NZ19

It was a long drive... but wow, what a good one! Arthur’s Pass is a long road across the Southern Alps.  Interestingly it wasn’t as up and down as we were expecting, after the road from Auckland ..

This is the sort of sign to get my pulse racing... as we left Arthur’s Pass and drove down the coast, we could see the snow-capped mountains in the distance getting ever nearer... I’ve been looking fo..

Hiding from the sandflies... Our day began early – as we opened the van it was filled with sandflies. They are a serious nuisance here on the West Coast. Here’s Jess dressed up so avoid them..! We arr..

The route from Franz Josef to Queenstown goes through the Haast Pass – and like Arthur’s Pass it is mostly flat, following the course of rivers (very sensibly) while having some climbing sections. We ..

We are still alive...! Ironically the post I tried to upload to say we’ve had no wi-fi or cell service for days, in a brief glimpse of 3G signal, failed to upload... Anyway, we are now a long way behi..

On the way to Lake Tekapo from the South, you pass by Lake Pukaki, which points directly at Mount Cook (the largest mountain in NZ, at 3764m high). The rule of thumb is, if you can see it, drive to it..

Our campground for our stay at Lake Tekapo is at the foot of Mount John, where the University of Canterbury has an observatory – to take advantage of the dark skies. Crazy water colour! Somewhere..

During our drive to Mount Taranaki, the following happened, which we had been looking forward to for a while (both being numbers geeks)... https://youtu.be/xAymzi-K7LU We’re both so sad... we’re made ..