Our last day in NZ. We're at Mandy and Peter's just packing our quart of belongings into the pint pot of our luggage. To be fair, John could get his stuff into a carry on whereas mine needs a trunk of Victorian dimensions. Of course I brought a whole lot of things/ clothes/ shoes I haven't worn but wore th same things over and over ( yes, I did wash them occasionally). I blame it on being a Girl Guide- 'Be Prepared' is my motto but as I'm not sure what for, then I just take everything I can think of. I must admit it will be good not to live out of a suitcase and I'm looking forward to meeting up with my trusted old friend, my own pillow. Having said that, the Kiwis have amazingly comfortable beds.we stayed in a motel 45 mins north of Wellington on Tuesday eve and it made me so glad we'd stayed in homestays. The apartment was fab, spacious and clean but had absolutely no soul and for that, it was depressing. I think if we'd stayed in motels all the way round I may have been writing this blog from Sheffield. It was wonderful to stay with families and soak up all the local news, hear all about NZ from their point of view- history, politics, global warming, you name it, we've discussed it with somebody - and to hear their personal stories too. And staying with Mandy and Peter is the perfect end to our stay- like home away from home and so good to see them again. Mal, a teenage lad, is staying with them at the mo while his mum is doing the Iron Man challenge in Sydney, and he made us all a wonderful Banoffee pie last night which followed a gorgeous pumpkin tart which Mandy had made with a pumpkin from the garden. Mandy and Mal were off early this morning so we had breakfast with Peter and now he's gone to work. We're off to visit a sculpture park made from a quarry and the Hamilton Botanical Gardens before popping back here for sausages made by Mal's dad (I think) and then on to the airport. I can't believe we've been away for a month. The time has flown by. We've loved everything about our trip- only 3 disappointments- the Franz Josef Glacier, some falls which we stopped to look at which were underwhelming and Greymouth ( although a cafe in a shopping centre we visited in desperation yesterday came close to Greymouth's hitherto undisputed title as Most Depressing Place in NZ). I shall miss the silence - although the birds can be pretty noisy - but we have stood in places where there are absolutely no sounds of the 21st century, no matter how long you stay there. I shall also miss the space- empty roads for miles with just the occasional car passing every twenty minutes- and also the personal space- most people live in houses on 'sections' which are parcels of land. The plots are big enough for a roomy house ( huge family kitchen/ living areas) and large garden and are set on wide roads. The Kiwi hospitality has been amazing and their cheery, laid back approach is wonderful. NZ seems altogether less consumer driven and frantic than the UK, their adverts on Tv and billboards contain normal looking people and I haven't seen many women teetering around on cripplingly high heels or wearing loads of make up. The lifestyle here is so relaxed and people centred and we've really enjoyed the sense of humour. Their history is a trifle recent and their town architecture is on the boxy, prefab side -I've missed our wonderful stone and brick buildings and history round every corner. We saw a sign yesterday which simply said ' historic place'- it didn't say what it was just that it was a historic place. All other historic places/ buildings haven't been more than about a hundred years old, if that, and built of wood/ tin so a lot of historic places have reproductions of historic buildings. This makes the damage to Christchurch so much worse because Christchurch did have stone buildings which were about 140 years old and which were horribly damaged in the earthquake. So, feeling sad to leave but so looking forward to seeing everyone again. And to anyone who's still reading this weighty tome- you deserve a medal! Xxxxxxxxx

