I Heart Campervaning

The great thing about our campervan is the freedom we have to stop and go when and where ever we please because New Zealand is just so beautiful we have found ourselves stopping a lot! For those of you interested I will give a little idea of where we have been driving. From Christchurch we went to Methven - Geraldine - Lake Tekapo - Lake Pukaki and Mt Cook- Twizel - Wanaka - Arrowtown and currently we our in Queenstown. So here's a few highlights so far:

Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki are both beautiful, the water is an amazing colour of turquoise and surrounded by hills and snow covered mountains, they are both pretty spectacular. We caught a glimpse of Tekapo in the sun but then sadly the rain came and they just don't look as nice then! But thankfully we were able to see Pukaki in gorgeous sunshine.

Not too far from Lake Pukaki is Mt Cook and near the base of the mountain in Mt Cook Village, is the recently opened (Dec07) Sir Edmund Hilary Alpine Centre. It featured a small museum on climbers, mountain rescue etc and of course Sir Ed. They had some really interesting things and aswel as the museum they had a 3D show on Mt Cook and a planetarium show which was very cool! When we first arrived the weather was still pretty rubbish and we couldn't really see Mt Cook, but just as we were leaving the centre the cloud had lifted and there is was. Pretty amazing.

We had a great time in Wanaka, mostly because we spent an afternoon in Puzzling World! Indoors, are rooms of optical illusions and puzzles and all sorts of crazy fun things and outside there is a maze! In each corner of the maze was a coloured tower and we had to get to all four before finding the exit. Well, we found the first three relatively quickly but the fourth, we could not get to at all! It was very frustrating but funny at the same time because we kept bumping into the same people who were just as frustrated as we were. We finally made it to the last tower but then had the almost impossible task of finding the exit. I have no idea how long we were in that maze for but if felt like hours...and just so you know, we did make it out...eventually!

Another great thing about Wanaka was the cinema. A tiny little one screen place with sofas, beanbags and comfy chairs instead of the normal cinema seats. They also had an old Morris Minor in the cinema which you could sit in, very cool! And half way through the film they have a short break when you can buy fresh out of the oven cookies...and it was the best cookie I have ever tasted, look at the size of it!!We went to see the film 'Once', an understated film about songwriters in Dublin which although a little independant film, won the Oscar for best song 'Falling Slowly'. I recommend you check both the film and the song out.

I should also add that it is freezing here. Quite literally. We left a bucket of water outside our van last night and this is morning, the top had iced over. Just remember that we have no heating in our van, so we are a little chilly at night time. So much so that last night, I wore 2 pairs of socks, my pj's, 4 tops, my hoodie, sleeping bag liner, sleeping bag, blanket, duvet and gloves....and I was just about warm enough.