All good things come to an end.

A mute day in the wilderness of Rangitata did nothing but prepare us for the scenic ride to Kaikoura. The all-encompassing coastal views got hearts racing as the Stray bus veered towards the edges of cliffs and back. We had become accustomed to the erratic driving of certain tour guides by now, so the mine-cart steering did not detract from the aerial view of Seals bathing in the fading sun. We stopped at one of the Southern Fur Seal family hangouts and managed...

After rubbing the sleep from our eyes in the shadow of Mount Cook, we set off on the leg of the journey that should have led to Christchurch. Unfortunately the February earthquake had rendered the majority of the city unsafe to visit, and accommodation was still impossible to come by. We were both looking forward to visiting the little English town in the middle of New Zealand, and it's a big shame for the paralysed tourist industry that the region so desperate...

Aoraki (Mount Cook) had been a looming distant presence since our first sight of it whilst rolling out of Franz Joseph. The highest mountain in the Southern Alps (and the rest of the country for that matter) sticks out like a long, jagged canine from a gum of stumpy molars. As a backdrop to a bus journey from Queenstown it serves as a great distraction. Being the poster-boy peak of New Zealand though, Mount Cook is the go-to image for guidebook covers and touri...

We didn't like leaving Wanaka, but we loved the journey out. We were shown some more locations from Lord Of The Rings - mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls - all within a short drive from Queenstown so that the cast and crew could be shuttled in and out with ease. We were also shown the site of the worlds first commercial bungy jump which was invented by a couple of Kiwis. A.J.Hackett is still a pioneer in the Jump-Off-Everything-With-Nothing-But-A-Chord-Around-...