Driving north along the west coast

camper van that they couldn't stay here and if they didn't move the fine is $400. As he drove off I could see his van had stickers advertising a local camp site, so I swear he was moving people on so they would pay to stay at his place. We did move on anyway, about 5kms north was another rest area in a slightly more remote place where we didn't get any distruptions!

Today we have covered a lot of mileage driving north towards the Abel Tasman National Park, which apparently has some even more impressive scenery that can be explored by kayak on its rivers. We have stopped often but only for quick breaks and sight seeing.

One small village we passed, of no more then about 10 houses, we saw a sign saying 'Somebody's Treasures'. Izzy, being a fiend for charity shops and car boot sales obviously wanted to have a look inside. I think the building was an old church, that was full to the brim with second hand tat.

A couple of hours on, we stopped at a 'swingbridge' over the gorge that the road had been following. Normally my vertigo would kick in whilst walking over a thin single width bridge that you could see through down to the water below, but the skydive in Queenstown must have done me some good as I was fine crossing it. I even stopped to take some photos!

Our final stop for the day was at cafe/animal park for a quick drink. While you drink your coffee, you get to feed farm animals.

Franz Josef Glacier

Today me and Izzy took a half-day trip to Franz Josef Glacier. SImilar to Fox Glacier, you can walk free of charge up to the bottom of the ice, however to get onto the ice you need to be on a guided tour. It was $123, but also included entrance to the Glacier Hot Pools which are some mineral hot pools just down the road from the glacier.

We arrived at the tour guide centre at about 8.15am to be kitted out with our boots, waterproofs and crampons, and by half eight were crammed onto a bus to head to the glacier. For the half-day trip we got to spend about an hour and a half on the ice - a lot of time is taken up by walking to the ice from the car park. Even though the glacier looks only a ten minute walk away, it is actually a good 2kms over rocks and takes around 45 minutes, but the 2000ft mountains behind it make it look like it's a lot closer than it actually is.

As we got close to the ice we stopped to fit the crampons to our boots. Every morning tour guides go onto the ice to cut out steps for the day's tours, and these routes change daily as the ice is constantly moving.

Our guide for the day, Caleb, had to stop every so often to chip away at the ice and help keep the steps formed. The route cut through massive gorges of ice and tunnels made from warm air and water. A lot of the formations of ice were only made in the last week, and will change again within the next week. Standing on the rocks away from the ice, these gorges looked quite small, but on the glacier we soon realised how huge they were, as we walked through them they towered above us.

We arrived back in town around 12:30pm, and as we were collecting our vouchers for the hot pools I noticed Peter's (who we met in Australia) name written on a post it note. Turns out he's in town too, so we met up with him, and we'll probably hang around for another day or so before moving on north to the rest of the west coast.

West Coast & Fox Glacier

We headed north out of Queenstown along the west coast, and have now covered a total of over 3250kms (almost 2000miles). We stopped a few times along the way, mostly when we have been crossing the single lane bridges over massive gorges and rapids. We stopped early evening in the nice little town of Wanaka for some food and a sleep. I hope you're not getting bored with all the photos of lakes and rivers yet!

Yesterday we travelled further north towards Fox Glacier, stopping at Thunder Creek Falls and a beach. I'm not sure of the name of the beach but there were signs on the road leading up to it warning of debris in the road during storms. The sand was littered with masses of broken trees and smashed rocks. Our last stop for the day was Fox Glacier. There are day trips to walk on Fox Glacier, but we're going to hold off until Franz Josef Glacier which is another 30kms on.

Last night we slept in another free DOC camp site on Gillespies Beach, near Lake Matheson. The lake was perfectly still and perfectly reflected the mountains behind it. It's a shame it's been overcast because it would have looked even more impressive to see the snowcapped mountain tops that were hidden in the cloud. Today we have driven to Franz Josef Glacier, and fingers crossed it will brighten up a bit, so that hopefully we can take a walk on the glacier and see some blue ice.

