We definitely like the South Island, its such a lot prettier than up north, but there are about 5 people on the whole island, so you can drive for quite a while and not see any towns or houses or anything. Mark has even managed to stomach the local delicacy of whitebait (a fish you eat whole, bones, eyes,tail and all) not me though, ewwwwww.

When we left Golden bay, we headed down the west coast to a place called Westport, which prides itself on being typically kiwi, the way the towns used to be. To me it seemed like the rest of the world had passed it by. Dusty streets and old boarded shops. We didn’t stay here long enough even for a cup of tea, and drove further south to a little beach cove for the night.  Unfortunately we got eaten by the sandflies (mini mosquitos) here which are so itchy!! In a typical fashion I had a bad reaction to a bite and my foot swelled up and wouldn’t fit in my shoe. It was still itchy a week later, and I think I will have a permanant scar on my foot now!

Futher south the next day ( Sunday 23rd) We made it to the Franz Joseph Glacier
which was truly awe inspiring. It’s like the slowest avalanche down a hillside, which is thousands of years old. It took around an hour to walk across the dry river bed to the face of the glacier. We sat here for a bit (not too close!!) watching peices of ice slipping forward and rocks falling from the top. You could see where the ice had scraped big ’s’ shapes out of the rock walls on its way past. We decided to stay in Franz Jospeh for another day, cos Mark was itching to go on the cross country quad bikes here. This was really funny, bouncing around the rivers and through the forests, and getting some fantastic views of the mountains.

We moved futher south again to Haast pass, where you can get through the Southern Alps without having to climb any mountains, and arrived in Wanaka on Tuesday 25th (i think). Unfortunatley, on the way into town we had a tyre blow up, there was literally a massive hole in the tyre, which we think was dodgy to start with. Of course it happened while I was driving so it was my fault! Poor Mark had to change the tyre on a steep hill, and got covered in dust muck and grease.

When we finally got into town, we made ourselves feel better with the BIGGEST pub lunch I have ever seen. Mark ended up with a full rack of ribs i.e half a pig and roast potatoes, and I had a ploughmans lunch with a whole loaf of bread! So we spent the rest of the day lazing in the sun with big fat bellies!

In Wanaka we also had our first rude awakening by a council traffic worker, who told us off for parking on the street overnight – they want you to pay for a campsite everytime, so we had to drive around at 5 in the morning to find somewhere quiet. We haven’t had any problems with that before. After having a flat tyre we took the van in for a service, so had a whole day with no home, and decided to try the jetboats whilst in Wanaka, which we had heard a lot about. This was loads of fun. They take you out at high speeds and do lots of spins and swerves around rocks and things. Mark sat at the edge and got wet and cold hehe.

On Thursday we headed to Cardrona, one of the ski resorts in the Southern alps, which is supposed to be good for beginners and intermediates. After a few mishaps ( I dropped one ski off the chair lift, twisted my ankle and fell over at the top of the mountain trying to get off the chair lift, and then both took different ski routes to each other by mistake) we had lots of fun!! The snow is a bit slushy now, as it is getting warmer by the day, but it was enough to get by on. We have both got a bit of sunburn now. We drove onto Queenstown, where we are now, and had a few beers to get over the muscle aches!

Queenstown is really lovely, yesterday we spent a bit of time walking around town and having a nosy in ye olde sweet shoppe, where we had vimto ( I forgot how much I love this! they dont have it here!!) the town is set on another lake, with mountains all around. It is very modern, and another contender in the top ten of places to live in New Zealand. We even went up the gondola to Bobs peak to get a good view of town. They took some really silly pics of us going up, which I will add on when I have the access codes ( they email to you) At the top is a luge circuit ( little carts you sit in and steer like a bike) so of course we had a go!! Mine was broken and kept stopping, and all the little kids were laughing at me thinking I was scared There were bungy jumps from the top of this peak as well, but we aren’t brave enough yet! We are staying for another night here, so you never know!! I have updated some pics here so have a nosy if you can.

Hope you are all well, Happy Birthday Vicki, hope you have a good un!
Missing you all,

Gill and Mark
xox

Made it across to the South Island on Saturday, after a three hour ferry crossing. I was  feeling seasick for most of it, and Mark spent most of the trip at the front of the ship watching the scenery and being blown away by the fierce winds of the Cook Straight.

 Landed at Picton, which is a cute fishing village, stopped in a campsite overnight to get our washing done, and the other boring stuff we can’t do on the road. On Sunday we set off through Blenheim, which was a bit bland and boring to me. Everything was closed and it seemed like a ghost town.  We decided to carry on to Nelson straight away, where we spent Sunday evening and Monday.

 This was somewhere that I wouldn’t mind living, although I’m not sure Mark was as keen. There was a lovely stretch of beach and a good view of the mountains, as well as some good shops finally! We were both feeling a bit tired and run down, its harder to travel around by campervan than you might imagine, and we are both craving home comfots by now, so a few days at the seaside is in order, which is where we are now in Collingwood, on the Golden Bay.

Today we have had excellent weather,  the sun is scorching in this area, and we have been for a bit of an explore of the place, to see an ancient graveyard of the first settlers here, and a hilltop lookout. We are just enjoying some smoothies in a cafe now, with the owners cat wrapped around Marks legs. I think we will spend a few days relaxing here before we set off down the West coast. I dont know how often we will get internet access, but will say hi when we can.

