We felt a bit weepy as we drove away from Andy's house. He is 75+ , but he said he would try and stick around till we return in 2 years time!

We were heading for Wellington, having 2 or 3 snack stops on the way. It was almost dark when we checked in at our hotel, but after a quick shower we stepped out in search of dinner. There seemed to be a lot of drop -outs on the streets we passed and a few of them shouted at us. We ate in an Indian restaurant called Tagore -very tasty and cheap.

We had a very early start the next morning as we were on the first ferry to Picton. We had to return the hire car to Thrifty at the ferry terminal,but it was all a bit complicated as there were no Thrifty signs to be seen. After asking around, we eventually got it sorted. The ferry crossing was very smooth. We got some nice seats where we could store our luggage and hoped to get some sleep. Unfortunately there was a snorer nearby who made the biggest racket I have ever heard! What a laugh I got at peoples reactions to this man. From disbelief to absolute disgust! One Scandinavian boy sitting 6 rows in front - on the opposite side - came up to this man, prodded him and said "Please stop making this noise as you are annoying people!" This stopped the fellow for all of 5 minutes. Enough entertainment for us, we went to sit in the cafeteria for the rest of the journey!

Arrived in Picton to blue skies and sunshine and proceeded to queue at the Thrifty office for another hire car. This was a bit of a pain! Once we got on our way we decided to stop for lunch at Blenheim at Whitehaven winery. Then it was a long drive to Christchurch where we were booked into the Millenium for 2 nights.Lovely hotel and right on the main square. Our room overlooked the Cathedral and the square. Asked the concierge to recommend a good seafood restaurant which turned out to be at another hotel - The George. What a wonderful meal we had. It really had the wow factor! The downside was that it was full of noisy people off "The World" cruise ship. Hmmm...this was to become a habit. Read on!
Next day we drove to Akaroa. Saw some amazing scenery on the way there.Thank goodness we had replaced the old 135 camera for a digital or I wouldve been out of film!
Once in Akaroa we saw a cruise ship lying off.....Argh!! The World!!! Yes they were taking up most of the tables at the waterfront restaurants, but we managed to get a table in the sun. Even though it took 30 minutes to get the order in and maybe 45 or 50 to get the food. The sun was shining and we were happy! All to soon it was time to return to Christchurch which we still hadnt seen much of. Had dinner at a riverside bar/restaurant that night and the next morning we explored the town. I really liked Christchurch. Wouldve liked another day there, but our schedule was too tight.
From there we were going in the direction of Te Anau, having a quick walk on Boulders Beach (bit cold )on the way before stopping in Dunedin for lunch. Didnt really rate Dunedin very highly after Christchurch.
It was after 6 when we got to Te Anau and we had to find accomodation for the night. Although it wasnt peak season, a few of the motels were full. Soon realised that this place was a bit of a tourist trap with the prices they were charging. Eventually got a unit at the Edgewater XL Motel.Right at the water,it was very clean as well as being excellent value -run by a young couple. We decided to have a walk around the town. It was all a bit dead and places were closing at 8pm. Opted for a Chinese Takeaway (cheap night in!) which we took back to the motel along with a bottle of wine from the supermarket.
As we lay tucked up in bed the wind whipped up and things were crashing around outside and we thought our boat trip round Milford Sound was sure to be be cancelled the next morning.

The next day turned out to be fine. As we left our first floor unit , we picked up various plastic chairs that had been blowing around in the night.

We had a long drive to Milford. A very long drive! Heaven help you when you get stuck behind a bus. I dread to think what like the journey must be in the middle of summer! I kept thinking -"We have to drive back this way too!" I always hate doing that. Milford was wonderful. Grey, but wonderful. Saw a little penguin on the rocks. Hardly any people on our boat , but the group of badly behaved Koreans ,who still felt the need to push people out of the way(I have strong elbows though!)made up for that! Loved the waterfalls and mist and bits of blue sky!
All to soon it was time to drive back to Te Anau. Stopped at a waterfall on the way. My stomach had started rumbling by this time and I was getting ratty!! "Fed up with waterfalls for goodness sakes!"I complained. My long suffering hubby knew what was wrong with me - he doesnt like me when I'm hungry!!! It did seem to take an age to get back and it was 3 o clock before I ate the worst chicken and ham toasted sandwich ever made! The bread was still frozen in the middle!
No time to stop and complain. We had to get going - to Queenstown!

It was warm and sunny when we got to the Millenium Hotel. I instantly liked the place. Loved our hotel! Gor ready double quick and walked the 5 -10 minutes into town. Ate in Wai Waterfront restaurant and wine bar. It was the best!!! I thoroughly recommend this place to anyone visiting Queenstown. The service was friendly and efficient. So good we went back the next night!
The following morning we had a long walk around the lake before going up the hill on the chairlift. Spectacular views! I couldve stayed all day looking at the views, but other things to see. Explored the town just having a lazy day. Nice not to be driving!
Liked Queenstown, but it might get a bit busy peak season.