My Skydive over Queenstown

Today I did one of the scariest things I have ever done, jumped out of a plane at 12,000ft over Queenstown. I was really considering doing something different like paragliding off a mountain, but I have come all this way and to not do it would just be silly! Nzone, the company I did the jump with, were brilliant too - nice facilities, good equipment and friendly people, all of which gave me confindence to trust them with my life!

It all happened so quickly. We drove up there at around 10am and asked when they could fit me in and within 20 minutes I was in the harness and being briefed on what to do. Another 15 minutes later we were 12,000ft in the air with the door open. I was strapped to the front of Ralph (the guy pulling the parachute for me and in charge of making sure I don't die), who edged forwards to the door. He sat on the edge of the plane, meaning I was dangling outside in the 'banana position' as they call it with my head and legs back. After three he jumped out and we were facing the earth travelling at 130mph. The force on your body is incredible!

After about 45 seconds Ralph pulled the parachute and we slowed down enough that we could talk. It was quite chilled out at this point after the intense free fall, although I was still hanging off the front of another guy at about 6,000ft. As we got closer to the ground he pulled the cords on the parachute to spin us round from left to right, which again puts a lot of g-force on your body, but by this point it was awesome fun.

Tonight we're driving further north up the west coast, not sure where exactly yet though.

Queenstown

We arrived in Queenstown this morning, it was roughly an 80km drive on from the rest stop that we camped in last night. I think both me and Izzy agree that Queenstown is the nicest town we have visited so far in New Zealand; it feels like we are in a town set in the middle of the Alps. The snowcapped mountains surround the town in all directions and most of the buildings are very modern and made from materials like slate and wood.

The main tourist attractions in the area are bungy jumps, sky dives, and jet boat rides. We took the Skyline Gondola cable car to the top of Coronet Peak for a view over the town. I was really considering on paragliding down from the top of the mountain, but I think seeing as how I have come so far I may as well go the whole hog and do a sky dive from 12,000ft. It's about $550 (£275) with a DVD of video and photos, so although it's a lot cheaper than doing this sort of thing in England it's going to be a fair dent in my travel money; oh well, you only live once. Fingers crossed that the weather will be as nice tomorrow as it has been today, otherwise I might wait until we get back to Lake Taupo and sky dive there instead.

The plan is to stay here for another day or so then start heading north to Fox Glacier.

Milford Sound

After my last post we carried on driving towards Te Anau, which has the only road leading to Milford Sound. As we got within 20kms we took a slight detour and headed south to Lake Manapouri to spend the night there in one of the many rest stops along the roads. We woke up early to go and catch the sunrise over the lake with the snowcapped mountains in the background. We're right down in the south of New Zealand now, and it is freezing - I had to de-ice our car before we could drive.

Next stop was Te Anau for a quick break before heading on the 156km road to Milford Sound. The road to Milford is meant to be one of the best roads in the world that takes around 2 hours to drive, but if you stop at every photo opportunity it takes a whole day. We drove about 100kms of it in the first day, obviously stopping to take photos here and there, but unfortunately it was very overcast so the photos were looking quite dull.

Annoyingly, we pulled up at one of the DOC camp sites and went for an hour or so walk to find a waterfall; when we got back and tried to start the car, I realised I had left the lights on and the battery was flat as a pancake. Luckily for us, a German guy called Alex saved our day. I flagged him down as he drove into the campsite and he pulled up next to our van and got the car going again. It was going to get dark soon, so we stayed there for the night with Alex and made a fire.

The next morning another couple turned up to the campsite that had already met Alex a few days earlier so we all went on the same walk I did the day before to find this waterfall again. I didn't take my camera last time so this gave me an opportunity to get some photos. I can imagine that after winter, when all the snow has melted, the waterfall must get huge. Below it, leading down the side of the mountain are tons of boulders and rocks that have torn through the forest to the valley floor.

After lunch, all of us stopped again near Key Summit to take the 3 hour round trip walk. It got a bit overcast again while we were up there, but the view was immense.

Alex and the other couple Chris and Leah, were travelling at a much lower pace as they have a longer in NZ, so we left them to it and headed further toward Milford Sound, stopping at 'The Chasm' to view the near vertical rapids that have carved the rocks into strange shapes.

