Our arrival in Christchurch was characteristically chaotic; we landed late due to earthquake and had, again, not thought too hard about transfer to the hostel, that this time, we had pre arranged. Our eventual shuttle took us around the devastated city centre before dropping us at our accommodation. We quickly found that "the Garden City" is not much of it's former self. The city centre is off limits to everyone apart from the multitude of demolition crews, busy taking down the 800 plus wrecked buildings; some only years old some historic and even the Cathedral is in danger of facing the wrecking ball. What is left of the city is beautiful and reminiscent of good old England, but the deserted buildings and cracked roads are a creepy reminder of the active fault beneath the city. After a few days, we left Christchurch without experiencing a quake or tremor and quite glad of it. We booked an intercity bus and headed for Tekapo.

The journey out of Christchurch offers some stunning views of the Alps but once in Tekapo; the views across the turquoise lake to the surrounding snow-topped mountains, is truly breathtaking. Although not a great deal in the small town, we managed to while away two days breathing the fresh mountain air and soaking up the views. Feeling invigorated and possibly drunk of fresh air, we decided to take one of the hikes around Mt Cook which is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Needless to say, we didn't scale it but took a 4 hour unguided walk at it's base and to one of the ranges glaciers. This was amazing, although exhausting and freezing. Having just come from Asia and Oz we pretty much arrived in flip flops and swim wear. In order to stock up on winter attire, we booked a bus to Queenstown; the party capital of the South Island.

Once we got kitted out with booties and bobble hats, we could fully enjoy the surroundings of Queenstown. Set amongst the peaks and snow fields of the southern alps, Queenstown sits on the shores of the crystal clear Lake Wakatipu and has stunning views of the mountains in every direction. During the day it's peaceful bar/caffe culture is supplemented by the local 18-hole-Frisbee-golf-course and at night it lives up to it's reputation as a party hot spot. We stayed at a wicked hostel with 2 tv rooms perfect for chilling out and watching Lord of the Rings before hitting the nearby bars.

From Queenstown we also took a trip to Milford Sound on the southwest coast fiord-land. The scenery here was some of the most spectacular in the country, where the the towering mountains drop to 300m below the sea level that has now filled the fiord carved by long gone glaciers: words can't do it justice.

After tearing ourselves from Queenstown, we took a brief stop at Lake Wanaka before making our way to Glacier country. Unfortunately, relying on our opinion and out dated information, we headed to the town of Frans-Joseph to see the glacier there. We found on arrival that the glaciers retreat had caused the glacier's terminal face to become unstable: so no visits. All was not lost however and we back tracked a few miles to see the Fox Glacier; where we took a half day hike over the glacier, feeling like proper little explorers with our crampons and poles.

Further north along the west coast, we hit some bad weather before arriving at Nelson. We had planned to stop at A place called Greymouth but the power was out due to the storm. A lucky escape really as the name lends well to the character of the place and we powered on.

In nelson, we visited the stunning Able-Tasman national park; and had another day of Hiking! You may be thinking we've now seen the light in healthy living, but we were simply burning off the free chocolate pudding put on by our hostel each night.

Due to the ambiance (and free chocolate pudding) of our Nelson Hostel, we moved to their sister place in Picton for a few days. From here we rented a car and went whale watching in Kaikora, picking up a french hitch-hiker on the way. In Kaikora, we saw four sperm whales, some dusky dolphins and some rare Hector's dolphins (the smallest of the species) much to Alice's delight. On several occasions I had to restrain her from jumping overboard for a hug. Back in Picton, we went on a wine tour (no car this time) and sampled some local produce and got quite well oiled: very nice, not sure what they were but had a grand time nonetheless.

Our next move was to the inter-island ferry and off to the North Island.