It was a rainy Queenstown we left on the Sunday morning. We stopped to see the bungy jumping outside Queenstown, but decided not to bother participating.

When we arrived at Lake Wanaka it was cold but dry and we had coffee in a lovely little cafe.

After that the weather got worse and it was a miserable day. By lunchtime we were in countryside that didnt seem to have any eateries. When we did find one, there was a tour bus there and the place was heaving. Bought bananas, crisps and diet coke which later played havoc with my digestion!

We were heading for the glaciers. Fox first. This was when we discovered that our waterproof jackets were no longer waterproof! The rain was lashing down as we ran up over the rocks.I was so unimpressed by the dirty lump of snow in the distance, I only took 3 photos. Back in the car and tried to dry off. Yuk! I hate rain!
Did we have to go and see the other Glacier??? Yes! My husbands reply was " We have come thousands of miles, I am not going to be beaten by a spot of rain!" There was more than a spot of rain down my neck!!!
Arrived at Franz Josef and it was still raining. This time we had a 10 minute walk to see the glacier! WHAT!!! I decided I would jog. Sorry to all the folks I had to pant "excuse me" to. Some of them looked a bit scared of me as I ran along. It was OK for them to dawddle along in their waterproofs and plastic ponchos!
What an anti-climax when I got to the viewing point. it was no better than the other Glacier. OK! Probably if the sun had been shining it would have been a wonderful experience for me .Yes? maybe I will go back some day - if I am in the area!
we thought we would stop in franz Josef for the night but it was still early - and raining so we decided to carry on.

Eventually stopped at Greymouth. Found a nice motel and had a lovely hot shower. Went out to eat -eventually found a place open, but it wasnt good.
That was probably the worst day of our holiday!
It was still raining the next day, but we managed to load the car between heavy showers and head North. i can't say I liked the scenery this part of NZ, but that might be a bit unfair because of the weather.
The highlight of this journey was the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. Wonderful! Spectacular! Awesome!By the time we reached Nelson it was mid afternoon and we had a quick look around the town. Just a town - not much to see. Guess what ship was in the harbour! The World! A good reason to move on!!

We drove as far as Havelock where we had the sheapest accomodation ever. The Havelock Garden Motel is run by a very nice man who keeps a very tidy site. Havelock is a lovely little place with a pretty harbour. We nearly didnt get anything to eat there as everywhere closes at 8 or earlier. A kind woman said she would stay open to cook for us! The next day we had an hour to get to Picton and the ferry to Wellington. I couldnt believe how beautiful the coastline was . We had to stop at the top of the hill to look down at havelock.It was a beautiful sight. If I was changing our itinerary, i would take a day or 2 to explore this part of the country.

We got to the ferry terminal and again returned the car to Thrifty (yawn!)
The ferry was running an hour late. I took this to be a sign of rough seas so took a sea sick pill! boy it was rough when we got going! No coffees bought on that trip!
Of course when we were on dry land again I was starving. It was after 3 o clock! We were told that we would be met by a Thrifty rep., but nobody met us. Hubby had to phone Thrifty and we ended up taking a taxi to our hotel and getting our car delivered there. Very annoying! Especially as all the taxis had gone from the terminal and we had to wait 15mins when we called for one!
We stayed in the lovely Duxton Hotel with views over the harbour. Heaven!
That night we went to the quayside restaurants in search of a table, but we had a long wait. Why? Because THE WORLD was sitting right at the quayside - just a few yards away from the good restaurants! We even saw some of the same people in a restaurant that we had seen in Christchurch! AAAaaargh!!!!!!!
And it was the same story the next night!!!

After 2 nights in the very comfortable Duxton, we had a long drive ahead of us to Auckland, up the west coast via New Plymouth. Not the best route and the countryside wasn't "wowee" either.

Reached Auckland at 8pm where we were staying with friends for the rest of our holiday. Staying with friends is good and you learn a lot more about the place, BUT you tend to not do so much - though we were in need of some rest after our South Island Spree! Our friends stay in Mairangi Bay so it was good to explore that side of Auckland. My favourite part was Devonport though.

On the Sunday we all went on the ferry to Waiheke Island where we had a very funny man called Max booked to take us around the wineries. We had a fun day out and he told us all the local gossip and showed us all the beauty spots just before the rain started.
The following day we drove up to Cape Reinga. Guess what! It was raining -heavily! We gave up 15miles before we reached the cape as it was just too miserable! you couldnt see anything for the driving rain! From there we went to the Bay of Islands, but didnt hang around because of the rain. Headed back to Auckland the next day.
This all sounds pretty miserable but we really did manage to enjoy ourselves in spite of the rain! Honest! We had a nice couple of days in Auckland. Do you know what ship was docked right at the bottom of Queen Street? The World! Unbelievable! Thank goodness we were eating in restaurants miles away!

