It's nearly over ...

We stayed in Wanganui which was very pretty. Of course we had to up the elevator  through the hill.

We drove to New Plymouth and stayed the night before moving on to Stratford. It had an amazing glockenspiel clock that at certain times recited bits from Romeo and Juliet, whilst different doors opened to reveal characters.

We also visited the Pioneer Village. It consists of 40 buildings that have been moved here. All were furnished and open.

There were many examples of historical textiles.

The funniest thing were the models - in particular look at their limbs.

We then drove along the Forgotten World Highway. It was very windy but stunning.

After a night at Taumarunui we stopped at Otorohanga to visit a bird sanctuary.  You can see me feeding a Kakarita, a Tui, a Falcon and a Kururu  (a wood pigeon that is very large and clumsy). We have seen and heard these as we've been travelling but never managed to get photos.

After a night at Coromandel we are back at Whitianga for two nights before returning to Auckland and then making our way home.

Wellington to Wanganui

After a quick stop at Te Papa we drove around the Wellington Peninsula. It was very beautiful.

On our way north we stopped at Paraparaumu to visit the Southwalds Car Museum. There was an excellent range on display, we were there for ages.

We stayed that night at Wanganui which is well known for the elevator that rises through the middle of a hill.

Back to the North Island

On the Thursday we walked around Hokitika which is very pretty and also has a quilt shop. We then drove to see Hokitika Gorge. We had to walk through some temperate rain forest to get there - it was beautiful.

After a fish and chip lunch we moved to Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks. They were fascinating.

After a night there we drove through Butler Gorge to Kaiteriteri at the edge of Able Tasman National Park. It rained through most of the day. There were lots of warnings about penguins but we didn't see any.

On Saturday we walked along the coast and then returned to go kayaking on the Tasman Sea.

We then drove to Nelson for our last day on the South Island. We walked up to a high viewpoint called 'the centre of New Zealand' - it was NOT a fifteen minute walk. To return to Picton we drove along Queen Charlotte Drive which was very pretty if very windy.

On Monday we took the ferry back to Wellington. On the way we saw an albatross and a dolphin. So we are now back on the North Island and heading back to Auckland.

Glaciers and Glow worms

After leaving Wanaka we drove to Haast (which is the centre of sand fly activity) stopping on the way at the Blue Pools - the water coming from a glacier is so clear it looks blue.

After Haast we moved on to Fox Glacier. We walked along the river valley to within 200m of the glacier edge, unfortunately there are no photos as we had another camera SD card failure.

We stayed the night at the Franz Josef township before taking a helicopter flight over the two glaciers and then landing on the snow field above Franz Josef - it was absolutely fabulous. As well as the glacier you can see another view of Mount Cook.

We are now at Hokitika which is lovely - we will explore it tomorrow. Our site is next to the beach - note the paddling feet, unfortunately still wearing shoes and long trousers. Over the road is the Glowworm Dell. So of course we had to go, it is full of glowworms - fantastic.