With no tv reception we entertained ourselves last night by playing I spy, that was until Deb spied something starting with W and it turned out to be "hole" in the wall!! We set off by car this morning by about 7.45am enroute to Queenstown. It was low cloud and drizzling rain until around 10am. Then the sun came out and it was a pleasant drive of changing landscapes, beside clear blue lakes, sheep farms and brown snow capped mountains. We arrived at the Novotel Q...

Our ice walk doesn't start until 1.30pm so spent the morning at Lake Matheson. It took about an hour and half to do the circuit of the lake through lovely rain forest and reflective views over the lake to the snow capped mountains of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook. We were really lucky with the weather as it held out and we had a fine afternoon for our walk on the ice. Our guide Tim led us up the side of the glacier and then we strapped on our crampons and walked up some...

Today we travelled from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast by train. Really was a quite spectacular ride with some amazing views of the southern alps. After we left Arthur's Pass the weather closed in and we had low clouds and drizzle. We picked up our hire car and the six of us just fitted in and we set off for Fox Glazier. It was a windy old drive, still with low cloud and drizzle. Hopefully we have fine weather for our ice walk tomor...

Today we travelled from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast by train. Really was a quite spectacular ride with some amazing views of the southern alps. After we left Arthur's Pass the weather closed in and we had low clouds and drizzle. We picked up our hire car and the six of us just fitted in and we set off for Fox Glazier. It was a windy old drive, still with low cloud and drizzle. Hopefully we have fine weather for our ice walk tomor...

We were woken last night by a siren, which worried us a little at first as we thought maybe it was a tsunami warning siren. But it was just the rural fire brigade alarm, so we could stay in our warm beds and go back to sleep. After a nice night at the FishTank we took a walk along the water front in search of seals. Kaikoura is a nice little seaside town with plenty of holiday accommodation. The big tourist attraction is the seals and whale watching. The beach d...