We drove (well when I say we, I mean Anne did the majority today). Highlights of the day include emptying the s*** from our mega bus and the constant unwavering rain. Leaving the rain forest landscape of Franz we headed into terrain much like the Lakes, but on a monster scale. I'm out a day, but some of the rivers on the way to Franz are worth mentioning as they looked like they were made of raspberry slush puppy without the ice (that's a convaluted way of sayin...

If I was a god fearing man the portents for my next 30 years were not looking good. We woke early to a torrential downpour which very quickly became unrelenting and came as a bit of a surprise after the days of sunshine preceding it during my happy go lucky year of 29. After opening my biffday cards and my one and only pressie, which was a lovely photo album of my first thirty years upon this lucky planet (thanks mum) - anne promises me the rest are back in th...

Do something that scares you everyday ....today, we decided to two things. Day 4 - Having not been murdered by a 'scumbeerg' (as a taxi driver calls them) I woke up at the crack of dawn to welcome in the new day to the sound of birds singing. I promptly then joined Anne back in slumber land; we then reawoke and got up at a more respectable time to start our day. We had already made good hedway the night before into the pass and our first stop was Cave stream on B...

Our clock is all out and we were up early at 6.45 to pack and have a quick breakfast before taxi at 7.40. Managed it on time and breakfast was yummy. Taxi took us to near the airport to pick up our home for next 6 days, the camper van. We even arrived before they opened! We went through the motions to learn about how it worked, gas, battery, loo and soon we were the proud owners of a vw campervan! Rob drove us out of the lot to start our journey to kaikoura and...

Day 1. Christchurch We arrived on time after a surprisingly bearable flight only to have the realisation that I had to part with my chocs upon landing for bio rules. Boo. Never mind, we passed through customs without the 400dollar fine as a result so all ok. Seemed a bit expensive for 2 bags of minstrels! We thought about a bus but taxi seemed quickest option and we were at hotel in under an hour from landing. Hotel was lovely and our room had a fab big bed whi...