Diary of the South Island!

Here goes......a quick summary of the last few weeks............

4th April

Travelling on we headed to the west coast. Now lots of people have told us about how much in rains on the west coast and now we know they definitely weren't kidding! However, it did stop long enough for us to view pancake rocks (a geographical marvel) and the blowholes. Now the sign did say not to cross the barrier but as you can see not all of us adhered to this rule!

6th April - The Glaciers
We were going to go walking on the glaciers but sadly guess what.....it was raining and was forecast to do so for the next 3 days! So sadly we didn't have that adventure but instead we walked to the edge and were able to see a great view. Not as great as it could have been because the river had flooded and we could only do the first fifteen minutes of the walk!

7th April

We finally decided we had had enough of continuous rain and headed inland to Wanaka. A smallish town that has a great place called puzzling world. Fantastic fun with lots of optical and clever illusions. We couldn't quite capture it on camera but we had a go!

8th April

Mount Cook - amazing! The most impressive thing we have seen so far. The weather was great when we began our walk out towards the glacier at the base of the mountain. In fact it go so warm we had to take of ski jackets and jumpers. We arrived in time to see a stunning view and for David to go for a paddle in the lake.....that had huge block of ice floating in it. Within minutes of taking the photo clouds began to roll in and literally a few minutes later it began to snow! We were then very glad to have the jumpers, jackets and hats! We were so cold when we got back to the van we decided to pay a $1 for a hot shower at the department of conservation shelter. Sadly the shower turned out to be luke warm and then really quite cold - needless to say we ended up feeling colder than when we started!

9th April

Lake Tekapo - another beautiful place! It had snowed overnight so it was just beautiful.

10th April

Today we had great fun enjoying a day of white water rafting on the Rangitata River. It had 350m of grade IV rapids. The river is glacial fed so the water was a little on the chilly side! The day involved a little bit of training and then being let lose! We both had a swim voluntarily - yes we are mad. Then after negotiating and surviving the rapids we were offered the opportunity to jump of a 4m rock into the river. Both of us went for it but when it came to the 12m Zoe bowed out and let David complete the challenge - which he did!

Easter with Esther!

We arrived in Christchurch to spend some time with the lovely Esther! And what a host she was - she even let use sleep in the van in the drive!!!!! We had a great time looking around Christchurch which is a lot like Cambridge, it even has punts! We spent a sunny Easter Saturday at the beach and the Easter Sunday involved a sausage sizzle, a fantastic roast lamb and watching Charlie and the Chocolate factory. We all set off for a tour of the rest of the South Island and to give Esther the joy of life with Sheila!

15th April

We stopped further down the East coast to see the rather strange Moeraki Boulders. They are a cluster of strange boulders in the middle of the beach. It was rather alien like! Continuing on to Dunedin Esther made us go to taste some cheese and the whiskey - David just about managed! And then with two rugby fans in the van Zoe was dragged to see the Carisbrook Stadium. As we headed out of Dunedin we noticed there were quite a lot of police cars around and then we realised we were being pulled over! Fortunately we were all wearing our seat belts and the effects of the whiskey didn't show up on the breath test - we only had a little!

16th April

We camped out by Parakanau beach in Catlin National Park and the morning walk on the beach revealed two seals coming out the ocean for some time on the beach! There were brilliant to see but the sand flies were eating us so we left quite quickly! We finally made it down to the most southerly point of New Zealand - not much there really except lots of tourists and a sign post!

17th April

An early start to drive to Milford Sound. We went on a great boat journey that took us down the sounds and then out into the Tasman sea and back again. We saw some stunning views as you can see and some of us were a little silly! But is was great fun.

18th April to Date

We have been hanging around Christchurch enjoying using a kitchen, being taken out on the town and having lots of laughs as adopted housemates of Esther and Jenna! Heading back up north tomorrow.