Quality Hotel Pavilions Christchurch

... centres, including the US and their Hercules supply planes heading for their base in Antarctica leave from here – so it was a bit odd to see a huge hangar with US military logos on the front.

So farewell to Aotearoa, the land of the Long White Cloud - I am glad to have been here at last.

Highlights – undoubtedly Aoraki Mount Cook, Milford Sound in the storm, the Spellbound tour at the Waitomo Glow worm caves, whale watching at Kaikoura and the wildlife tour in Dunedin.

... tourists struggling. Seems that NZ is quite organised for this kind of events. They have staff helping people to put them on. It was so cold as well. I saw a man who kept on going in and out of the car (put off by the cold wind) and each time the chains were laying there on the ground! So funny. We decided to skip Hamner springs (they are natural hot pools like we had in Costa Rica) to avoid more snow and came back to Christchurch for the night and just watched TV

... evening & drove on to find a Department of Conservation (DoC) campsite for that night. The DoC campsites are non-powered sites & only cost $5 per person for the night, so we saved a lot of money staying in them. However, we arrived at the first one after dark & creeped ourselves out talking about Wolf Creek & other horror movies. The campsite was in the middle of a forrest next to a stream & there were no lights. There was only one other camper on site & ...

... Australia have only been officially counted as Australian citizens since 1967! We hope to learn more of Australia's cultural history whilst here but can already see it appeared to be a less 'amicable agreement' than that of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori tribes and the English in neighbouring NZ. The other major attraction for us to Auz is the incredible wildlife it has to offer. Most of its creatures can be found only in Auz due to the country's remote ...

... of comfortable beds and modern conveniences that I didn't have to empty with a gas mask on... Day 10 - Our last day in UnZud. We transferred all remaining supplies to CalamityBarb & Ol' Dolly's wagon, because they were staying on for another 3 days. They were going to make their way up to Nelson & Hanmer Springs. Pity we couldn't do it with them, but the salt mine requested me home. Herr Laurie and I did the "Dump Station" exercise and filled the wagons with go-juice. Hugs ...

... Day 13 - Makarora to Queenstown We drove past Lake Wanaka and through town of Wanaka on our way to Queenstown.  Shortly before arriving in Queesntown we stopped at the bridge over the Kawarau Gorge.  It was a very confusing and adrenaline filled day.  If you don't know what happened, you need to read Merina's and Rigel's entries for that day (February 21). After checking into our hostel, Queenstown X-Base, we went for dinner at "Winnie's Gourmet Pizza Bar".  This had ...

... to see Christchurch before we picked up our campervan and hit the road, so the next day we walked around the town center and visited some of the most interesting sites, it is quite a charming city. We also took the cable car ride to the top of Mt. Cavendish, from where the views are quite amazing. The next morning we went to pick up our van... as we expected we would have to spend more time inside the van in NZ, this time we chose something slightly bigger, a ...

... to find a set of wheels. The next day was our first day of exploration and research. There were two car markets in the city, so we set off to have a look at the city while on the way to see what was on offer and for how much. We ended up also looking at the notice boards of a couple of hostels, to see what deals were there. The next couple of days were very similar, but with the added tasks of researching what camping gear we were likely to need and where we could find it ...

... enough, I've not used my time in a sufficiently effective way. Of course, I've had going on a quarter century's practice at procrastination; the habits of a lifetime can't be broken in a couple of weeks. But still. It is bothersome. This weekend I think I need to make a proper day by day itinerary for my last fortnight so that I manage to actually fit in everything I want to do. That scares me more than jumping off twenty Sky Towers - I hate making plans. I hate ...