Sydney, the Blue Mountains & the Hunter Valley

In preparations for our wedding, we stumbled upon an advert for a jewellers in Sydney that specialises in personalised 'ring workshops' where you design and make your own wedding rings with a qualified jeweller. There are only a few places in the world where you can do this and after doing some research, we decided it would be really special experience to have made each others wedding rings. We booked ourselves onto a workshop for the 29th November and then in our true 'addicted to travel style' we decided to make a holiday of it in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and around the wineries of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

We took a cheapie flight with JetStar and arrived in Sydney at lunchtime on Friday 28th November. Ash surprised Bi by booking a room in the 5* Westin for 2 nights as it was a special weekend. We have both been earning quite well during our time in Melbourne so we decided to take a break from dorm rooms for once! The room was fabulous and Sydney is such a beautiful city! We strolled through Sydney in the afternoon, ate fish and chips at Darling Harbour and then in the evening we went to see 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical' at the Lyric Theatre in Star City, the Casino. We had front row seats and the show was one of the most outrageous, entertaining and funniest musicals we have seen and it had two characters from the film in it which was a real bonus. The strawberry daiquiri in a flashing red cocktail glass which we drank during the interval was equally as amusing!

The following morning, Saturday, we had a big gourmet breakfast in the elegant Strand Arcade before heading up to the jewellers for our half day ring workshop. We were met by our jeweller who showed us all the different options for designing our rings. We both decided to go for platinum bands (Bi's engagement is also platinum) and after choosing our designs we were provided with an overview of how we would make the rings. Everything was to be done by hand.

We were handed a piece of metal that looked rather like the 'lead pipe' from the Cluedo board game and then started the process of turning this shabby piece of platinum into our wedding rings! We were both responsible for making each other's rings and naturally most of the pressure was on Ash to get Bi's one perfect! Bi on the other hand had the task of making a ring for Ash that was almost big enough for her to wear as a bracelet!! We began by putting the platinum through a mill to elongate the metal, setting the right thickness and width. After this we put the now flattened, straight pieces of metal into a circular vice that bent the metal strips into a ring shape... they looked very crude at this point! We then heated the metal up under a small blowtorch to soften it and then hammered the rings into shape around a conical metal tube. The next step was to saw off the overhanging edge before using melted platinum leaf to solder the two ends of the ring together to form a complete circle. It was exciting to see our rings start to take shape although they still looked incredibly ugly! As instructed, Ash made Bi's perfect! Bi unfortunately had made Ash's wonky and so she had to cut it, rework it and resolder it..oops!

Once both rings were soldered, we took a break and had a nice lunch. We wolfed it down as we wanted to keep going with making our rings. After lunch we faced the very long process of filing and polishing the rings to bring the colour and finish out of the platinum. It felt never ending as we went through numerous different grades of files (which looked a bit like emery boards) before finishing the rings on an electric polisher. The rings were gleaming and almost unrecognisable against the ugly piece of dull metal we first started with. It was very exciting.

The whole process took about 4.5 hours and it was fantastic to be so involved in making each other's rings, especially since we did it all by traditional hand methods. We left the rings with the jeweller to be engraved on the inside with our names and wedding date. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city and Chinatown before returning to collect our rings in the early evening and we celebrated their completion with a glass of champagne. We could not stop opening up the box and looking at them. That evening we had a meal at The Astral, a posh restaurant on the top floor of Star City (the casino), overlooking Sydney Harbour. We arrived a little early for our reservation so we ducked into the casino for 10 minutes and Ash managed to accumulate a few winnings at the roulette table that bought us a very nice bottle of wine at dinner!

On Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and picked up a hire car. We drove out of Sydney and 1.5 hours west to the Blue Mountains, a beautiful forested national park full of deep gorges and with a slight blue haze (given off by the Eucalyptus apparently). We stopped at a lookout over the Wentworth Falls and Jamison Valley before heading onto Katoomba, the chief town of the Blue Mountains National Park to find some accommodation for the night. Katoomba is pretty as Australian towns go and we were hungry when we arrived so we stopped into a tea shop for a cream tea. Disappointingly a cream tea in Australia comes with whipped cream as they don't have clotted cream! Afterwards we had a ramble through the town before setting off to look for accommodation. We found a gorgeous little bed and breakfast called Windradyne with spectacular views across the whole national park and only walking distance to the area's most famous landmark, the Three Sisters which is a formation of three towering sandstone peaks.

