Blueberry Cottage Timaru

... to meet us and inspired to try a mini-faith week with his youth after hearing what we were doing. In general, he was really encouraged and empowered by meeting us, and was so excited to step out more in his life. It was also a blessing for us to be able to ride with him for the long journey. He was headed to Christchurch and was going to drop us off at a connecting town when the roads split, but he ended up driving us all the way to Timaru and ...

... Cook, but on the way we stopped at Lake Tekapo. This had been recommended to us as a stunning spot (an adjective used rather a lot by people describing NZ) that had to be seen. It turned out that the description was accurate. The view captivated us, even through our hangovers, especially with the small church sitting on the banks. I'm sure the pictures won't do it justice, but you may get the idea. From there we continued to Mount Cook to see the largest mountain in New Zealand...

... and hard of Pippa and Dean as she stepped into the Church of the Good Shepherd where they got married......it is beautiful guys! As is the view on to the lake...wow! We had a buffet lunch at "The Godley" (of course) before backtracking slightly and finding our way to Timaru. This is a beachside suburb on the way to Dunedin....a nice easy day today, before we toddle off to Dunedin tomorrow.

... pastoral acenes culminating with a great sunset as we toped a ridge and could se the mt cok range as we descended to lake teakapo where after a bit of a search we found a perfect camping spot and drove our campervan through a pine grove to park right next to the, you guessed it, turquiose lake. We slid back the monroof to watch the stars as we fell asleep in our cozy crib. Special shout out to our new friends Sarah and Sven for making this part of our trip feel so much like home!

... tense at all through this trip. There are several ATMs in Geraldine. We found only one at the grocery store in Lake Tekapo, which struck us as odd. How can a tourist destination not have at least one real ATM? Bring cash with you if you head this way..... The Maori Art store at the Berry Barn is really lovely, and they didn't mind us looking at everything without ...

... water and vegetables on a gas burner in the centre of our table. We were then presented with exceptionally thin slices of well marbled pork and beef which we put into the pot and cooked. I decided to be open to new foods so I drank beer (Kirin - it was actually good), saki and raw things that I wasn't sure what they were. Gary had grilled eel and we were both disappointed in the texture. It should have been more substantial and less ...

... is now the Waitaki Valley region when it was under hundreds of metres of water. As time evolved volcanoes created deposits and then eroded. Limestone formed in the shallow seas of 25 million years ago. Fish, penguins, dolphins and whales, that were the local inhabitants, died and their remains came to rest in the sand and mud. The most exciting geological wonders on earth have been uncovered in the Waitaki ...

... Street and have a walk around. One of the nicest places on the island created for the people of Timaru and visitors. There is a place to park overnight just for camper vans. Turn left to the Port at Sefton Street. One will see the parking area for vans and buses. A person can also go to the main Marina just past this turnoff to buy fresh fish. Good town to get supplies and any work required ...

... the $6 million exhibit, now on display in Geraldine, was touring the USA for six months. A small shopping centre, Berry Barn Complex, of artists is at the south end of town just before you get to the Holiday Park right in town. This community is a wonderful place to hang out for the day. Make sure to have a meal or a coffee or both at the EasyWay cafe. One of the top eateries in the South Island. Usually have music on Friday nights. Leaving ...

... town. The Southern Alps are awesome. But most of the things that are seen as 'must-dos' are majorly overpromoted and inevitably disappointing. Charlie Brooker (one of my favourite writers, he does a must read column in the Guardian on Monday's) said it much better than me: "And furthermore, the more someone tells you how incredible something is, the more disappointing the reality turns out to be, largely because of ...