Hello New Zealand

12 Feb 09
After seven months we bid farewell to Sydney and arrived to a cold, wet and grey Christchurch, New Zealand. It's the largest city in the South Island but still tiny by our reckoning. Felt a bit like a small northern town back home in the UK which is sort of what I was expecting. It was too wet to go punting on the River Avon or visit the Botanic Gardens and besides, having just picked up our Jucy Cruiza camper van we were keen to hit the road.

A little about the van: it's not big but we can stand up in it and has all we need to cook with, space to store our bags and traveling literature (almost the first thing we did was buy a giant road atlas and Rough Guide as we're tired of the Lonely Planet's writing style which makes everything sound good even if it's rubbish), a safe, and crucially, a large foldaway bed so we can sleep fairly comfortably, although Ric got a bad back on the second night and we needed a heater as it's so frigging cold in the early hours and there's a gap in the door where my head rests. It's pretty easy and relatively cheap (NZ$30 ish per night) to pitch up at campsites, plug in to the mains and use the communal facilities they provide. Nothing is fancy but that suits us fine. For now. Navigating this country is also a doddle. I'm glad we didn't cycle now I have seen the hills and long long roads in to the wilderness.

So off we drove westerly from Christchurch to the small waterside town of Akaroa. There are sheep everywhere you look and a very arid and yellow landscape there with an impressive abundance of rolling hills and sometimes mountains. It's strange to drive in a country so sparsely populated. One hardly passes any cars and most of those are fellow camper vans and giant motor homes! Since the Akaroa wss shut by the time we got there at 5pm (we got up horribly late on Friday) we headed to Lyttelton, a port town across the water, where we stayed a night. There's definitely an older more serious kind of traveler in New Zealand. And lots of scary looking, hairy Germans dressed head to foot in tight fitting spandex or thermals with socks and sandals and hiking sticks. Quite a few famillies too and many of them Kiwis (haven't spotted any of the Kiwi birds yet - there are 6 varieties apparently and all rare).

14/02/09
Day three, on through Lincoln (so small and yet it even has a university), Rakaia River and Gorge, then to Lake Tekapo as recommended by my sister who was here only last week. The sun finally came out for us just as we arrive at the beautiful and vast Lake Tekapo. I've never seen anything quite like it what with its bright blue water and mountainous backdrop. This country has a bit of Wales, Scotland, the tropics and Switzerland all rolled in to one. The people are very friendly too, though Ric doesn't think the girls are as hot as the Aussies.

We ate our Valentine's Day (also our 2nd anniversary) dinner in an almost deserted Chinese restaurant in Tekapo town. Ric gave me the most gorgeous gift of an opal necklace which perfectly matches the ones my dad gave me for Christmas. I don't feel worthy of his kindness, love or patience. I'm buying him a fishing rod, when we can find a good shop.

15/02/09
This morning we got up much earlier than the previous two (ie. 9am as opposed to 11.30) and went for a swim in the local 'hot springs' just down the road from the campsite (not geothermal ones as we'd hoped but heated and chlorinated spring water - so essentially a swimming pool - good enough for me!). Then we went for a hike up Mount John and the Observatory and saw our first snow capped mountains. We're certinly meeting our daily exercise quota. My thighs kill in the mornngs.

Continuing through the MacKenzie region we drove north-westerly to the Mount Cook Region (where Kiwi hero Sir Edmund Hillary once climbed and this tiny town is clearly devoted to him), past the enormous Lake Pukaki.

More huge and quite ominous looking mountains loomed over us as we approached - these ones partially obscured by dark cloud, fog and snow. There are glaciers here too. We did another hike which involved walking a narrow swaying planked bridge to get across a gorge - not for the faint hearted. It's amazing how mountains affect the weather in a place and also not surprising to lern that many climbers have lost their way and their lives in these parts.

We then drove on south to Twizel, a very quaint town built in 1968 as a greenfields project to service the Upper Waitaki Hydroelectricity Scheme. it was intended to be removed once the project had been completed but in 1983 its residents successfully fought to save the town where it now caters for a lot of the Mt Cook visitors. I wonder what sort of money you can make running a camp site? All you need is some space and a couple of make shift kitchens and some toilet and shower facilities. Easy money.
The area boasts one of the world's cleanest, driest and darkest skies, and has long drawn astronomers to Twizel and the surrounding area.

We're swapping music but R' not as tolerant of my 'vagina indie rubbish' as I am of his '70s soft rock. We both enjoy Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles and the Kings of Leon as well as the odd smattering of Bright Eyes and Bob Dylan.

16/02/09
Now further south in Oamaru which we reached via several dams and power stations which Ric insisted we pull over to photograph. I can't say I'm blown away by these.

Oamaru is the nicest city we've been to so far and the camp site is next to a gorgeous public park. I am keeping up my daily running. There s some interesting, older architecture here and a great cheese factory where Ric tasted and stocked up on some Whitestone cheeses.

We then went off to see the local blue penguins later that night. No cameras allowed unfortunately. Seems to be getting colder the further south we go and we keep bumping in to the same tourists. Got stuck in a ditch when some idiot parked too close to us so we were in the mud waiting an hour for them to come back and reverse!

We're getting the hang of this camping malarkey, though I can see we'll be sick off it by the end of this 6 weeks. Hope we aren't going to fast. But then that's us - never like to be bored for one minute.