As it was a lovely evening we decided to head to the local Coles supermarket and grab a bottle of wine and provisions for a picnic dinner. We sat ourselves on a bench overlooking the Blue Mountains and there we sat and watched the sunset with a bottle of red wine, dips, olives, crusty bread, tomatoes and salad. It was bliss! As the sun set, we packed up and then walked down and around the Three Sisters before heading back to our B&B for some complimentary port (for Ash!) and tea and biccies (obviously for Bi!). That evening Bi forced Ash to sit up and watch a very girly film called 'The Notebook'. His preparation for marriage is complete!

On Monday morning we were up early and took a long 3 hour scenic walk down into and along the gorge floor before taking the world's steepest funicular railway back up to the top. It was indeed steep, so much so that you started the ride lying on your back! We then followed the rim of the gorge back to our accommodation and before driving to the pretty nearby village of Leura. We wandered around the village (with Bi unable to resist the draw of the boutique shops and cafes) before grabbing some lunch and heading 2 hours north to the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's most famous and beautiful wine making regions. Famous for their production of world class Shiraz and Semillon, Ash just had to literally follow his nose and the scent of crushed fermenting grapes! We arrived late in the afternoon and in true 'backpacker' fashion headed to the local tourist information office to suss out the last minute accommodation deals. We chose a place called the Tuscan Resort, slap bang in the middle of all the wineries. That evening we went for a meal at a recommended restaurant called 'Amandas' which was terribly romantic; all candlelit with lovely views across the wineries. Bi was in her element!

By 10am the following morning, Ash was already ahead of the crowds and sampling his first tipple of the day. Today was Hunter Valley wine tasting day and he was wasting no time about it!! We started by visiting Pigg's Peake winery, a tiny boutique winery noted for their outstanding shiraz. The recommendations were spot on and Ash quickly picked up a bottle! Ash has gotten a real taste for good wine whilst here in Oz and is sure to miss it when we return to the UK! After Pigg's Peake we headed on to Tyrell's, a spectacularly located winery with sweeping views over the Hunter Valley hills and vines. The wine was also excellent and after a thorough tasting we decided to splash out and purchase a really excellent bottle of the 2004 VAT 8 Shiraz (but not to be opened for about 5 years!). Next stop was at a small, boutique winery located at the beautiful Peppers Guesthouse.

By midday we had rumbling tummies and decided we had better soak up some of the wine with some lunch. We stopped into the Cheese shop and bought ourselves a picnic of locally produced cheese, bread and olives and on a recommendation, we headed up a long hill to the Audrey Wilkinson winery for a stunning spot to have our lunch. First things first however, Ash completed another tasting and bought yet another bottle of wine before we sat at a picnic table and enjoyed our food with stunning views over the valley. That afternoon we visited Lindemans and Rosemount Estate but found them to be a bit big and unfriendly (not to mention that their plonk wasn't all that good either). Next stop was to Peppertree winery where we tasted some lovely wines. We were gutted to be in a position where we couldn't fit anymore wine into our luggage and so we settled for a very pretty empty bottle that Bi wants to use for her olive oil!!

By mid afternoon we were both very very hot and very tired so we decided to look for another hotel for the night. We headed back to the tourist information office to grab ourselves another last minute deal and sample a different hotel. We found ourselves a lovely room at the Hunter Valley Resort and spent a few hours out of the searing heat watching DVDs in the air conditioning... thank goodness for air conditioning!!. In the evening we had a reservation at the highly acclaimed 'Roberts Restaurant' situated next to the Peppertree winery and which is reputedly the most romantic restaurant in Australia. Wow... it really was very special and the food and service was excellent. The restaurant itself is a lovely old slab cottage dating back 200 years and reminded us of some of the old National Trust cottages we regularly visited back in England. We finished our meal with tea and coffee in the quaint lounge (which smelt like an old library). Bi is completely in love with the place.

On Wednesday, our last day, we said goodbyes to the Hunter Valley and drove 45 minutes north to Newcastle which is where we take our flight back to Melbourne. Newcastle was a tiny and rather unexciting town so we decided to continue driving to Port Stephens, a beach town just north of Newcastle. We wandered the town and had lunch by the harbour before returning to Newcastle to catch our flight back to Melbourne.

Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock) & King's Canyon

Early on Tuesday morning (Melbourne Cup Day - 4th November) we took a taxi to Tullamarine airport for our Tiger Air flight to Alice Springs. You can only appreciate the size of Australia by flying over it and what looked like a short hop on the map was actually a 2hr 40min flight over barren and uninhabited desert. On touching down into the small airport we jumped into a taxi to our hotel, the 4* Alice Springs Resort. We were expecting some glamour but it was faded glory and as Ash put it, a bit like an old people's home but it was comfortable! We dumped our stuff, changed into some cooler clothes and then wander across the dried up Todd River and into the town centre. Alice Springs has a population of just 27,000 inhabitants and it was so quiet with a kind of 'Wild West' feel to it. There is a large population of Aboriginals in 'the Alice', something you don't see in Melbourne and many of the other Australian cities. They were all sat in their groups around the grassy areas of the town centre just watching the day go by.

We wandered up and down the main thoroughfare which is a mix of souvenir shops and art galleries selling beautiful aboriginal dot paintings, restaurants and cafes and regular clothes and food shops. We stopped into a cafe for some lunch and then headed to a didgeridoo workshop for a free half hour lesson. We selected our didgeridoo (Bi pulling faces and wiping hers about million times to remove the germs from all the people who had used it before her!!!) and then sat with the instructor who made it all look very easy. It was really quite hard to get a decent sound out of the didgeridoo and to get the hang of circular breathing but by the end of the lesson, Ash was starting to get the hang of it. Bi got puffed out and gave up as most of the time her playing sounded like a 'fart' noise! At the end of the lesson Ash decided he had to have a didgeridoo and where better to buy one than in the Outback! After much debate we decided to invest in a good one and so Ash selected a locally handcrafted 'didge' carved from Bloodwood Eucalyptus. It was almost as tall as Bi and has been posted directly to the UK. It will be a nice surprise to meet up with it, amongst all the other things we have posted during our travels when we arrive back in the UK in March 09. We spent the rest of the day we spent wandering the town and admiring the work in the many galleries.

The following morning, Wednesday, we were picked up at 6am for our 3 day tour to Ayers Rock and the King's Canyon. After roughing it through South America and now earning we had decided to take a more relaxed tour and booked ourselves onto the 'Safari in Style' tour. Our vehicle was a large 16 seater 4WD truck with air conditioning. Funnily enough we were the only native English speakers on the bus besides for our tour leaders.. everyone else was German!

Ayers Rock is actually a 5 hour drive from Alice Springs so we spent the majority of the morning in the truck. It's amazing how barren the centre of Australia is.... after leaving Alice Springs we saw literally nothing but red sand and shrubland for 5 hours. We arrived at Yulara, the name for our accommodation base near to Ayers Rock in time for lunch before heading to the Uluru Cultural Centre to find out a little about the Rock. We then proceeded to drive an hour west to Kata Tjuta National Park where we walked among a group of 36 huge domed red rock formations called 'The Olgas'. We walked to a viewpoint as the temperature pushed towards a blisteringly hot 45oC for some good views before returning to our bus. We then drove to the sunset viewpoint of Ayers Rock and in true style drank a glass or two of champagne as we watched the sun set and the Rock become an ever deeper shade of red. It was a great experience. The Germans were restrained in their drinking so Ash finished off the bottle! After sunset we returned to our 'luxury campsite' in Yulara and were very surprised to find that the permanent tents we were staying in were really quite good... each contained two full-size single beds with mattress, duvet and pillows, clean sheets, a bedside table with lamp and a fan! After all our basic camping in South America it was a treat!

On Thursday we were up at 4am (ouch!) and after an early breakfast we headed back to Ayers Rock for a sunrise viewing and then walked the 9.6km around the base of the Rock. It was a pleasant and pretty walk, improved by the cool morning air which would have been perfect had it not been for the thousands of pesky flies that are common in the Red Centre! Ayers Rock is an huge and impressive monolith and regarded as sacred by the Aborigines. For that reason and for the fact that it was closed because of rising temperatures we decided not to climb the Rock. After an early lunch at Yulara we jumped back in our bus and drove 4 hours north to our accommodation at the King's Canyon Resort in Watarrka National Park. We were at another 'luxury campsite', this time with a bar, shop and swimming pool so we spent the remainder of the baking hot afternoon swimming in the pool and eating ice creams. In the evening a delightful cold change came through, lowering the temperature by about 200C and with it came a huge thunderstorm. The sky was lit up with all the lightning and the rain was extremely heavy. It was a genuinely exhilirating experience going to sleep in our tents with the net windows open, able to see and hear the full fury of the thunderstorm overhead.