Currently in a big ferry crossing the Cook Straits between South and North Island. I'd rather John was driving as the captain seems to be steering us towards all the bumpy bits. It takes 3 and a bit hours- an hour was spent just passing through the Sound leading out to sea. Wonderful scenery though not as grand as we saw further south. Bindy was up at the crack of dawn to give us a fab breakfast of homemade muesli, stewed fruit, yoghurt and toast. A legend in the B&B world.drove from Hanmer Springs to Kaikourou along the back road ( there are so few roads round here. You don't really need a detailed map and you certainly don't need a GPS. There's one road between A and B and that's good enough. Most of the little villages and towns are all along these roads an to either side there's wilderness and mountains. A whole different way of living. At one point along the road the people living there would have had to drive about 50 kilometres to get petrol. I think I'm hard done by if I have to drive to tesco's . After we got to Kaikourou, the road runs along by the sea and after a while we stopped to walk on the rocks of the beach. I was wandering about, breathing in the sea and the peace when suddenly I cam e face to face witha seal ( no, it wasn't a tall seal, it was on a rock). We looked at each other for what felt like ages- I'm sure I was the more stunned. Then he scooped himself up onto a higher rock and turned back to gaze at me. I gazed back and after a while he must have decided that I wasnt dangerous and he started to scratch himself on the rock. He then turned onto his back, just like Marley does and laid there with his flippers hanging loose. Back scratching followed and then he wriggled around until he was lying on his stomach with his chin on a rock just like a winsome starlet. Every now and again he'd check me out and give me a good old stare and then go back to the very serious business of relaxing and soaking up the sun. I could have stayed there all day, just watching him. John thought he might have been a young seal- he was a little bit fluffy and so trusting. Seeing him made my week. I now want to own a cow, a pig, some chickens, a koala, a kangaroo and a seal. It'd be like the United Nations of farming. Then back in the car and on to Picton and the ferry. You have to leave your hire car at Picton and pick up another at Wellington so here we are, foot passengers, with a table right next to the window at the front. Time to try the ferry tea..............

Drinks with our hosts went on for nearly 2 hours as they were very interesting and friendly. Peter's grandfather was the first man to fly a plane across from the south to the north island and in their youth they used to pack their 3 kids and dog into a little biplane to go for a picnic in the wilds. All NZers we've met love the UK and peter and Bindy had played many of the golf courses John knows in Scotland and Ireland. Their garden opens right onto the second tee and Bindy says she often plays just the second to the sixth hole when she has a moment. Dad, you would love it! Peter lent John his golf clubs yesterday so he played a round while I caddied, took photos and enjoyed the walk and views.It was cool under a blue sky with hot sun, fab scenery and John was v impressed by the condition of the greens. This bit is for the golf lovers- every one else, look away......The course was a par 68 and John finished with a par 92 which he was pleased with as he hasn't played for over ten years. Only a couple of trees suffered during play and it all looked pretty impressive to me. Anyway, back to our journey here ............... We drove from Fox to Greymouth where we stopped for lunch. That was our first mistake. Grey by name, grey by nature. This is a town that hope forgot. Around this area you're notexactly spoilt for choice for habitation, let alone towns, so we didnt have a wealth of choice over the top ten places to eat. It was Greymouth or nothing for another two hours.We parked and wandered the thoroughly depressing town centre. Many of the shops were empty and one even had hay bales stored in it.It was Saturday afternoon which means that loads of places were already shut ( NZ not yet being afflicted by the 24/7 shopping mentality and valuing evenings, Sat afternoon and Sunday as time off)and the cafe and pub that were open looked so depressing that I could imagine welcoming Salmonella as a quick end to a meal therein.It was so bad that we actually sought out a McDonalds- times are tough when the best gastronomic delight is a McD's. I have photographic evidence that we had a McAngus burger and a Mc Flurry and I'm sure if we had been x rayed shortly after, we'd have glowed in the dark. We took a quick walk along the sea wall which was about 20 feet high- whether to keep the sea out or Greymouth hidden is a moot point- and which acted as a grey stone dead end to the main street. There was one statue- of a fishermen with a plaque which read'for those who serve others' but which should have read ' get out while you still have the will to live'. So, if you ever win a prize for a week's holiday in Greymouth, run away. Hours later and we drove into Hanmer Springs which is the NZ equivalent of an American ski resort. So quaint you could eat it. It's here because of the hot springs which is where we're off to after lunch. We 'd booked the accommodation in a hurry so were gobsmacked on arriving to find an oasis of luxury and delight. A huge room with sofa and TV, DVD's, a mini kitchen, beautiful furniture and crockery,views to kill for, a warm welcome with a tray of pâté and camembert and a bottle of wine, cooked breakfast with accompanying flowers delivered to our room at the time of our choosing and....... an invitation to take away our washing and return it the next day for free. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven and I'm still not convinced that that isn't the case. All this for only £20 more a night than we paid Raelene for the Oprah stay. We were going to stay one night but decided to stay three and relax and live the NZ dream- chilling, golf, hot springs, lunch on the sun drenched terrace and just drinking in the absolute peace and quiet. We've cancelled our plans to whale watch ( we'd both done it before) and see Wellington ( a city just can't equal what we have here) to stay here then hotfoot it to the ferry tomorrow and onto Mandy and Peter on Wednesday. Love to you all from what feels like Paradise xxxxxxxxxxxxx

