"I would appreciate a manky sock"

The day started badly. The ladder of the bunk bed slipped and I pretty much fell out of bed. I've got a bump on my chin to prove it. Oops.

Anyways, once we actually got going it was fine. The sun was overly bright, but the views were nice even if the air was freezing. We grabbed a couple of bad pictures of the pretty side of Dunedin train station.

We had a quick stop at Shag Point, because it sounded funny and it had a lookout. Turned out to be pretty cool because there were fur seals basking on the rocks. I especially liked this poser.

The first proper stop was at Moeraki Boulders. These things are amazing - almost perfectly spherical and no one really knows why. Claire and Amy decided we need pictures of them standing on the boulders so took their socks and shoes off, not thinking that we didn't have a towel to hand. This resulted in them drying their feet off on one of Claire's old socks. Nice. I just giggled and took photos.

We had breakfast in the cafe at the top of the cliff. Very nice and filling, even if the tea went cold really quick. Om nom nom. Egg and bacon pie. Mmmm.

And then there was driving. And driving. And more driving. We finally stopped for a proper break (a while after switching drivers) in a layby to eat yesterday's lamb and mint pies from Arrowtown. They were delicious. Om nom nom again. No need for tea now.

Then there was a weird song about New Zealand on the radio. I will find a link to it when I have chance.

At last, and not as late as we'd expected, we arrived in Kaikoura. Parents will be glad to know that we did some laundry. Hurray for clean clothes. Tomorrow, WHALES.

"Is them sheep?"

Hurray! The storm seems to have buggered off. We started today with a nice drive west from Queenstown to Twelve Mile Delta. I prattled about Lord of the Rings filming locations while Claire made plans to buy a house at Wilson's Bay. This is going to become a common theme.

The lake was beautiful, with nice clear views over to the mountains. Look:

That little hill on the left there in the last photo - that there is Amon Hen. Well, the filming location for Amon Hen. Just about. I geeked. A lot. And that one in the second one down below, that one turns up when Sam sees the oliphaunts.

Then we headed back to Queenstown and went out through the back and into the hills to find Arrowtown, which is an old gold-mining settlement.

It's very pretty but obviously geared towards tourists. We didn't care - the sun had come out, there was an amazing sweet shop and the bakery did really nice smelling pies. So we bought some fudge, had a stroll around the remains of the Chinese settlement and bought some pies to go. We're so cool.

 

 

Then came the drive to Dunedin. First stop came at Cromwell, which is pretty and we want to live there too. We're going to need a lot of holiday homes. Another stupid selfie of the day.

I liked the dam at Roxburgh because it just appealed to the geek within.

Dunedin itself is nice enough but there isn't that much to do. We decided to have tea out and picked a place that does stonegrill. Basically, choose your meat and some sides and it comes to you raw on a very hot stone so you can cook it how you want. We had lamb, because we had to try New Zealand lamb. It was delicious and I don't normally like lamb. Yum. Oh yeah, pictures of raw meat.

And then a fairly early night because tomorrow we get to have the uber-long drive up to Kaikoura. By which I mean 7 hours. Ack.

Shawn the Prawn and his delicious little friends...

Our first planning session in months is underway. Well, I say underway. This is Amy and Claire doing useful stuff:

They're looking up useful things like hostels and things to do at the many, many places we're going to visit. This is what I was doing:

Because all of our planning sessions need to be soundtracked by the brilliance that is Howard Shore. And then it all just degenerated into silliness. Beak the Kiwi got a mind of her own (or rather, Claire gave up doing serious bits):

And then I found the most excellent thing ever when trying to find things to do in Taupo while Claire's throwing herself out of a plane. (Have I mentioned about Claire throwing herself out of a plane? I'm going to wait at the bottom and take pictures of her screaming). It is called the Huka Prawn Park. We are amused:

"If learning about a day in the life of Shawn the Prawn doesn't fire your imagination, dine on some of Shawn's delicious little friends in the adjacent riverside restaurant." Gotta love this Rough Guide.

And then we adjourned for lunch. Which lasted about 3 hours. Then the fun of booking began. So far we've managed to get the hostels and most of the activity/additional things booked for the first week. So the first few days look like this:

• 28th July - Arrive at Christchurch. Be jet-lag zombies.
• 29th July - Slob around Christchurch. Continue to be jet-lag zombies.
• 30th July - Catch the TranzAlpine Scenic train from Christchurch across the Southern Alps to Greymouth. Pick up the car, then do some sightseeing - up north to the Pancake Rocks and then south to spend the night at Franz Josef.
• 31st July - Trip to Fox Glacier. It will be epic. And cold, probably. Very, very cold.
• 1st August - Drive down to Queenstown. Spend the afternoon wandering around the town and admiring the cold, cold views.
• 2nd August - Take a day trip down to Milford Sound (not booked yet). Try not to squee at all the pretties.
• 3rd August - Drive east over to Dunedin. There's not a lot there, so it'll be a nice relaxed day.
• 4th August - Drive north up to Kaikoura. Various stops on the way, including the Moeraki Boulders, which are awesome. It's a 6.5 hour drive, so Amy and Claire will no doubt collapse when we get there.

My debit card doesn't know what's hit it and we've only just done the first week! All the excitement.