Last stop for the day, Mildford Sound itself. To get there we had to pass through a tunnel through one of the mountains which was made between the late 1930s and early 1950s. It's only wide enough for a single lane of traffic so is controlled by traffic lights (until 6pm!) and is 1.2kms long. We got down to the bottom of Milford Sound just in time to see the sunset before turning around and heading for Queenstown.

Moeraki Boulders

Today we drove further down the east coast, stopping in Oamaru and Moeraki. The town of Oamaru was nothing to write home about, I'm sure it's lovely in the high season when it's buzzing with people in the heat, but in the biting cold with no-one around, it was a little dull. So we carried on driving to Moeraki to see the famous boulders. The boulders on the beach are almost perfectly spherical. I'm not sure why they are this shape, but apparently they were buried beneath the ground and over the years erosion has exposed them. There are similar boulders slightly further north that were found to have skeletons of pre-historic sea monsters in them (Loch Ness's relatives to me and you)!

The Maori belive these boulders are fishing baskets from a mythical canoe named Araiteuru, which brought their ancestors to the South Island.

We have covered over 2000kms (roughly 1200 miles) in the camper van so far, and tonight we have started to head west towards Milford Sound. Our plan is to get as far as Te Anau tonight and carry on to Milford tomorrow morning, we've probably got another 2 hours of driving left so this should be easily do-able.

Christchurch, post earthquake

Last night we drove further down towards Christchurch, turning off the main highway just north of the city to find a free DOC campsite. The only one in the area was 20km down a gravel track through a forest, it really was in the middle of nowhere, and needless to say we were the only people staying there!

This morning we had an early start (because we didn't realise the clocks went back!) and carried on driving down to Christchurch. The earthquake was just over a month ago now, so I was expecting things to have returned to some sort of normality, but with some destruction still visible. I was totally wrong, the centre of the city was cordoned off by the military and the majority of buildings, including people's homes, were boarded up with signs claiming they were unsafe for entry. Even ten minutes out of the city centre there were homes that had been flattened. Every building we passed had spray paint on the front door to notify rescuers they had been checked for people trapped. Most roads had diversions to keep traffic away from the middle of town.

Shops and restaurants had clearly not been entered since the quake, the tables were made, with plates and glasses toppled and covered in dust. Hotels had plants toppled on the balconies, and smashed windows. Noone was around, apart from builders, police and military; it was very eerie and like something out of a horror film. I can't even imagine what the damage in Japan must be like.

After seeing the damage of Christchurch we carried on driving south, making a break in the town of Timaru. Next stop is Oamaru.

Christchurch Earthquake Appeal

Kaikoura, New Zealand South Island

After Picton, we travelled west to Queen Charlotte's Track because there was a cheap DOC campsite with power so we could recharge our various electricals! The next morning after a bit of a walk on the track we went back on ourselves to travel south along the east coast to spend the next night in Kaikoura.

We found this incredible beach with volcanic black sand and turquoise water. The black sandy beach was littered with bright white trees and branches that had been stripped of their bark by the sea. It almost looked like another planet, or the surface of the moon.

The good thing about New Zealand is that the best sights are free (or have been so far anyway)! Having a camper van has given us a lot of flexibility too; we carried on driving south and stopped to take some photos when we spotted hundreds of fur seals sat on the rocks. I couldn't get close for too long as they really didn't like me being there, but it was was still great to view them.

We got chatting to a local while we were there, who told us that a bit further down the road was a waterfall that when the mother seals are out catching food, the pups swim up the river to the fall when during winter there can be as many as 40 there. Unfortunately there weren't any at the waterfall when we got there, but there were a few swimming and playing in the river leading up to it.

We stayed in another free DOC campsite that night, near a small village called Puhi Puhi. Apparently in the 1920s Puhi Puhi was literally just a school, and because it was so far away from the road, the students used to ride ponies to get to it. Electricity didn't reach Puhi Puhi until the 1950s either! We reached Kaikoura today, which is one of the places in New Zealand where whales can been seen out to sea all throughout the year. We haven't seen any yet, but we have seen plenty more seals, that are used to humans being around so I could get in closer for a better photo.