Driving on the road to nowhere

Sometimes we wake up without a plan for the day but often they turn out to be the best times.
We're moving around the South Island a lot and have done over 2100 kms in 8 days. The casmpsites are mostly right by the coast with differing facilities like trampolines.

We visited Puzzleland in Lake Wanaka where I could have spent the whole day, illusions, puzzles and games but Bec dragged me away before I got settled. I'm supposed to be yawning nonchanlantly in the pic but look like I've got my thumb up (yes, Ste I did have my thumb up in the surfing pic). We've passedthrough Rotherham, Sheffield and countless other places in England but I couldn't resist taking a pic of Springfield.

We nipped over to the West coast for 2 days and took in the sights of the magnificent Franz Josef Glacier. It's the lowest glacier (to sea level) in the world and moves up to 5 metres a day down the valley. The West coast intrigued us as the weather was very British; rainy and grey but the vegetation was tropical, so whilst you're driving in grey conditions the countryside still delights you. As we crossed the Southern Alps again to come up to Kaikora on the NE coast the weather and scenery changed in an instant - bright blue skies with reds, yellows and oranges.

Kaikora (where we are now) is famous for it's oceanlife - whales, dolphins and seals especially. When we arrived at our campsite the Irish lady on reception gave us some blarney about a whale and her cub being in the bay all week but we didn't see her. The seals were right on the coast though, literally 5 metres from the road. The sight of a big lazy lump scratching its backside and trying to find a comfy position lying down seemed strangely familiar to Bec.

I'll let Amar, Si and Ste make the jokes and comparisons about the seals and the pictures of me in the spa...

Yesterday we drove to Hanmer Springs and enjoyed the natural hot spas (another free offer allowed us to have our own private pool for half an hour). Bliss.

I'm going to return the favour and drive Bec around while she tastes some New Zealand white wines this afternoon and then we'll sample some sea food for dinner; will make a nice change from the supper noodles we've been having(!)