Kia Ora

New Zealand is the most beautiful place either of us has ever been in our lives. The whole place is like home, only a million times beautiful, with mountains that still have snow on them, and lakes and rivers that are so clean, you can drink from them.

We flew in to Christchurch, which is the Garden City of New Zealand which happens to be in the Canterbury region. Our drive from the airport was really quite spooky, it was cold and a bit miserable and everywhere we looked it was just like being in the UK – I think we thought we’d see someone we knew at any given point, just because it really did look all so familiar. The main river through Christchurch is the River Avon, and it’s flanked by Cambridge terrace on one bank and Oxford terrace on the other, and there was even some geezer in a boater, punting along. We did a bit of exploring and managed to find an 18 hole indoor crazy golf place called Caddyshack city which was wicked, unfortunately not themed on the movie, but every hole was great (no photos allowed though). We also went to the International Antarctic Centre, which was really interesting; we saw some more penguins and even got to experience a simulated arctic storm in a big ice room, which was bloody cold! On the exhibition complex is also an American air base, as this is the major departure point for International Arctic scientist (its right next to Christchurch airport)

The following day was “CV” day, time to pick up the campervan. Up until this point, Tash had been pretty okay with the idea of getting the camper that was until she saw the size of the van we had hired, and freaked. It was slightly bigger than either of us had anticipated – nearly 20 ft long, 10 ft high and about 7 ft wide. But it has got everything inside it:- Shower, toilet, permanent double bed, double sofa bed, table, tv, computer, microwave, hob, grill etc.


We spent our first night in a campsite in Christchurch, where we got a free hour in a spa, which was a bonus. Next day we travelled in-land, alongside the steep mountain range (the Southern Alps), and through Burkes Pass which is about 2/3 mile above sea level. On past Fairlie (where we eventually stayed that night) and up to Lake Tekapo, which was breathtakingly beautiful. The water was an amazing turquoise colour and it was surrounded by pebbled rocks and pine trees, with the Alps as a backdrop. The late afternoon sun only served to make it more spectacular. Nearby was a quaint little church and also a monument to the Border Collies used in the local area.

Next stop was Dunedin, which is Scottish for Edinburgh, so why on earth Edinburgh isn’t called Dunedin I don’t know. Anyway, this was quite a hilly little place but home to the only castle in NZ – Lanarch Castle. Nothing compared to the huge castles in Blighty but it was an amazing pieces of restoration work seeing as it had been left to rot for most of the early 1900s. However as the mist started to roll in we left Dunedin to head along the Southern Scenic highway, to find our furthest point from home...