We had a long drive today but stopped at quite a few places along the way. We stopped and saw some seals which were pretty cool and they were quite active. Then we drove along one of the most scenic drives in the world which went along the west coast if the South Island. It was really beautiful and the road went right by the water front. Our next stop was a Punakaiki where we did a short walk to see the 'pancake rocks and blowholes'. It was quite interesting. The...

We got picked up in Picton yesterday in the kiwi mini bus and took the scenic route down to kaiteriteri. We went via Nelson. The bus driver took us to his family home and they gave us party pies and cake. It was great. We then stopped at a winery and the oldest pub in New Zealand before making our way to the hostel. When we arrived we had dinner and showered then came last in a pub quiz. This morning we left mid morning and stopped at Nelson Lakes National Park....

Today we went out and explored Picton. It is a beautiful town on the edge of the water with the mountains surrounding the sides of it. There's a marina with boats in and it is just stunning! This is what I imagined all of New Zealand to be like. It's so picturesque! I just wanted to take photos of everything. In the afternoon we went on a winery tour seeing as we were in Marlborough. Our driver was very informative about the surrounding areas and the wine. The wh...

We arrived in Wellington to the worst weather on record since 1968 when a ship sank. So, the Ferry to cross the Cook Strait was cancelled. As we don't have much time we booked the short flight over to try and get on the original bus we should have been on on the other side. However, when we arrived at Wellington airport the airport was closed so we got rescheduled for today's flight giving us a day in windy Wellington. And windy it was! We nearly got blown over m...

We left Taupo and drove around the lake to Tongariro National Park. It is New Zealand's oldest national park and was given by the Maori chief Te Heuheu Tukino to the New Zealand people on the condition that it be made a national park in 1867. A lot of the filming for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was filmed in this national park. The park is dominated by three large volcanoes: Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. We got off the bus at Whakapapa and did a walk to the...