Us at MT Aoraki third highest mountain in the world

Hello, we got picked up and taken to Ace car rentals office to collect our new car, a nissan pulsar, went straight down to the supermarket and stocked up on food (rice pasta and beans!!), and made our way out of Chrsitchurch, down south to an odd little town named Waimate, where we set up camp, in a free campsite, and later on that night, I (Teilo) managed to lock the keys inside the car!! and we hadn’t even had it 10 hours! oops!!haha

So the next morning I walked to the town and had to phone up the AA, who charged us $85 callout fee to break into the car, so we then had our breakfast and set off to see some wallabies, but the owners must have been asleep, beacause we were knocking on  the door for a good 5 mins and only the parrots we could see through the window were answering!? so instead we set off to the nearest large town and parked up in a carpark to have a walk around the town, we returned about 25 mins later and spotted a crack in the taillight of the car, so someone must have backed into us and driven off, arseholes!! But we tried to forget about it and drove to the top of a nearby cliff to a yellow eyed penguin hide, and watched them hop out of the sea and make their way up the beach! and up the cliff to their nests, and as we were walking along the track back to the car, the penguin man who gave us a little talk on the penguin habits called us over and pointed out two penguins who’s nest had been destroyed and were hiding in the bush just a few metres away preening each other, they were well cute.

The next day we made our way to a little town called Twizel, along a road that weaved in and out of huge dams, and stopped along the way, to go and see some amazing land formations called the clay cliffs, which were created by water erosion over years and years. When we woke up in Twizel the next morning it was pissing it down, so we just stuffed the tent into its bag and jumped in the car and set off to Aoraki Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, but it was raining so much that we just spent the next 24 hours in the car peering out the windows into the gloom. But we woke up the next morning to a beautiful day and saw that we were in a valley surrounded by snowtopped mountains and glaciers, it was amazing! So we decided to make the most of it and stretch our legs and set off on some beautiful walks, one of which involved walking up Hooker Valley hehheh, and crossing a couple of insane swingbridges suspended over a roaring river!! Which Kaley loved!

The next day we decided to set off down south, and at about midday we were driving along and some pleb sped past us and sent a piece of gravel flying into our windscreen which made a deep chip and a big crack! We then realized we had to drive all the way down to Dunedin to get our car changed, and pay for the damage, a new windscreen!! but luckily they didnt notice the tail-light ;), and to be honest we were quite glad to get rid of the petrol guzzling cursed car… and now we have ourselves, what the car company think is a Toyota Corolla? only theres no proof it is seeing as it doesnt say the make or model anywhere an we dont recognize the badge!?

So we decided to get out of the city and see Otago Peninsula, which has been amazing! Although the weather has been a bit gloomy… the wildlife has been brilliant, we’ve had royal albatrosses flying metres over our heads, and shared a beach up close to enourmous fur seals, seen loads of different types of birdlife, including spoobills a few different breeds of shag and loads of herons and black swans. And then last night we went down to Pilots Beach just before dusk and watched about 70 little blue penguins make their way back to their nests, and some came within about three metres of us whilst we crouched rock still and held our breath, it was wickedand we were well chuffed afterwards, and still are.

We are now sat in the library in Dunedin and are about to travel west along the south coast to the Catlins and the Fiordlands, a really remote area where the internet might be few and far between, so we will write again soon!! xxx

Us looking lovely and white above Akaroa harbour, Banks Peninsula

Hello all, Been up to quite a bit since we last blogged, we hired ourselves a little automatic, which Kaley had great fun learning to drive :s..

and we set off south east, toward Banks Peninsula, along crazy winding roads, up into the hills, with sheer drops on roads barley wide enough for two cars, which was most interesting, turned out cheaper to reant a car aswell, seeing as we got to see alot more than we would’ve on the rip off tourist buses, we discovered beautiful little bays, and camped in a pine forest on the edge of a lovely sandy beach, and visited an amazing little Maori musem, and visited a quiet little town named Akoroa, where we bought some fish and chips and were harrassed by a duck and a load of seagulls, which were almost as vicious as the ones at home, but not quite.

But unfortunatly we had to give the car back, so we then caught a bus like everybody else up to Hanmer Springs, even though to be honest it would have been cheaper taking the car, we found some lovely little walks around there, winding through pine forests, which was nice as it got us out of the scorching sunlight, hehe. And that evening we took a dip in the springs, which was gorgeous, and nothing like the smelly brown pools in Peru!

But we are back in Christchurch now, as we got a bit fed up at being caught in the tourist trap, so we are getting ourselves another car for the next two months, as we’ve worked out that it will be the same price, if not a little cheaper than hopping on and off of extortionate buses and carrying our very heavy bags all over the place, so we’ll keep you all up to date, lots of love Kaley and Teilo

Us under a big tree in the Christchurch Park

Hello everyone, we’re here! As soon as we got here we decided to just book into a hostel called Stonehurst and just had a little walk around the city central to look for some food, then we realized how tired we actually were and decided to just buy some pasta gom back to the hostel and just eat and sleep.

The next day we got up bright and early, it’s scorching here, just looked out the window and we literally can’t see a single cloud in the sky and its just gone 9AM , we went for a walk around the botanical gardens of christchurch, which were really nice, and massive, they had an indoor tropical concervatory full of crazy plants and flowers and a section full of cacti, and the best thing about it all is that it was all free!

It is now tuesday here and were going to leave christchurch today and go east to the coast, and Banks peninsula where you can apparently see dolphins, seals and sometimes penguins which should be cool, and we’re thinking of camping in a campsite near the beach in a place called Okains Bay, missing you all, but not too much, will be in touch soon. xxx