New Zealand South Island

We arrived on the South Island via the Ferry from Wellington, and what a beautiful ferry ride it is, stunning scenery with beautiful views of the rolling hills and tree topped mountains as you head in towards Picton. A short drive down the coast into the Wine district of Marlborough, with hundreds of wineries all keen to give you free samples! we went for Cloudy Bay as that was the one we had heard of best, we were surprised at how expensive they were compared to the UK. So we just sampled the free wines. We headed further south to Kaikoura, where we booked on to a Whale Watching trip, guaranteed to see whales or your money back (well 75%). we were warned that the sailing out would be a bit rough but it was great fun, losing out stomachs, up and down. finally 17 miles out to see, we spotted our first whale and just as we found it it went down. Another 10 minutes and another Sperm Whale, this time we caught it just surfacing and we were able to just watch it breathing. It was amazing to see a fully grown male sperm whale, about 20 metres long just doing it’s thing in the sea. Then it arched it’s back, and the next ten seconds we all held our breaths, the tail came up out of the water, click, click, click of the cameras. I must have taken some 50 photos in the next 5 seconds, and wow what a sight it was too, so graceful for such a huge whale. We have been finding the South Island much easier to freedom camp, which is a nice surprise. we just parked up, close the curtains, and sleep. every morning a new view and what views they are too, from the Pacific Ocean, to Mount Cook. stunning! We went inland and headed for the West Coast, via Greymouth, where we spent a night in a small DoC (Dept of Conservation) camp site, and to find in the morning that we were allowed to pan for gold, and to our amazement we found some! only a small amount but we found some all the same. How chuffed were we :-) So with our gold we headed to the next town, and a gold shop, where they kindly took our gold and placed it in a small tub for keeping. They didn’t smirk at us either which must have been hard for them. they did let us hold a huge gold nugget which was worth some NZ$ 25,000, which was found by a tourist just panning for gold like us. Jody wanted to go back for more of course. Now we were on the West Coast the days have been a bit overcast so not really getting to see to much, so we slowed down the driving and waited for the weather to clear up. upon arriving at the Franz Josef Glacier, it was clear enough to go for a walk, and what a walk it was too. for 60 minutes you walk up to the glacier and it is huge, with a raging river running right underneath it. This was an amazing sight, it was like a living breathing glacier. The next day we visited the Fox Glacier, not as impressive, but still amazing all the same. Both of these glaciers have grown and shrunk over time, and changed shape, so each day is a slightly different day and a different formation. Next stop Queenstown, the party town of New Zealand, or should we say high activity area, with so much going on Par-ascending, helicopter rides, jetboats, steamships, and of course bungy jumping. We spent a number of days here and enjoyed the life and feel of the town, took a morning to go on the Shotover River Canyon Jetboat, and a trip to the first ever AJ Hackett Bungy Jump, which you can read on other diary pages. We headed East to Dunedin, not the most exciting city in the world, but still we made it, this is the most southerly we get on our whole journey. Dunedin is named after Edinburgh but there is nothing there to see except the peninsular and they want to charge a fortune to see anything worth seeing on it! yeah bit like Edinburgh then!! we did however find a beautiful place to camp just outside in Brighton! yes Brighton is just outside Edinburgh here and it has the most beautiful white sand beaches with nobody on them. the views in the morning were fabulous and a walk on the beach before we headed off was definitely worth it. Not staying long in Dunedin as we were not very impressed by it at all. we ventured north and came across a small fishing village called Moeraki which looked like a small Cornish place. We found Fleur’s, a lovely little restaurant with a van outside serving breakfast. all local products, eggs, bacon, and chutney, yum yum. Just up the road we found the Moeraki Boulders, huge round boulders, well worth a photo or two. We’d see the postcards everywhere and now we’ve seen the boulders. As we had time to spare we stopped in Oamaru to watch the rare Yellow Eyed Penguins. our first day and one came right up to us - within two metres. the next day we spent a good few hours waiting on the cliff edge only to see a few coming in from the water, well they are rare, how many did you expect? they were so cute the way they beached themselves with a wave, and then waddled up the beach. a priceless experience. Next stop Christchurch - a city with no Fault...! Wicked Camper Van - De La Soul Room rating: 0/10 - no bathroom, very very dirty, very very uncomfy bed, stained, smelly and disgusting Location: 10/10 - anywhere we want Staff: 5/10 - Christchurch chap very sincere when we made our complaints Value for Money: 2/10 you get what you pay for! Other comments: very expensive to run, very dirty, very uncomfortable but gives flexibility Stay again? definitely Not Ever Ever Ever as long as we live!! (until Australia)