Quest Invercargill

... to the airport to fly to Stewart Island. The airport is an old lake and on a couple of occasion it has turned back into a lake, there are several marker higher than head height that say thins like "The 1983 Flood Level". Stewart Island is the third Island in New Zealand and is between Wales and Ireland in size but less than 1000 people live there, it is home for fishing, eco tourism and salmon farming (a bit like Picton). probably 99% of the Island is native ...

... parts of the engine had loosened so causing the flapping sound and erosion in the parts so meaning we would have to have the whole job done over! GREAT! I'M SO FRICKING HAPPY TO HEAR MORE GREAT CAMPERVAN NEWS! CAN ANYTHING ELSE GO WRONG? HOW MUCH IS THIS GONNA COST US? you can imagine! anyway, so mechanic man says he'll tighten the screws so nothing else can go wrong between now and getting the whole job redone, and only for the cost of a case of beer, which we have to go out and ...

... I was really believing God to provide us a place to stay, so we set out walking to the last hostel on our map. They gave us a "stay out" which means we got to stay in the old house out back behind the hostel, but we still got to use the shower and kitchen in the main hostel area, and we washed windows for them for about 2 hours the next day for our nights stay. It was about 8:30 pm when we arrived, but it felt like midnight, and all of us just crashed.

... approached us and started to quiz us about the places we had visited so far in the Katlins. He made us feel suitably guilty about our lack of motivation to sight see, so we got in the car (called Palmy) and headed off to a waterfall. It was quite spectacular, perhaps the largest i´ve seen. When i announced this to Fran, she said she had seen one a little bigger, and proceeded to tell me about her trip to Niagara Falls. From the waterfall, we went over to Surat Bay to ...

... a bit nervous about getting back before the tide came back in. Needless to say we made it and didn't have a chitty chitty bang bang moment. Our final attraction of the day was Jack's Blowhole!! Which for those of you who may have their minds somewhere around the toilet, it is fact a hole in the ground by the sea, where sea water has eroded the rock over time, meaning as a wave comes in, the water is pushed through a cavern and is forced up and out of the hole, so it is ...

... on the keyboard that is); · Visiting the aquarium and seeing all sorts of marine life. They even had a small pool where you could touch your favourite anemone; · Christchurch also allowed us to give the kids a "value for money" lesson as we abandoned our planned visit to the highly touted International Antarctic Center. Their rather pricey family pass showcased an area with simulated snow, a visit to the "minus 18 degree wind chill" room and a ride ...

... we will meet up again on our travels. Feeding the two families was quite a process. Seven hungry kids can be a bit demanding but after two weeks of communal living I think we had it figured out. I really enjoyed cooking alongside Cec, chatting and learning all her secret vegetarian recipes. Bill and Cec were wonderful hosts. We learned that thinking 'outside the box' is not bad but freeing and have been encouraged by what they ...

... beds. It's cheap too - just over £14 per night for my double room. I like it here so much I've decided to base myself here for a couple of days as there's plenty I want to see, starting with Mount Cook. Room sorted and lunch made, I drove the 60km journey to Mount Cook (another visually stunning one) under blue skies with moody puffs of cotton cloud stirring over the mountains themselves. There are lots of walks to do around Mount Cook and I'd decided to do one of the longer ones, the ...

... t work nights at the moment it ain't that bad. Sadly there's only 2 of us juniors and we only have 2 registrar-type characters and no consultants. So there's no formal teaching and it's all learning by doing or reading which is a bit of a shame. <br><br>But the real reason we're here is travel and although this place is as detached from civilisation as we know it, is probably the mullet capital of the universe and has only very dubious claims to fame (as e.g. the southernmost McDonald's ...