In mid-February 2007 we headed south from Napier to Wellington to catch the inter-island ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. We had visited the South Island twice before but this was our first trip in our motorhome.

Our route was as shown in the map on the right (click on the map to view a larger more clear map).

Our planned trip was 4 weeks so we were able to take our time a little and not rush the trip like our 2 previous trips.

From Picton we went to Kaikoura, on the way we stopped and bought a crayfish from a roadside vendor, that night we ate it cold with mayonnaise and salad, it was very, very tasty.

From Kaikoura we went to Hanmer Springs, an inland thermal resort, a very typical small neat Kiwi holiday resort.

We spent more time in Christchurch this time, visiting Sumner, the old port town of Lyttleton and we also drove along the very twisty narrow roads on the Summit road which overlooks Christchurch, some really stunning panoramic views from the top.

From Christchurch we travelled 80 kms on a pretty twisty road to the little French town of Akaroa. We had read a lot about the history of this town and it sounded far more French then it actually is. The only thing French about it were the street names but otherwise, it was like any quaint small NZ town, with a few touches of pseudo-French architecture and shop names, like Boulangerie's and Boucherie's. It was worth the visit but not from a "French" aspect.

In Oamaru we did a tour to see Yellow-eyed penguins and we were amazed to see these fairly large penguins clamber up almost shear cliffs to their nests almost at the top of the cliffs.

That night we watched about 85 blue penguins come back ashore after a day's hunting. They are the smallest penguins and it was fascinating watching them swim through the breaking waves and getting dumped onto rocks, thankfully none of them appeared hurt, but they were tired as they rested for quite a while before walking back to their nests.

We also spent more time in Dunedin this time, so we were able to see more of the sights surrounding Dunedin. Port Chalmers on the northern peninsular is a small harbour town. We also visited Larnoch Castle which is the only castle in New Zealand. Our trip to the Cadbury factory was a bit disappointing.

We fitted a new reversing camera in Dunedin as our system stopped working near Hanmer Springs and the first one I could buy was in Dunedin.

From Dunedin we headed south along the coast to Invercargill. The only reason we went there was to visit Bluff, the southernmost town in NZ. Bluff is famous for its oysters. As it happened we arrived in Bluff the day the oyster season opened, but we were unable to buy oysters until the next day. Bluff is a very depressed little town with nothing much going for it, it looked a very poor town. At the southern most tip of south island we visited Land's End, New Zealand's version of Land's End in England. The next day we went to Riverton, the oldest town on South Island, it was much nicer than Bluff and appeared far more prosperous.

Milford Sound was our next destination, via Te Anau. The trip from Te Anua to Milford was the highlight of this trip - the scenery on the way to Milford undoubtedly rates amongst the most spectacular we have seen anywhere, the contrast between the plains and the rugged shear cliff granite mountains makes for very interesting scenery. On the way we stopped at Mirror Lakes, it's obvious how they got their name.

After visiting the ever-growing Queenstown and Wanaka we headed home up the West Coast and as always it rained heavily most of the way.

Back at the top of South Island we headed for Kaiteriteri, which some fellow travellers said we must visit - it has the most stunning beaches very similar to Thailand. From here one can catch water taxis to the Tasman Reserve. On the way to Nelson we stopped at Motueka, Mapua and then found a really beautiful beach at Rabbit Island.

We stayed in Nelson for a few days and were very kindly taken around by Ann James. The WOW car museum is well worth a visit.

The drive from Nelson back to Picton along the Queen Charlotte Sound is stunning albeit tortuous to drive. Along the way we stopped in Havelock, the mussel capital of NZ. The mussel festival was the next day so we were unable to get a camp there, so after a few hours we headed to Smith's Farm camp about 20 kms from Picton.

The weather forecast for the ferry crossing back to Wellington was not good, 50 knot winds and 4-6 metre swells so we were slightly apprehensive when we drove onto the ferry, but we were lucky, the wind did not pick up badly until we were about to enter Wellington harbour, so the trip was very pleasant.

Next time, we want to concentrate on the northern tip of South Island, around Kaiteriteri and Golden Bay.