip of about 38km.By the end of the day we could barely summon the energy to put one foot infront of the other, but also a little dissappointed that we´d not managed to walk as far as a marathon, not that we´re at all competitive.We followed this walking up with a couple of nice camping days and a wine tour in the Marlborough region that truely ignited our passion for fine wine.During the tour we were taken around 10 vineyards and sampled some 50 or so wines.Although we spat some of the samples out a little at first, hoping to pace ourselves throughout the day, we quickly gave up the pretence of civilsed people and began to embrace wine as it should be embraced - by drinking every last drop.We had an amazing day having wines described to us, sampling some lovely drops and being given all kinds of interesting information about the growing and making of wine from our captivating tour host, all capped off with a picnic lunch under the trees of the Cloudy Bay vineyard.It was the perfect way to end our South Island adventure, and the following day we headed off the the ferry, ready to take on the small island to the North.

Until next time,

Alan and Kate x