So, here we are in Hanmer Springs which is the epitome of luxury- but more of that later. First, the last couple of days.......... We left Jilly and Brent in Te Anau with a farewell which we would only normally get from family who're currently pretty keen on us. They hugged us, gave us muffins for our journey,asked us to email them when we got back to the uk safely and waved us off down the road. Over breakfast, we'd had the full account of Brent's kidnap ordeal in Chad, Jilly's eldest daughter's midnight text about her promotion to air crew for the Saudi Royal family and Jilly and Brent's detailed house building plans for their new B&B, not to mention the full lowdown on Brent's dad who's currently dying with an untouched sense of humour, by the sounds of it. You know, I don't know that much detail about my own family's goings on - a one off experience........ or so we rashly thought. Spent the day driving from Te Anau to Fox Glacier on the west coast.So many photo stops that the doors began to spring open automatically every time we slowed down. We loved Queenstown- a vibrant ski ing resort. We stopped there to try putting photos on the blog- obv failed miserably- and had fish and chips in a fish and chip shop cafe, cooked to perfection by 2 wonderfully polite and friendly young men. The menu iNcluded oysters- hard to imagine ordering a saveloy, 2 portions of chips and a dozen oysters in Sheffield. Then onwards on the long drive north- about 6.5 hours in all. John drives and I map read, which to be honest is not much of a challenge even for me- 'drive for three hours, turn left, then drive for another 3 hours' . I intersperse this heavy load with falling asleep and playing the 'what if' game with John, who is now getting quite good at it after a rather shaky start. Yesterday's was 'what if you could only have 4 million people in Britain( population of NZ)- who would you choose?' Ah, the joy of chopping out politicians and the like. Eventually we arrived at Fox Glacier and made our way to the No 1 rated B&B in the town( well, village). We've been using Trip Advisor since Jonny introduced us to it and it's been great for finding well rated places and in our price range. Eventually we found Reflection Lodge( no reflection because it was dark and we had to drive through a helicopter airfield to get there). Raelene, our hostess greeted us at the door as if we'd just been away on a short break from 25 years intimate acquaintance with her, her family, her family's friends and her family's friends children, one of whom(cute little 16 month old Georgia) was sitting on Raelene's hip. During the time it took to make and drink a cup of tea, I heard all about Georgia ( full digestive history and blow by blow account of play group interaction), Georgia's mother( post natal depression, split from husband, part time job), Georgia's dad( deep sea fisherman away for 6 month stints, wants to build Georgia's mum a house, great dad), Raelene's son( works in Canada flying helicopters, home for 3 weeks, Georgia loves him). There were more but I didn't take notes so the details became a bit blurry. John stuck it out till the post natal depression then gave himself third degree burns by drinking scalding tea so he could escape to the manly task of unloading a car. To be quite frank,he stretched it out quite a lot. He could have unloaded a Tesco superstore in the time it took him to take 2 suitcases and a small rucksack into our room. We escaped by pleading starvation and headed for town to eat. Lovely little cafe, great salads and a wonderfully cheery waitress then back to Raelene, pleading exhaustion. Comfy bed and amazingly quiet. Next morning, eggs from Raelene's chickens and the story behindher daughter's marriage, a detailed account of her three grandchildren, women's problems, holidays from her youth, her errant husband in Indonesia, how to pickle onions and the sad story of a disabled child she knows. John was trapped by the need to eat toast so had to sit through the whole lot, looking gently aghast. However, she had a heart of gold, couldn't do enough for us and probably hadn't talked to anyone for a week. So, off again- another 6 hour drive. After a while, the scenery became less impressive, more rainforest and the photo ops were fewer. We did stop in Bruce's Bay- we stopped there in 2000, Viv and Jordie- vast empty beach in the middle of nowhere- hadn't changed at all. However, the Franz Josef Glacier was a real disappointment. It had shrunk, looked like a badly ravaged piste and was cordoned off so far back you couldn't see the end of it behind the rocks or hear the creaking. The walk there and back was lovely but I wouldn't bother again. Our first disappointment in the whole 3and a half weeks. Ok, more later - off to drinks with our hosts xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh, I can't understand why you can't see the photos! We can see them on the iPad and on local laptops and PCs. Did they get searched going through customs? So blown away by mountains forgot to report on tin shed- inside it was like a French bistro cum Welsh back room of a pub. We were served by a very jolly South Aamerican girl, sat across from a French couple and had the most gorgeous food- I had lamb, John had beef. The meat is sooooooo tender and tasty- a very different eating experience. But while we were there, I went to the loo ( don't worry, it's not going to get personal) - small place so one loo- and I stood outside for ages as it was engaged. Finally, there was a flush and then........ Nothing else. Eventually, as I was preparing to batter down the door and do the whole Nellie the ELephant routine, a young woman came out who'd obviously been crying her eyes out ( she'd obviously perfected the technique of crying in complete silence- bit worrying). She rushed past me so I did what I had to do then sauntered back slowly through the tin shed ( a major task as it was only about four steps wide) to see if she was alright. she was sitting with her partner who seemed to be wearing cheeriness as a shield. Aftr a couple of minutes, he upped and left and she sauntered ( another major task in such a small place when in emotional distress) over to a shelf on which was displayed three bottles of unremarkable wine. She studied these with such intensity ( a difficult task through red swollen eyes)that I began to wonder if we were in a Lord of the Rings event where a given intense stare at a key object results in hidden doors opening or genie's appearing. Then she suddenly turned on her heel and made a swift exit. One customer for whom the 'romantic tin shed' didn't quite come up to scratch. Did he propose and she refuse or viceversa? Did he take her out to dinner to dump her- bit of a waste of a fine lamb chop? It was all a bit distracting- for me anyway, John didn't really take any notice until I gave him the story. More to follow...................

