We landed in Auckland at 11am and made our way to the Luck Car Rentals office.

We were offered the opportunity to repeat our acquaintance with a Tin Chariot, but with a slight sense of guilt and disloyalty, we opted for a $5 per day upgrade to a Nissan Insipid - a symphony of beige plastic with radio controls labeled in Japanese, but offering a larger engine and boot.

And so we set of through heavy Auckland traffic to a stretch of what we would recognise as bona fide motorway as we headed North on Highway 1 to Paihia on the bay of islands - a three hour trip.

New Zealand is experiencing one of its driest summers on record. We however, have a suspicion that the name Perkins translates to “Rainmaker” in the Moari language.

We had a wet drive.

And so we arrived at Paihia and had our first view of the Bay of Islands. Beautiful!

Morna and I are sitting in the departure lounge at Christchurch airport, waiting for our flight to Auckland, so this is a good opportunity to share our overall impressions so far.

This is already the best holiday we have ever had and the South Island of NZ is the best holiday destination we have ever been to (ahead of Italy even). Everything here is beautiful, easy and works perfectly.

They do get rain here and it can also be a bit chilly at times, it’s much like the UK in that respect. We have used our fleeces, rain jackets and brollys. That said, the sun is fierce - as my sunburned forehead can testify. You need sunscreen and a hat.

This is a stunningly beautiful country with amazing views around every corner and a wide diversity of landscapes. There are very few people in large areas of the country and the West coast of the South island is a true wilderness.

The Kiwis are...

Just to the south east of Christchurch is the Banks peninsular. This was formed by an ancient volcano and consists of a jumble of rounded, grass covered mountains, with some forests and lots of bays and coastal inlets. It is beautiful and, again, has few people, when you consider that it is just a short drive from NZ’s second largest city.

We decided to drive to Akaroa, the oldest (and largest) town on the Banks peninsular.

The drive took an hour and a half on winding roads with terrific views.

Akaroa, is the oldest settlement in the Canterbury region, was originally settled by the French and still has a strong French character.

It is located on the side of a huge and perfectly formed natural anchorage called Akaroa harbour. It is a wonderful location for a town and has a decidedly up-market feel to it. It looks to be a favoured retirement spot.

Akaroa harbour has fur seals...

Our trip got off to an inauspicious start as I clipped the bumper of the car next to us as I reversed out of our parking space at the motel. Since it was 7am, I left a note of apology and my contact details under the wiper of the injured car. More on this later.

Kaikoura is a two and a half hour drive north-east from Christchurch.

As we set off it was drizzling with rain and a bit misty. The drive was pretty straightforward and, like our road-trip up the west coast, there was little in the way of towns or villages of any real size.

We drove through the vineyards of the Waipara district, that produces some of NZ’s best wines, on to the small town of Cheviot and into the hills beyond (hills that do indeed resemble Northumberland’s Cheviot hills), eventually striking the coast at Oaro and finishing with a spectacular coastal drive with the rollers of the Pacific Ocean, creating clouds...

Christchurch, with a population of 325,000 is New Zealand’s second city and we will be spending 6 nights here.

We are staying at a pleasant motel facing Hagley park, close to the centre of the city.

On Monday and Tuesday, I had business to attend to, but this morning Morna and I took a walk into the city centre.

We knew about the earthquakes that struck the city in 2010/11 including the big one that happened on February 22nd 2011. We knew that 185 people had died, but we had no idea of the extent of the devastation and disruption.

The epicentre of the quake was under the city and the seismic waves bounced of the hard rocks of the Banks peninsular and were reflected back to the city causing wave interferences; some parts of the city experienced only minor tremors, others took terrific punishment.

The city centre, the beating heart of the city, was torn apart.

85% of the buildings...

After our return from our glacier adventure, we hopped aboard the tin chariot and headed North.

Great road, but no signs of life, apart from the mysterious solo cyclists.

All through out road trip we have been puzzled by the number of solo cyclists labouring up endless mountain inclines riding heavily laden bicycles. A bit sad really; not our idea of a great way to spend a holiday!

Eventually, we left the national parks and entered sparse farmland with isolated farmhouses and the ocasional really small town.

Our destination was Hokitika. Once a gold rush town of 30,000 souls and NZ’s second biggest port, With a population of only 2,000, it is still one of the biggest towns on the west coast. It has a proper airport and amazingly wide roads; Imagine suburban streets wide enough to accomodate the A14 with room to spare.

Window shopping; Morna was interested in some of the unique...

Saturday and today was the day of our guided hike on the Fox Glacier.

It was a beautiful day, gin clear and cloud free, which is not that common in these parts.

We mustered at the glacier guides HQ on the main drag, having stocked up with supplies first (meat pies and Kit Kats).

We boarded an ancient bus and were ferried to the helipad. Here we were all weighed and grouped into batches 6 people of appropriate mass and lead out to our Helicopter.

Once we had squeezed 6 people (plus pilot) into the machine, we took off in a slick and drama-free fashion…

Morna is getting pretty cool about all this dare-devil stuff…

The trip up to the glacier took only 6 minutes and we soon set down on a small patch of flat ice that the guides had carved out with ice axes.

We were all provided with cramp-ons and we set out following the guide in single file.

Progress on the ice is very...

Wanaka is a smaller, busier, more upmarket version of Queenstown, but as you drive North, back towards the West coast, the traffic thins out rapidly and soon we pretty much had the road to ourselves…

The road climbs back over the Southern Alps as the Haast Pass Highway, a road that the was only completed in 1962. As we descend to the Valley of the Haast river (the biggest river I have never previously heard of).

We stopped at the township,of Haast (consisting of a public toilet, a cafe and a petrol station), before crossing the huge single track bridge over the Haast river and then onto the costal road up the West coast.

There are no people here. The road is first class, but apart from the odd camper van, solo cyclist and road repair crew, we had the road to ourselves.

There are some big rivers here with long, single lane bridges…

Driving the west coast of NZ is just like...

On Thursday we left Te Anau and retraced our track to Queenstown. As we were topping up with fuel, I noticed that there was a straight back road linking Queenstown to Wanaka avoiding a the long main road alternative.

The lady in the filling station informed me this was a viable option. So we set out Blythly to take the Crown ridge road, one of the most demanding roads in the South Island.

The road climbed via a series of hairpins (1st or 2nd gear) up onto the top of the Crown range. Close to the top a viewpoint gave a breathtaking view.

That said, an hour after leaving the filling station we cruised into our destination.

Wanaka is a beautiful lake resort town, somewhat upmarket from Queenstown. It’s pride is a long lakeside beachfront with a backdrop of lofty mountain peaks across the lake.

We checked into the motel and then took a long walk along the lakeshore.

Morna couldn’t...

After arriving at the quay in Milford sound, we boarded a boat for a two-hour trip down the fiord to the open sea and back.

Following the heavy rain of the last few weeks, there were plenty of waterfalls, many with vertical drops of hundreds of meters into the sound.

The scenery is on an epic scale. It can only be experienced. It is impossible to capture with a camera.

Where there are reasonably flat rocks along the shore, there are Fur Seals sunning themselves…

As we approached the final waterfall, on our way back to the dock, the skipper announced his intention to nose the boat into the curtain of falling water. Those of us that we’re listening, sought shelter in the cabin. Others got very wet indeed…

On our journey back, high in the mountains, we stopped in a a car park and had an encounter with a wild Kea. Leas are large alpine parrots that have little fear of humans...