We were up at 4.30am on Friday and after breakfast we drove to the King's Canyon. With all the rain, the road had severely flooded and at one point had turned into a 60cm deep creek. This was impassable for some of the coaches but as we were in our 4WD truck we plowed through, rock music blaring! We took a 3 hour scenic walk up and around the rim of the King's Canyon, which is an impressive red stone gorge carved by an ancient river. After all the rain the normally dry and dusty river bed was in full flow. It was a beautiful walk with great views. After lunch we packed our bags and returned the 5 hours to Alice Springs, with a short break to view the Mt Connor tabletop mountain. On returning to Alice we were dropped off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel... we had decided to finish our dusty desert trip with a little luxury! After some needed showers, we smartened up and had dinner in a great thai restaurant attached to the hotel. We had a well earned lie-in the following morning before catching our early return flight to Melbourne... it was a great finish!

Wedding Planning

With Ash's parents only in Melbourne for 4 days (before travelling onwards) we had a pretty small range of dates to chose our wedding. We finally decided on Sunday 28th December 2008 and with just three months to plan an entire wedding we had to hit the ground running. The decision on where to hold our wedding celebrations was an easy one! We love good food and good wine and we just happen to be in a country that has some of the world's best wine producing regions. So, where better than to celebrate our wedding at a local winery!

We spent the first four weeks of our time in Melbourne scouring the Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley wine regions (believe us when we say we left no stone unturned). Bi was chauffeur, venue critic and chief stresser while Ash was chief wine sampler and food critic! Both the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula regions are very beautiful with rolling vine-covered hills scattered with boutique wineries, excellent restaurants, boutique hotels, B&Bs and gourmet food shops. Trying to find the right venue was probably one of the most difficult decisions we have had to make regarding the wedding. We have been quite priviledged to see and do so many fantastic things together this year and so we had some pretty high standards!

We set our hearts on the beautiful Yarra Valley. It is on the doorstep of where Bi grew up and adds a nice touch of nostalgia to the whole occasion! It is also local to all our guests. We visited and revisited De Bortoli, Yering Station, Balgownie Estate, Fergussons Estate, Yarrawood, Helen's Hill, Stones of the Yarra Valley, Domaine Chandon, Badger's Brook, Roundstone, Rochfords Estate, Billanook Estate, Kellybrook Winery, Evelyn County Estate, Panton Hill, Tokar Estate, Tarrawarra Estate, Elmswood Estate and Inglewood Estate. It was on more than one occasion that Ash finished the day a bit tipsy from all the tastings!

After going round and round in circles we finally booked our reception at one of the first wineries we visited..... arrrgh.. after all that!! It is a small boutique winery called Evelyn County Estate on the edge of the Yarra Valley in a place called Kangaroo Ground. It is aptly named because there are so many wild kangaroos in the area. It is about a 15 minutes drive from Bi’s parents house and very local to all our guests. The restaurant serves local, organic, seasonal Yarra Valley produce and is in beautiful, rustic Australian bush setting with views out over the vineyards. Below the winery is a charming cottage called 'The Retreat' set next to a spring fed dam complete with resident ducks, geese and plenty of kangaroos. We will be staying at the Retreat on our wedding night which means we don't have to travel far after the reception. We love the place; it is definitely very us! We were keen not to replicate anything ‘English' and wanted to celebrate in proper 'Aussie' style with gumtrees, vineyards, parakeets, cockatoos, kangaroos and sunshine (hopefully!!!!)........ all washed down with locally produced wine and the sounds of a four piece swing jazz band on a Sunday evening!

With our venue booked we had to decide on where to actually get married..... just a minor detail!!! We decided upon having a celebrant marry us at a local National Trust listed building called Montsalvat. It is a five minute drive from Bi's family home and provides a beautiful, formal setting for our ceremony. The Gallery where we will be married has big stained glass windows and pews so that Bi can have her pew bows!

