Today we drove the 24km to te Anau and are staying in the village centre. Late afternoon we went by catamaran across Lake te Anau(the 2nd largest in NZ) to the glow worm caves. What a fantastic experience. The cave is a cavernous wilderness of twisting turning falling gushing water travelling at astonishing speed through tthe rocks and down to the lake. The vegetation outsidethe caves is rainforest and the geology of the caverns reflects the collision of the tect...

10.02.11 Mount Cook to ManapouriWe left Mount Cook, White Horse Hill Campsite, at 8am. The sun was shining on the mountains and visibility was clear all round. We called at Twizel just to see what it is like….small, clean and tidy!!! We stopped for coffee overlooking lake Dunstan North of Cromwell where we stopped at our favourite New World Supermarket and stocked up for the next few days. The next part of the drive took us through The Kawarau Gorge an old gold...

07.02.11 Journey from Moeraki to Mount CookIt rained all last night and stopped by 11am this morning. When the papers arrived in Moeraki at 11.30am we were able to look at the 4 day weather forecast for the various areas. Based on the fact that Mount Cook area is looking fine for Weds and Thursday we headed towards Twizel and then Mount Cook. We are at the camp ground right up in the mountains with a fabulous view of the mountains. The Rangers had to dig some peo...

We arrived in Christchurch around noon, swaped our tiny car for a giant camper van, filled it with food and drink, met Liz and Jim at the airport at 4.30pm ...they'd come in from Thailand. Tonight we are making pizzas in Liz's friends family outdoor pizza oven and are 'camping on their drive! We arrived in Christchurch around lunch time, swapped the car for the enormous van did a provisions shop, met Liz and Jim at the airport and followed her friend Viv and he...

03.02.11 Kaikoura Whale and Seal WatchingWell, despite the 25knot wind the captain decided to take his speedy boat out to see the whales. Half the proposed passengers decided against going as the sea was rough and the whales were 19miles off shore. It was an adventure trip getting there, and even more fun trying to hang on when the boat stopped beside a big whale…the rocking and rolling meant that photography was almost impossible, but it didn't matter. The wha...