Hope you are all well,

love from Gill and Mark

xox

hello ,

Arrived in Wellington yesterday pm ( Monday) and have to say this is one of the most interesting cities I’ve ever visited! It beats Auckland hands down really, and all the other towns we have seen on the north island. There is such a mix of different architecture for a start. One minute you are walking down a brand new shopping arcade, and then a few 100 year old wooden houses pop up, and a brick cathedral from 1866! There are Spanish and Italian-style villas dotted around the harbour on the hills that lead down to the sea and I want to live there!! (Unfotunately it is the most expensive area in New Zealand to buy property on the hills, so I doubt it!)

 You can have a walk around really quirky districts like Cuba street, which is kind of how Afflecks Palace used to be, but spread over a large area. We had lunch today in a bar called Ernestos, a kind of cuban bar with really good food and music, I recommend it if you ever visit!

You can even walk around the Parliament buildings and their gardens, lots of people seemed to head here to eat their lunches, and the sun was actually shining as well! We of course went up on the cable car to the botanical gardens at the top of Mount Victoria, and had a walk back down, past all the university buildings. I think it would be a great place to go to uni in. We are currently parked in an overnight car park by the sea front, which was a bit windy last night. I think the city has a reputation for being windy all year, and we both have bright red cheeks to prove it!

We stopped for coffee along the sea front this morning, and the guy serving was telling us that his family is from Ludlow, and that they were related to William the Conqueror, and mates with William of Orange, so if the stories my nan told about our family are true, we might have long-lost, ten-times removed relatives here!!

prob going to head to the cinema tonight, see whats on, or maybe have a few drinks. Im craving icecream, so will partake in that if we see a stall. I Dont have any pics to upload today, as I forgot to take it with us today, but below is a decent website about Wellington, with better pics than I could take!

hope you are all well,

lots of love from Mark and Gill

xox

Wellington website

Hallo again!

From Napier we made our way back up the coast to a city called Gisborne, which is a pretty quiet town. It has historical value to New Zealand, as it was the fisrt landing place of Captain Cook and his ship in 1769. We only spent a day here, as there wasn’t much to do really. We looked at flat screen tvs for about 2 hours, trying to decide whether to put one in the van!! I really want one, but we hardly get a decent radio signal as it is

We drove on from Gisborne on Monday, through a scenic gorge called Waioeke, and had a lovely picnic there in the sun. We eventually arrived in Whakatane, on the southern part of the Bay of Plenty. This was our favourite town so far, and we bumped into a lady from Leeds here, who had just moved out to New Zealand herself. There are really pretty pastel-coloured weatherboard houses here, and a nice walk along the seafront.

We treated ourselves to a campsite here for once so we could wash our smelly clothes! We had been told that a town called Hamilton, nearer to Auckland, was a good place to live, so we set off for there on Tuesday.

It is a bigger city than we have seen further south, but it was too industrial for my liking, with a rubbish shopping area too, and the rain didn’t help! Funnily enough we ran into someone here that we met in the hot pools at Napier the week before. It’s like living in the Truman show, you see the same people over and over, but I spose NZ has a small population.

After Hamilton, we made our way to the West Coast, and a little surfing village called Raglan. We only spent one night here, as we were hoping to go to the glow-worm caves at Waitomo the next day. This was a really great experience. We thought it was a bit expensive but decided to go in anyway. The first caves were really eerie, with waxy-looking stalagtites and stalagmites everywhere, and a really low ceiling. The guide took us through a maze of tunnels and up and down loads of flights of stairs, into one cave called the Cathedral, where they have christmas carol concerts!!

When we got into the second cave, we had to step in to a boat and float along the river into a pitch black hole, where thousands of glow-worms were attached to the ceiling. They looked like little green stars, very cool!

We left Waitomo on Thursday and arrived in New Plymouth the same night. We have found the local swimming pool for a bit of a swim and a hot spa – which is luxury compared to the cold water showers we have by the side of the road!! there is a rather unusual art peice on the coast here called the Wind Wand, it sways around in the breeze all day and night..Further up the coast is the Sugar Loaf Reserve, where we stopped at sunset to watch the flocks of birds come in to roost – there we so many of them! Today we have had a look round the shops and I was so chuffed to find out that New Zealand stock shoes in my size in normal shoe shops, and go up to a size 12 here for ladies! Imelda Marcos is going to have nothing on me from now on!

Sorry to hear about your foot Jane, I bet that really hurt! It makes me shudder at the thought. At least it has got Matt doing some jobs tho eh!

Glad to hear you didnt get into too much trouble at Leeds Garry and Leanne, I dont know if they have music festivals here, they do have concerts all over the place of American and British bands, we watched the Editors in Auckland in a tiny venue, but they definately have sheep shearing contests!! We drove through the sheep shearing capital of the World the other day! The 16 times champ lives there!!

Hi Mick and Cath, glad to see you here too! No we are not missing Englad, but we are missing the people lots.

Anyway Im off to get some tea, Im starving after spening all day shopping, and Mark is busy checking his shares! Hope you are all well, lots of love from
Mark and Gill xox