With the venue and ceremony location secured our next task was to sort out the bridal party, the celebrant, the entertainment, the cake, the cars, the hairdresser, the flowers, the make-up artist..... the list goes on and on and on! Bi very quickly realised the advantage of being the last of her girlfriends to get married and she capitalised on it by using most of their contacts which saved hours and hours of research time. We are very lucky that we have been able to book so much at short notice and can only thank the time of year we have chosen for that!

We are having a bridal party of 6.... 3 groomsmen (Ash's best friend Jez as the Best Man and Bi's two brothers) and 3 bridesmaids (two of Bi's friends and Ash's sister). Bi's mum and her aunty are taking on the huge task of making all the dresses and her Aunty Shireen is a professional photographer (Victorian Wedding Photographer of the Year in fact!) and will be doing our photos so we are very lucky to have many talented people here in Bi's family to help us out.

With such short time scales and given our wedding is just after Xmas at the start of the Australian summer holidays, we had to be early with our invites. Bi selected the paper design and colours (which included some vine patterned paper to tie in with our reception being at a winery), Bi's mum designed and assembled all the invititations and Ash did all the printing of the inserts. It was a real team effort!

We will travel to Sydney in a few days to make our wedding rings with a professional jeweller as well as spend a few days in the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley. We are nearly there!!!

Time in Melbourne

We have been in Melbourne for nearly 4 months now and what a complete lifestyle change it has been compared to the previous 6 months of our travels. It's been quite an adjustment but the adventures have continued nevertheless. We are currently living at Bi's parents house. It's like Grand Central Station with 6 of us living there but it has been nice to spend real quality time with everyone. Thankfully it's a big house!

When we arrived into Australia we had almost depleted our career break bank accounts after 6 months of not working (mainly thanks to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands but it was well worth it!!) so after a few weeks of relaxing we bought ourselves some interview clothes and started on our quest to find some temporary/contract work. It was a bit depressing having to go out and find work but thankfully we both found work very quickly and it is putting well needed money back into our pockets once again! Bi has a contract audit role in the city while Ash has a complete change of lifestyle and has taken a job at the local garden centre doing all sorts of jobs including help look after the resident Gallahs. He is loving the great outdoors and Bi is very very jealous especially since the nursery has a teahouse attached to it. Bi would love nothing more than to run a little teahouse!

Our time so far has been all go go go! We have been spending lots of time with family and friends, doing some sight seeing and the biggest thing of all..... we have decided make 2008 an even more special and memorable year by getting married at Christmas here in Australia. It is so typically us to fly by the seat of our pants and do something like this off the cuff so it fits perfectly! We never imagined we would set off on a year of adventure and finish it married! Ash's family had already decided they would come out to Melbourne over Christmas so given we will rarely ever have both our families on the same side of the world it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It has also given Bi the chance to plan a wedding on 'home turf' with all her family and closest friends involved and that's not something she could have ever done from the UK. We think it was definitely meant to be!

So far we have spent most of our evenings and weekends sorting out the wedding, visiting Bi’s friends and doing the odd bit of sightseeing and eating out. The lifestyle here is quite a relaxed one…. lots of socialising and eating out and the weather is becoming very nice as we approach summer. A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip out to The Lakehouse, a very nice restaurant in the spa town of Daylesford about 1.5 hours outside of Melbourne. We managed to incur our first speeding ticket. We both stared in disbelief at a letter that stated we were snapped doing 108km in a 100km zone on a motorway. We were fined $140 and 1 demerit point! We could not believe it!

Australian Arrival

After a 3 hour flight from Christchurch we arrived into Melbourne at 5pm where we were met by Bi's dad. That night Bi's mum laid on a huge roast dinner for us and all the family which after 6 months of travelling was a proper treat (we had been craving a roast dinner!).

We are now in Australia for the next 4 months and the plan is to find some temp work so that we are able to fund some travel around Australia and pay for the next part of our trip; 3 months backpacking through India and Nepal.

