So we boarded the ferry for the South Island and took the 3 hour sail to Picton through the stunning Marlborough Sound, whilst I had my nose in Harry Potter Pops was able to see dolphins. It was a gloriously sunny day and the scenery was spectular. Arriving in Picton we just drove on to Blenheim(this place was the sunniest in NZ in 2007) in order to prepare ourselves for the wine tasting tour at the massive Montana Winery on Saturday. We learnt about how the grapes were grown and wine made and sent to Auckland for bottling.

We then drove on to Nelson where we stayed in a lovely forrest retreat campsite, where we made friends with a duck by the fatalmistake of feeding it a slice of bread, it would nt leave the side of the van then but was fun watching Pops trying to chase it away, but not so much fun when it woke us at 6am quacking and knocking on the van door with its beak!!

Driving on towards the west coast stopping at greymouth for lunch and further south along the coast to hokitiki. Stopping en route at shantytown which is an old 1860's settlement from the gold rush, it was well worth the stop as we got to ride on a steam train and pan for gold, what a tedious task this is but we got to keep the flecks of gold as a souvenier.

Next stop (in the rain) was the Franz Josef glacier, unfortunatly due to weather and safety conditions we could not get right up to the glacier but still got some walking and awesome views. Driving onwards just 15miles was our next stop at the Fox Glacier (there are over 300 glacier in NZ but these 2 are the accessable). Weather still not great with low cloud but we walked right up to touch the ice. Hungry for more we decided the only way was up so we booked a helicopter flight that was cancelled 3 times, hard decision to stay and wait for a change in weather or drive on and stick to scheldule. We took the gamble and waited overnight, and it was well worth the wait as we boarded the helicopter at 7am for fantastic aerial views of the glaciers and Mount Cook (the highest peak in nz), we landed on the snow and were very lucky to watch the sun rise over the mountains, wow.

Eventually leaving the glaciers a day behind time we drove on to Haast, and over the Haast pass which is the most spectacular drive ever, through mountians and crystal clear sheer blue water lakes, stunning!! Wanaka is a lovely little snow township around a lake, however we did not stay here for long as we had to get onwards to Queenstown. WOW my favourite place, it is known as the blackpool of nz, but i though amazing. A real good buzz around, beautiful and lots of activities on offer. I couldnt persuade Pops to do the bungy as we watched people throw themselves off a bridge at the original AJ Hackett bungy, still wanting some adrenaline bumping we did the Shotover Jet experience. Which was a jet boat through the shotover river, reaching speeds of upto 80kmph through gorges skimming rocks and doing 360degree turns, its was wicked!! Visits to good scottish place names cardrona and glenorchy completed the day.

Leaving the buzz of Queenstown heading for our next destination Te Anau, which is the town at the gateway to Milford Sound. We booked into a campsite and drove out to Millford, driving on roads that could resemble a roller coaster and going through a tunnell under the mountain, great fun tho and well worth the trek out. We took to the water on a cruise ship that took us all theway through the sound out to the Tasman sea, absolutly stunning, and again we were v lucky to have the sun shining. We managed to spot a whole pod of bottlenose dolphins, and loads of NZ sealions, sunbathing! Another box ticked, the fiords were a must do visit whilst in nz. Seriously no words I can use to describe the scenery we have seen here will do it justice.

Now in Invercargill we have driven right to Lands End today so as far south as we possibly could get!

The road trip as you can tell is going very well indeed, we have managed over 3200km's already and are kean to do more back up the east coast. Loving every minute of NZ and every aspect.....

Love to everyone xxxxx