Hey, hanging out at a real geeks internet place in Queenstown. Renting the machinery by the minute and trying to look like a journalist filing copy to the editor.Long drive north today - hoping to reach Fox Glacier tonight. Once we leave Queenstown we go into the wilds - we 've been advised to fill up with petrol as Jim at Haast normally has some petrol but it's not certain and anyway he might not be there. If you don't hear from me for a couple of days, you'll know that we're in the land that the internet forgot. The scenery is still spectacular but we passed a sign about half an hour south of Queenstown stating that the 'Scenic Highway ends here' - it was in the middle of a vast valley , next to a huge, magnificent blue lake with mountains reaching down to the shore like elephants that had lain down and fallen asleep. The NZ tourist board have obviously never seen Worksop. Must dash..... coffee to find and the open road beckons xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lake Tekapo - this must be what heaven looks like

The sun pretending to be Saturn.......

At 8.30 am, at -2 degrees, a thick hoar frost, hanging mist and snow dusted mountains on the way to Milford Sound

Milford Sound - exquisite and so silent.

Hobbit world near Milford Sound (blissfully, there's not an actual theme park/world within a thousand miles)

This is the NZ temperate rainforest with hanging lichen

This was taken at the road side but the white light wasn't visible to the eye. John explains it using physics and light refraction but I think it was a Maori spirit........ (cue spooky music)

We pull over to allow a house move to go past on the way to Queenstown. This was  half the house, the rest follows on..... at some time later.

This is the tin and wooden shed we ate in during our stay in Te Anau. The food was amazing - tender meat to die for. This reminds me of old Laindon

this is the only traffic jam we've encountered in NZ- much preferable to the M25

Hey, I almost forgot the highlight of the day........ about 8 dolphins popped up next to the boat and did a jumping show just for our benefit ( well, us and about 20 others - the boat, which was huge, was virtually empty. Hurrah). It was so wonderful that we thought it couldn't be topped but then we saw a seal pup basking on the rocks. Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen ( ask Grandma and Grandad to hum it!)

