New Zealand - the south Island

Climbing Franz Joseph Glazier
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We arrived into Christchurch on the South Island late and went straight to Gaz's sister and brother in law - Bev and Carmen who happened to own a lovely motel just near the airport, very handy for us, as it was also very close to our much awaited Maui van pick up site. Bev and Carmen suggested a route around the South Island that began and ended in Christchurch so we set off very excited in our brand spanking new VW Maui Van (it's amazing what you can get when you drop honeymoon into a sentence!)

The Franz Joseph Glazier
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The South Island of New Zealand is like landscape we've never seen before - apart from on Lord of the Rings, it really is spectacular with mountain ranges round every corner and beautiful bright blue lakes dotted all over the place. After stopping for the night in a small town, we set off again in the morning for a place called Omaru, to see the famous yellow eyed penguins, however after driving for an hour, and still not reaching the lake pictured on our map about 2 millimetres away from the campsite, it was agreed we might have left the campsite the wrong way, so a quick change of plan lead us to the outdoor activity crazy place called Queenstown - which was great fun, and we were glad to have made the wrong turn as an originally planned 1 night stop turned into 3 nights.

Lake Tekapo
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Queenstown is set in the middle of a beautiful mountain range and is the hub for all outdoor activities. Ben and I decided to blow all of our budget (for the 2 weeks in the south island!) on a flight and a cruise to the Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a beautiful fiord set in the mountains, leading out to the Tasmanian sea, it was well worth the money just for the flight, which was a 6 seater plane and took us over lots of Middle Earth. The views were awesome and well worth the splurge! The next day, feeling quite fit and energetic, we decided to embark on a mountain bike ride. So the hire shop sent us off on a "average fitness" track for "families and children" around the lake a mere 30k - nothing too taxing - so they said. Well... Need I say anymore. I can only imagine that the "average fitness" of a Kiwi is a cross between Lance Armstrong and Forrest Gump - on steroids - who was having a 'good day'. To say that were were knackered, hyperventilating and sweating like beasts after the first 2k would be an understatement. The route was apparently very scenic as they had said it would be, though I found it quite difficult to focus with the sparkling lights darting across my eyes and sunstroke. By the end of the route - and yes somehow we did manage to finish it without any shortcuts and only one tantrum from me, we waddled John Wayne style into the bike shop, hot, sweaty and shaking violently, handed back the bikes and headed to the nearest cold beer.

Milford Sound
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The bike experience left Ben and so exhausted we decided to give any form of exercise a rest and hunted around the shops for some half price ski gear, ready for Canada. I ingeniously managed to purchase 2 left hand gloves and some snow boarding boots that were far too big, so it was on all accounts money well spent.

After a night resting in Wanaka, another small outdoor town with a nice lake we headed off to Franz Joseph where the glazier was situated. The glazier was a 'cool' sight. It looks like a river frozen in time stuck in between 2 mountains. We headed off on an organised tour to walk up the glazier and experience it close hand, which was amazing. Dressed totally inappropriately in shorts - again based on advice by the indestructible kiwis, we were told to walk up the glazier John Wayne style - which was no problem for Ben and I as we were still suffering from the bike saga, so as not to catch the spike talons we had to wear to clamber up the glazier. We were up there for 2 hours and frozen to death by the time we struggled to slip down it. It was well worth the experience though - like everything in New Zealand!

Milford Sound
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The next stop was the largest town on the West Coast called Greymouth. This is not a nice place. We drove for 5 hours to find this out and left as soon as we got there. The thing about New Zealand is there are only 4 million people in the country the size of the UK. It was empty and time had forgot this small town, looking the same as it would have done 50 years ago, so we decided set off for another 4 hour drive to Hamner Springs.

Hamner has some natural springs which they've turned into thermal pools, it's a nice place, albeit small and quiet, but the pools are the only reason for the visit. As they have been heated by the earth, the pools contain quite a lot of sulphur - particularly one pool, that I didn't realise until I had submerged myself under water only to be hit with the most rancid smell of fart and rotten eggs. As I was retching and clambering out as fast as I could, Ben sat back and relaxed liking the smell, reminiscing that it had the same quality smell as one of Paul's. Nice.

Largest waterfall in NZ
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We are now back in Christchurch and just enjoying the sun and getting ready to leave for the North Island tomorrow, the van experience has been a memorable one. Apparently there will be more people on the North Island, which will be nice. The driving around has been fun and the purchase of an Itrip has made it more bearable! The weird thing that I still can't understand about New Zealand is that there is more road kill than cars - how is this? Every stretch of road has a fresh rather large un-recognisable body on it. Apart from that, the South Island is fantasy and a Mecca in our world, it's definitely worth a visit once a lifetime just to experience the shear emptiness and beauty of a country.