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Wellington is lush in the sun. That was yesterday. Today it is peeing it down and is misty and miserable. Although it still is a lovely city, it’s difficult to be positive when it’s bad bad weather. Drove up to Mt Victoria after a detour around the coastline where we spotted a few personal cable cars including the one we’d seen modelled in the Cable Car museum. Your own cable car, how cool would that be? St Michael’s Hill should definitely install one . ...

Found a great place to park up the campervan smack in the centre of Wellington harbour-side. It’s basically a carpark but there are spaces for motorhomes for which you pay $50 per 24hr period and there are even keypad entry loos and showers. Might be a good business idea for any big city in the UK 😉 This meant we could park up all day to explore Wellington, have a couple of drinks and an evening out and come back to the van to sleep. ...

After 5 weeks in the South Island we’re off to the North and the capital of NZ. Right now I’m sat on the Interislander ferry from Picton to Wellington with fabulous views out of the window of Marlborough Sounds. It’s a far better ferry than the ones I remember going on student exchange trips to Germany. I don’t feel seasick for one thing. Arrived early (for us) in Picton so we could explore Queen Charlotte Drive, the slow winding extremely scenic road with some parts falling into the sea between Picton and Havelock. Just as beautiful as Milford Sound. Parked up with an idyllic view across the Sound behind us to eat our glamorous lunch of fried-egg sarnies & a cup of tea. ...

Today’s weather: improved, some blue sky. No rain. Drove around the Banks Peninsula bays of Baron Bay and Okains Bay. Two secluded beaches with not a soul but us. Sometimes this travelling at off-peak really has its benefits. This took us along the tourist drive on the summit of the peninsula so you could really see how this area used to be volcanoes. Again stunning scenery. Baron Bay ...

It’s a bank holiday in NZ today for the Queen’s birthday. 5.5 aftershock whilst in Timaru. Matt was in the van and felt it shake for 30 seconds. I was in the shower block and felt nothing. Apparently the epicentre was 40km south-west of Christchurch. We’re heading in that direction today. Some damage to buildings and roads reported. Passed over the longest bridge in New Zealand. Enough said about that. That’s all I can say anyway. ...

Almost forgot to say about the Moeraki boulders. How could I forget? A strange phenomenon on a beach in a small place called Moeraki just south of Oamaru. A kind of stop for 5 minutes if you’re passing type of place. Here’s the obligatory silly photo of Karen, this time with her over-sized white trainers on (the only “sensible” shoes I have on this trip).

Fish & chips by the sea at Oamaru. Our first in NZ. Lip-smackingly tasty freshly battered elephant fish & sole. Tried to see some more penguins but we had arrived too early in the day and as we needed to gain more ground north continued our road trip to a holiday park in Timaru which was owned by a nice man from Nottingham whom had emigrated here 10 years ago when the exchange rate was NZ$3.7 to the £. Shame it still isn’t the same rate nowadays otherwise our trip could be twice as long. ...

I am writing two days together as they have events that bleed from one day to the next. The drive from Kaka Point to Dunedin was non-descript. Dunedin on the other hand has been colourful to say the least. There are no holiday parks in the centre so we decided to go for a cheap backpackers called Pennys 5 mins walk from The Octagon (city centre). They had one double room left. We asked how much and the guy said make me an offer. Strange we thought. But it was a windowless dingy looking room. Matt suggested forty dollars and the guy agreed. No haggling. That seemed a bargain to us as the closest holiday park wanted $46. Too good to be true me thinks. ...

Matt invented a game to stop the driving boredom – beep the sheep. Every field of sheep we went past he would slow down and beep his horn. Very irresponsible but pretty funny as all sheep in the vicinity would perk their heads up in fear and then leg it. It doesn’t work as well for cows. They just don’t care enough for beeping and carry on chewing the cud. ...

The sun is shining today, the blue skies are back. Darn it. Should we have stayed in Milford Sound? But you looked so miserable yesterday MS! Breakfast views at Mackay Creek Still it made for some beautiful lake views in Te Anau and Manapouri. Te Anau Manapouri The route to Invercargill believe it or not included a stop at Clifton suspension bridge. We were back in Bristol. Ah my mistake it was Clifden. But you could hardly tell the difference. ...