So, yesterday, when faced with the awesome scenery, we reached the depths of Miss Marple speak. Today, we went through the curtailed dialogue from a horror film"what....?, "that's .......", "it's........" and then we moved on to the primeval grunts and gasps used by stone age tourists. Words cannot describe the grandeur and majesty of these huge mountains rising straight from the sea, or the wonder as the landscape unfolds as you drive through them. We gave up taking photos in the end because we could have taken a thousand and still have more to take. This is glaciation heaven- you can't turn a corner without falling over a hanging valley or cutting yourself on an arrete. Im so glad that I took Geography O level at a time when glaciation was about all that was on the syllabus - not to mention that the field trip to the Lake District ( more glaciation) was the finishing touch to my education in poker. The air here is so, so clean and crisp that the colours are crystal clear and bright, everything is in such sharp focus and the smell is wonderfully fresh ( except on the boat trip through Milford Sound where the smell of deep fried lunch wafted across the deck). The temperatures were at -2 this morning , there was a thick hoar frost over everything and low mist floating in the valleys. It was magical- so still, so silent ( when you stop, apart from the odd car passing all you can hear is nothing and the odd bird. I thought I'd gone deaf at one point). So, we drove from Te Anau to Milford Sound early this morning, took the boat trip and then drove back stopping at all the viewpoints. Luckily, the coach loads of Japanese and Chinese tourists arrived just as we were ready to leave- a reminder that if I ever express a wish to follow a guide waving a yellow bear on a stick, shoot me. Now back at our B&B for the second night- we've been invited for dinner with our hosts, Jilly and Brent, and Jilly just brought me a glass of wine as I'm lying on the bed typing this blog. What is there not to like about this country- friendly people, great wine, stunning scenery and passable at rugby ( so I hear). I wish I could beam you all here to enjoy this with us- knowing the friendliness of the Kiwi's, if you did all arrive for dinner, Jilly would welcome you with open arms! I shall try to put some photos on the blog today. Fingers crossed.xxxxxxxxx

Another day, another town. Today it's Te Anau down in the south of the South Island. The drive here was stunning.We've gone through all the descriptive language we normally use, passed through the expletives and we're now onto a Miss Marple hinterland of 'goodness me', 'heavens to Murgatroyd' and ' good gracious, vicar'.The mountains go on for ever, rising so high, snow capped and in long undulating rolls. The tops are jagged and sharp and the light is so crisp and the air so clear that you can almost imagine how sharp they are. For a spectacular drive like this you need equally heroic music so, naturally, John put on the didgeridoo CD he bought from a street performer in Sydney. It's described on the sleeve as 'an eclectic mix of rockin' dance music featuring didgeridoo, driving bass lines and break beats, mixed up with birds, frogs and insects from the Aussie bush'.Imagine Rolf Harris wearing a backward facing baseball cap, unlaced trainers and baggy shorts spinning on his shoulders while playing the didgeridoo with a jive dancing frog to the sound of jungle bird calls and you've got the picture.It was so captivating that we almost ran out of petrol- in a country where it's 20 miles between houses let alone petrol pumps.We finally got to one with the merest whiff of petrol laden air keeping us going. We were going to get some chocolate but the petrol station stocked only three types of boiled sweets and an assortment of chain saws. I imagine pocket money day is interesting. Along the way, in the middle of nowhere, we ran into about a thousand sheep on the road. They were alarmingly woolly, like the rock formations made from limestone deposits, and poured round the car in all directions for ages. Bringing up the rear was the farmer in his Ute, as laid back as if he was driving through a pub car park.Sheep seem to be put in vast fields at about a thousand sheep per field so this was probably just one field's worth, moving field. So, there's occasional vast fields of sheep or cows or deer and then major emptiness between times.You could fit Meadowhall into each field including the car parking and Christmas overflow car parking, and still have room for a BBQ for a hundred people plus cars and an impromptu football pitch. There are also lots of hawks just cruising about looking cool, not afraid to swoop down to get a good look through the windscreen.The national speed limit is 62.5 mph which is bonkers on roads which are a) empty ( and I mean EMPTY), b) straight for miles in places and c) without the loving supervision of speed cameras. Thanks to John driving at 63mph we made it here in very good time and had time to hang out in Te Anau for an hour or so. It took about 6 minutes to visit all the shops and then we went to see the cinematic 'Fjordland experience'. This was 32 minutes of swooping views over the fjords, mountains, waterfalls and forests of the Milford Sound area and was like scenic soft porn - obviously shot by a cameraman who was a) in love with his own skill and b) who'd just discovered riding in a helicopter. Fascinating and entertaining for all the wrong reasons. We've had our customary drink with the host- he's home from Chad for a month where he manages the Chad oilfields, was kidnapped in Nigeria for 10 days which made international news and has the cutest chihuahua with a pink collar. Photos to follow as can't upload today and we're off to a tin shed to have a romantic meal ( on the suggestion of our host)Xxxxxxxxxxx