We were really sad to say our goodbyes on the Friday morning.What happened to those 4 weeks stretching out in front of us! They were behind us now! Aw!

What I really liked about NZ:

The friendly, laid back people.( A single traveller would never be lonely there)

Robert Timms coffee

Hokey Pokey ice cream

The clean well equipped motels

Pinot Gris wine

Magnificent scenery

Cheap fuel

THE ONLY THINGS I WAS GLAD TO BE HOME TO were :
British Breakfast cereal

Good quality toilet roll

My washing machine

I'm glad that overall you had a good trip. Great report. Shame about the weather.

The World chased us as well the weekend before last. My wife and I went to Waiheke Island for a weekend break. The World was docked at Auckland, next day it was off the coast of Waiheke, this made for a busy day for the restaurants and cafes on the island.

I heard they were going to Waiheke. Wonder if Mad Max made a few dollars that day! Those winery restaurants wouldve had some job coping with all that lot!
They say that the cabins have cooking facilities on the World , but do you reckon anyone ever bothers cooking?
If you have that much money.....

There are a few passengers on the World who have bought their cabin as a retirement apartment (obviously with a few more $$$ than me) going round and around, well, the world.

I think the idea of having constant restaurant meals would wear thin for me. That and the fact that I would weigh 300lbs within six months. So maybe they do use the kitchens.

Special K in stead of Foie Gras would seem appealing after the first month.

carylspall -

I hope you had a good time despite the rain and your stalkers from The World.

Had to laugh at your Milford Sound day as my husband doesn't like me when I'm hungry either. I usually travel with snacks to prevent the food deprivation melt-downs I'm prone to.

Cheap fuel? If you're from the UK, I guess it is, but it seems very expensive if you're coming from the US.

Regarding the glaciers - they are dirty and unattractive from below, but from above, they're a beautiful glacial blue - especially when the sun is out.

I have pictures from our first trip to the glaciers 12 years ago and they're really blue and pretty. On our subsequent visits though, they've both been dirty and yuk.

My daughter and partner have just been on holiday on the US West Coast and hired a car . They couldnt believe how cheap the fuel was and they said we paid far more in NZ.

Enjoying comparing notes - though we didn't go to all the same places and what a difference the weather makes - we only saw Queenstown in lashing rain and low cloud.

I agree about Pancake rocks (the rough weather actually helped here) and the glaciers. We Only did the Franz Josef walk and the Fox viewpoint but with low cloud and drizzle they weren't really spectacular. I know you shouldn't compare but having seen some of the glaciers in the Canadian Rockies last year, these were a bit of a disapointment.

The rip was fantastic though, despite the changeable weather - when we were on the west coast in low cloud, drizzle and about 14C, it was 28C in Christchurch but with gale force winds and they had forest fires near Dunedin - and I thought the weather in the UK was fickle!

I enjoyed reading your trip report Maria.
I cant believe we actually came home with our skin a little bit tanned!
When did that happen! I suppose the sun is pretty strong there when it does come out.

My tan only is only from neck up and hands - everything else is as white as ever!

I must admit I am a bit biased but there are some wonderful things to see in the Nelson area. There are many award winning wineries, so many different crafts people ranging from potters, glass blowers, artists, sculptors, wood workers etc, You could easily spend a day or more visiting galleries. There are also beautiful beaches, one of the best National parks in the country, and if you venture further into Golden Bay the scenery is magnificent. It's a shame that tourists always head down to the deep south to visit Queenstown and Milford Sounds and miss out the wonderful top of the South Island.

Next visit then we will stopover at Nelson then! Unfortunately our schedule just didnt allow us enough time at places like Nelson so we never even did any research on it to see what it had to offer.
People say New Zealand isnt very big, but - oh boy is there a lot to see and do there!!! We missed so many good places, but thats a good reason to go back for more!

I agree - there is too much to see in New Zealand - if only it was nearer. When I started planning my 3 week trip, we thought we'd have plenty of time, as I delved deeper I realised I would just have to concentrate on certain areas, or risk seeing New Zealand only from the seat of a car! For many of us, especially from the UK, it's so far as to be considered a "once in a lifetime" trip - work and money not allowing us to take more than 3 weeks to explore it. I too would love to visit again and see some of the parts I missed but the cost and distance will prohibit how often that is likey to be - plus I still have other places on my "must see" list. Now if my lottery numbers came up it would be a different matter....

Not this visitor Nelsonian -

I'm a huge fan of the top of the South Island for all the reasons you mention and more. Golden Bay is a personal favorite.