We headed out of Westport towards Franz Josef village. There are two big glaciers on the west coast of the south island. One is the Fox and the other Franz Josef. We only have time for one so FJ it is. It was discovered by an Austrian chap called Haast who has a town named after him. Now you have to assume he was after something because instead of calling it the Haast glacier he named it after the emperor of Austria, Franz Josef. Anyway I digress. The west coast...

After the exhilaration of the whale watching we were heading for Westport. This was a 350 km drive from the east coast across to the west coast. The width of the island in a day. We had been told it was a superb drive. It would take us through Lewis pass at 907mtrs. The road is flanked by mountains, hills and fields. It was a long hot drive but the scenery made up for it. Our plan was to stay 2 nights in Westport. The first evening was to be restful and then on ...

We woke up in Picton to another sunny day. We had tea in bed then had another on the bench outside the camper before finally packing up and heading for Kaikoura. It started off in sunny weather then suddenly we were in the hills and the mist was there. Fabulous green rolling hills with a mist blanket. As soon as it was here it was gone and back to sunshine. We wended our way through the hills like driving in the Yorkshire Dales.Over a brow round a corner then h...

Well the site in the Hutt Valley was lovely. It was a bit out of town but very nice. We decided we would catch a bus into Hutt City for some dinner. We walked to the bus stop and arrived just in time to see the 'Hutt Valley Flyer' disappearing down the road. Who has ever heard of a bus being on time to the second........b*****. Oh well we didn't fancy a 30 minute wait so we jumped in the van and drove down there. Ok I know my lovely daughter and our two gorgeous...

As I said yesterday the weather had been misty. Overnight it had closed in as it often does in mountain areas. It had rained over night and was a blustery. We were uncertain if the walk would go ahead. As we had breakfast the mist started to lift and the drizzle eased so we became more optimistic. We had paid for a guide as although we are pretty experienced hill walkers we had no maps and no local experience of weather etc. We knew it would be a maximum 6:1 rat...