Our plan for the South Island began by arriving in Picton early and then going to watch the boxing between Mcgreggor and Mayweather. We didn't think it would be too hard to find but after checking in all of the local sports bars and pubs we soon realised this wasn't going to be the case. Luckily Sean found somewhere to stream it online, as it's fair to say he was more than a bit annoyed at the prospect of missing it.
The drive down the coast was gorgeous and there was always somewhere around each bend that we wanted to stop at and photograph.
We began to head in land and eventually the mountains started appearing around us. It's hard to put into words how amazing the views really were but it's definitely one of the most beautiful places we've seen so far. Being able to just stop for fish and chips with a view like this to look out on made us feel very lucky.
The famous Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers are 2 of the main attractions in the area. We knew that the best way to see them would be from the air so we excitedly booked a helicopter ride for that afternoon. Unfortunately about 20 minutes before we were about to fly the helicopter guys informed us that it was going to have to be delayed because of low cloud but that it should clear up pretty quickly. So off we went for an hour, had lunch, then returned excited and ready to fly... but no. Once again it had to be delayed. This time they weren't as hopeful and with the weather forecast not good for the next few days we gave in. We were quite disappointed but decided to see it that we'd just saved ourselves $400 and instead we did a quick walk up the side of the mountains to see the glaciers from the bottom.
We continued heading south towards Queenstown stopping off at various sites along the way.
Quite randomly we came across a puzzle museum. Sean was completely in his element and it took a good couple of hours before I managed to drag him away.
The drive down to Queenstown took about 3 days in total but finally we arrived. So many people had told us how Queenstown was their favourite place and we could easily see why as there was plenty to do, lots of nice restaurants and quirky streets and shops. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to actually explore the town, but just the drive there had been worth it in itself. Whilst here we needed to book a coach to take us from the campervan drop off, up to the north island where we were flying out from. It wasn't until we were driving away and made some phone calls that we found that we could actually change our flights for less than the price of the coach, which made everything so much simpler for us.
From here we made our way up to Christchurch, taking in every last bit of New Zealand that we could before returning back to Australia. It had been an amazing 2 weeks and fair to say that it's definitely one of our top countries to visit.
Coming back to Australia surprisingly felt quite strange. Because of work, it felt like ages ago since we had been travelling around. When we picked up the car from the airport and had no base to get back to, we were suddenly asking ourselves, right where too now?
We decided as we hadn't actually spent much time in Melbourne that we would spend an afternoon there and check it out. Sean in particular really doesn't enjoy cities and it's quite hard to get the feel of one without spending at least a good few days there but we had a good walk around, visited a gallery and saw a couple of sights. It was nice.
The following day we headed for the coast to begin the great ocean road. Unfortunately the weather was probably the worst it could have been for this but we didn't let it ruin it for us. We just had to be quick. There was a lot of waiting in the car, then dashing out to get some photos, then racing back before we got too wet.
At the end of the great ocean road we got to Warrnambool. Since being in Australia we always wanted to see the whales as they migrated north past the coast but always seemed to be in the wrong place or it was the wrong time. We actually thought we had missed it again with working on the farm and then going to New Zealand but it turned out we were just in time and at the perfect spot for it. We had met a nice French couple who had seen the whales the previous day and told us where to go and low and behold the next day there they were. The sea was quite rough and it was quite a cold day so they didn't seem to be coming out of the water much but it was still incredible to see. Getting good photos was very hard though.
From here we travelled north up to Adelaide. We were desperate to reach the warm weather but day by day we were slowly getting warmer. This would be the last big city before the outback so we decided to get the car serviced. Luckily nothing major needed doing and we were all set for the big drive up the middle of the country.
:)
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