Alpine Lodge Motel South Island

... uproar if Canada adopted a similar slogan "Get Off Your Bum, Canada!" Makes a lot of sense though. We've discovered 12 days is way too little time to really discovered New Zealand. We have only travelled around 2/3rd of the South Island and didn't see everything we had wanted. I will miss the Glow Worm caves but will have to be thankful for seeing the Fiords, Mount Cook, Christchurch and Dunedin, as well as all the beautiful scenery and ...

... on the hunt to get a close-up picture and still have a few days left. On Tuesday we have decided, as long as the weather is nice to drive to the west coast for the day through Lewis Pass just north of Hanmer Springs. Our flight back to Sydney doesn't leave until 5:00 pm on Wednesday, so we'll have most of that day to make it back to Christchurch. It was recommended we go to the Antarctic Center near the airport for a ...

We left Hull train station about 11:30 this gave us plenty of time for check in at Manchester Airport. The weather forecast, snow on its way. The Plane Boeing 777 300 was full so no chance of an upgrade. The plane started to taxi along the runway when a passenger started to have a panic attack but thanks to the Emirates cabin ...

... are we paid the extra $6 to include the water slides into our sedate, relaxing spa experience!! Howard almost managed to decapitate a young lad (who had jumped the queue anyway) by going down the slide flat on his back, hands behind his ears in true waterslide professional mode! Siwan was a bit more refined but still got thrown about inside the pitch black slide and landed unceremoniously and ...

... the cinnarizine taken five hours beforehand and a good lunch. Janice is not affected, so takes over and we stop at a small campsite in the countryside outside Hanmer Springs. The place is so quiet that we and a couple in a tent are the only campers. "All hell breaks loose after Christmas" says the owner optimistically. By now the sky is blue and it is quite hot. We laze about in the sun. In the evening Janice thrashes me at table tennis and I retaliate at table football. Happy days.

... and so warm. One of the baths was sulphurous and many had high mineral contents, so very good for well being. On the way to Kaikoura the scenery again was so beautiful and the weather for once was delightful. The sun was beating down so hot it was burning Clares arm. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed a huge BLT bap in the sunshine. Life doesnt get much better than that!

Bar Vince azt igerte nekem, hogy nem fogok egyszer sem fazni az utazasunk soran, hat meg havat is lattunk. Ejszaka mi csak esot hallottunk, de a hegyek csucsan lattuk, hogy ez bizony ho volt ott fent. Ez megint csak meghiusitotta a tervunket: par ora gyaloglas az Isobel hegy tetejen, es utan par ora a termal furdoben. Igy csak egy rovid seta volt az Isobel hegy kornyeken, kifejezetten ...

... once we'd arrived, we went for a little stroll around Dog Stream Reserve, and then into Hanmer Forest Park. We bought a walking guide from the motel reception for $2 and this gives details of a variety of different walks available in the area. We went on the Forest Journey Walk which was about 1hr and fairly flat. Not too strenuous as it had been a long day. After the walk, we went down to A-Maze-N-Golf, just down the road ...

... chatting about my travels. I headed back to the motel and started packing, you would think by now I would have some sort of structure to packing! I just throw everything in and sit on the bag to make it close! We jumped on our transfer and headed back to Christchurch. We caught the $5 bus to our motel (BARGAIN) and walked to the International Antarctic Centre where I got to dress up in the warm gear and experience very cold temperatures and very high winds ...

... first one kept us waiting a good 40 mins before surfacing about 100 metres away from the boat. The captain took us about 20 metres away and we got a pretty good view of him 'Little Nick'. He sort of bobbed around for about 6 mins before rocking his whole body back and forth before launching his body 180 degrees to the water giving us a great view of his tail before diving back down. The second siting was a bit more cool! Over the tannoy ...