The journey South

After a brief stop in Rotorua to look at the thermal pools and geysers we pressed on southwards through the Tongariro National Park and along some fabulous roads through arid scrubland flanked by volcanoes (some extinct and some less so). We decided to spend the night on the shores of Lake Taupo, a beautiful spot in the crater of a volcano that decided to blow itself up at some point in the past leaving this colossal lake. It was a sunset to savour but sadly we were frantically trying to find a place to camp while the sun was setting but certainly this is a spot to come back to later hopefully.

After a meal cooked almost entirely in the dark (and not bad considering!) we got down to sleep. Seems some of us slept better than others due to various factors but I for one thought it was a pretty decent spot but perhaps the lesson learnt here was that we are now in a country where you do have to think ahead a bit, unlike Asia where you just kind of rock up somewhere and hope for the best!

The next day we took the ferry across the Cook Strait that connects the North Island to the South Island which passes through some delightful scenery in the Marlborough Sounds and we were lucky with the overhead and under hull conditions which meant the journey was very pleasant under the hot sunny skies. A fun drive along the northern flank of the island took us towards the Kenepuru Sounds. and Anna at this point were not feeling too well so decided to sleep in a local motel in Havelock, I decided to check out the DOC campsite next to the Pelorus river which was a lovely spot nestled amongst trees next to the river. Met a few locals who had a few tips. Decided the next morning to get up early and explore some of the area and found a lovely spot next to the water in Anakiwa and walked along a bit of the Queen Charlotte Track for an hour or two before picking up the others which was very pleasant.

We drove south through Blenheim and wine country (we will be back later this month!) towards Kaikoura. The scenery here is very much like home with pleasant rolling hills. Kaikoura is the whale watching capital of NZ, but sadly this is something that is well outside of our budget so we took a stroll along the beach to check out the various colonies of the delightful seals which were a lovely and fun sight and you could spend hours watching them! After nearly getting caught out by the tide and getting stuck on the beach we headed south towards Christchurch. After finding a great spot to cook dinner on the rugged beachfront near Amberley we found a decent value motel to help JB and Anna hopefully get some more sleep to beat the various illnesses they seem to have picked up. Pretty fancy the Motels around here, more like an apartment really! Tomorrow we are starting to get towards mountain country...can't wait!