We picked up some cool hitchhikers and drove to beautiful Wanaka. The highlight was hiking Roy’s peak, a tough up and down but worth it.

We headed to the Franz Joesef and Fox glaciers.

We nipped past Christchurch to visit Akaroa, a surprisingly little French NZ town. After a quick jet boot jaunt, we pootled on through the beautiful Arthur’s pass to get to the West coast.

We loved it in Kaikoura, the way the mountains meet the sea. Had a lot of fun surfing with the excellent “Boardsilly” and fantastic host, Tony, at the mini backpackers.

Arriving on the South Island, we had a few nice days in Picton, before heading to Blenheim for wine tasting!

We arrived on New Year’s Eve, to “The crossing Backpackers”. Great place, fairly empty for our visit, but we had a fun NYE! Unfortunately – or fortunately depending on hangover perspective – the weather was too bad to do the famous crossing hike. We had a nice 5 hour wander instead, and got a good feel.

We arrived in a little surf town called Raglan, in New Zealand. Being looked after marvelously by our friends Lee and Inger.

A visit up north to Port Macquarie …