Yesterday we were kicking up leaves in Christchurch, smelling bonfire smoke and marvelling at the fiery autumnal colours. This morning we've woken up to thick frost, snowy mountains bathed in the pink dawn and the smell of a crisp winter's day. I'm now ready to put on the Christmas CD's and deck the halls with boughs of holly............

Never mind what the Americans say- this is God 's own country right here in New Zealand. We drove out from Christchurch this morning across the Canterbury plain- yes, flat and a plain but endearingly massive- and then climbed into the mountains. The scale is breathtaking and the folds of the mountains have a primitive slumbering beast feel about them. Round every bend is an 'aaaaah!' moment - and a coach load of Japanese tourists snapping every last square inch. But there's enough room here for everyone and plenty to look at above their heads. We're staying in another amazing B&B with mountain and Lake views from th room, all mod cons and then some and we've just come back up from early evening drinks with our hosts. This seems to be a NZ custom and one which we're so enjoying. We get to talk to local people and hear all the news and views which enriches the whole experience enormously. Our hosts so far have been unfailingly kind, generous and interesting and tonight's hosts are no different. We sat in their sitting room looking out over the fabulous view, drinking wine and eating cheese and chatted like we'd known them for ages. Last night's hosts in Christchurch were amazing- as soon as we arrived at about 6pm, they invited us in for a drink and when we asked about the earthquake, gave us a real inside story. They've had 4 major quakes in the last couple of years- the first in Sept 2010 ( major damage but no lives lost), the biggie of Feb 2011, another last June and another last Dec 23rd. Each one brought down buildings, some of which had only just been repaired. The whole experience each time sounded horrific and yet they're so matterr of fact. Our hosts told us they were moving out in the morning for 5 weeks while their house is replastered and decorated and indeed while we were having breakfast, the removal men were already at work. Our hosts were still wonderfully friendly and helpful- but then that just seems to be the Kiwi way. At each home stay, we've had breakfast in the family kitchen, sometimes with the hosts, just like we were visiting family. After breakfast, we drove into the centre of Christchurch which brings a lump into your throat. The centre is cordoned off with piles of rubble, cranes, demolition equipment and bleakness. The cathedral has a massive hole in the west face- a lump fell out during. The June 2011 quake, further destroying it. It's so sad to see- its like seeing a little Cambridge with the heart knocked out of it. ( christchurch was modelled on Cambridge in the 1800's) They've been quite resourceful about getting the commerce up and going again- shops have been relocated to shipping containers. I loved it! It's going to take 5 years to rebuild- and will cost zillions. Apparently, 3% of all insurance payments have always gone to an earthquake fund which is now being used for rebuilding. Luckily, we felt no tremors while we were there!tomorrow we're off to Te Anau where we'll stay before driving to Milford Sound- the fjords of NZ. We are loving every minute!xxxxxxxxxxx

Still standing after 4 major earthquakes and 140 years in Christchurch Botanical Gardens - the  giant redwood sequoia, not John. 

This is a typical old Christchurch house, still standing thankfully.

This is a shopping centre made from ship's containers in the centre of Christchurch. It's such a bold, quirky solution to the lack of stable buildings

This was our first view of Christchurch city centre. The centre is completely cordoned off and buildings are still being demolished

The tailor's dummy is made of all their broken crockery from the 2011 earthquake. You can see the crack in the wall to the right of the dummy which is one of the many that needs replastering.

Our lovely host and hostess at the Lilac rose B&B Christchurch, chatting as the removal men stripped the house around them.

The moon hanging over the mountains and the autumnal trees in Lake Tekapo. The air is so crisp and fresh here. It's impossible to capture the majesty and the vastness without a professional camera. If you've seen Lord of the Rings, you'll know what I mean.

The view form the B& B in Lake Tekapo. Just stunning.