Friday 27th November Central South Island - Tekapo to Banks Peninsula Despite our careful selection of a sheltered spot we were still woken in the night by the van being buffeted and by the noise of rain and thunder. We could see lightning through the skylights above our heads. As expected, we woke to torrential rain. The lake and mountains had disappeared in the grey fog, although we could still see our fir trees and the pebbly beach. We enjoyed a cosy mo...

Thursday 26th November Mount Cook and Tasman Glacier. We continued our journey up to Mount Cook from our river side camp, and, having browsed the DOC information centre and picked up some maps and leaflets, we sat down to breakfast and planned our day. The weather forecast featured heavily in our discussion. Severe gale force winds expected this afternoon, currently 80km/hr rising to 153km/hr later. There was also mention of thunderstorms, heavy rains and even...

Wednesday 25th November Otago Central Rail Trail - Wedderburn to Middlemarch. Waking up in our remote lay-by was a slightly odd experience but passing farmers on tractors and lorry drivers with trailers of timber, paid no attention to us, except to wave cheerily. We were up and off swiftly in any case as we had another big day today. Off to Middlemarch to pick up our tandem and catch the 8.30 shuttle to Wedderburn, in the Maniototo region, under the shadow o...

Tuesday 24th November Papatowai beach was quite remarkable. From the campsite the short path lead down through wind sculpted trees to the side of the sandy estuary. As we ran out to the sea the early morning sun was rising up through misty haze that hovered over the breaking surf. There were oyster catchers calling on the shore and bellbirds and tuis chiming in the forest. As the tide and the river flowed out to sea, we watched, fascinated, as a small tidal wav...

Monday 23rd November Southland - The Catlins Coastal Rainforest Park. The south coast was a very wild and windswept place. Despite our sheltered spot in the dunes we were buffeted a lot during the night. On waking it was some time before we could think of a good enough reason to do anything other than sit up in bed watching the surf! The motivation arrived in the form of more sunny weather. The sandy beach had a curious tump called Monkey Island used by ancie...