Christchurch and the End of New Zealand

Thursday morning and we woke up to, you guessed it... more heavy rain! After our usual breakfast of porridge we packed up our things ready to leave. Today is our last full day in New Zealand so we said goodbye to our beloved cool box and donated it to some travellers before leaving our pretty little hostel in Akaroa. With all the rain over the past few days the drive to Christchurch was quite treacherous. Along the windy Banks Peninsula road there were many slips and landslides that we had to drive around and in some places there were streams of flood water running across the road. This was something we had come to expect throughout South America, not New Zealand! Despite the warnings of flooding and road closures we made the 1.5 hour drive into Christchurch without problem. En route into the city centre we made an emergency stop after seeing a sign advertising $10 haircuts. 15 minutes later we were back on the road and heading into the small city centre where we found a rather nice hostel with parking . The fact that it had a Robert Harris Coffee shop next door really sealed the deal for us. We were getting low on cash and still had about 50 'buy one get one free' coffee vouchers left to use.

In the afternoon (and buzzing from all the caffeine!) we wandered the Christchurch Arts Centre which is a converted 18th Century college and now a hub for arts, crafts and boutique shops in Christchurch. We then headed into the centre crossing over the River Avon which was lined with weeping willow trees and had a distinctly English feel. We could have even taken a punt down the river, but having done this fairly recently in Cambridge (and not forgetting it was cold and still raining!) we decided to give it a miss. Christchurch city centre is really one main square called Cathedral Square where.. you guessed it....Christchurch cathedral sits. Although it is pleasant, Christchurch is not a particularly exciting city and half a day was plenty of time to wander around. The most exciting thing we did was walk aroud the cathedral and climb to the top of the main bell tower for views over the city. That evening we celebrated our last night with a meal of fresh pasta and a bottle of wine.

On Friday morning (after another free coffee!) we headed to the aiport, dropping off our car en route. Over the past 5 weeks we have driven over 5,500km (3,500 miles) and covered almost all the major sights in New Zealand. Despite some challenging weather conditions we have really enjoyed our time here, moreso on the South Island where the scenery and feeling of isolation is wonderful.

Where we have visited (chronological):

NORTH ISLAND

Auckland

Bay of Islands

Kauri Coast

Rotorua

Taupo

Waitomo

Wellington

SOUTH ISLAND

Abel Tasman National Park

Marlborough Wine Region

Kaikoura

Arthur's Pass

Franz Josef & Fox Glacier

Wanaka

Queenstown

Milford Sound

Doubtful Sound

Catlins Coast

Dunedin & the Otago Peninsula

Mount Cook National Park

Rangitata Valley

Akaroa & the Banks Peninsula

Christchurch

The Rangitata Valley and Akaroa

We left our little farmhouse early on Tuesday morning and drove north through mountainous scenery to the town of Tekapo, situated on the pretty Lake Tekapo. Here we visited the Church of the Good Shepherd, a tiny chapel perched on a hill in a picturesque spot next to the lake. It was great timing as within 30 seconds of leaving the Church a hoard of school-children and a busload of tourists turned up! From Tekapo we continued north, joining the ‘Inland Scenic Route’ highway before turning left and heading further inland along the Rangitata River Valley. Ash had been busting to see some Lord of the Rings film locations... as of yet we hadn't specifically visited one and this was our opportunity. As we drove along the unsealed, gravelly and pot-mark ridden roads the valley opened up magnificently to wide, flat plains surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains. In the middle of the huge valley was a large roche moutonnee, a rock hill shaped by a glacier, that was used as the set of Edoras in the Lord of the Rings. Ash having watched the film several times got very excited, but Bi amusingly remarked 'What... it's just that hill there?!'. We tried to drive down the valley and up to the hill but it soon became '4x4 only' territory as Ash started to drive through the riverbed! We decided to turn back, parked nearby and walked up to the hill (jumping over a few fences and crossing the odd stream along the way!). It was a stunning location and a worthy trip. From the valley we returned back to the main road and began our 2 hour journey eastwards to Christchurch, our final destination.

After the tranquility and beauty of the countryside over our past few weeks in the South Island we both felt a bit disappointed as we drove into the city of Christchurch. It was 5ish in the evening and we had arrived into Christchurch a day ahead of our schedule. We still had two full days before our flight to Melbourne on Friday. We made a snap decision to skip the city and head somewhere more remote for our last few days. Bi grabbed the guidebook and randomly selected the small seaside village of Akaroa located at the tip of the Banks Peninsula about 85km from Christchurch. What a wonderful decision it was because Akaroa turned out to be one of the loveliest places we have visited and stayed on the South Island. The road to Akaroa was neverending as it sharply twisted and turned its way through steep rolling green hills and through a few remote, pretty villages. We started in daylight on what was a beautiful journey and finally descended steeply down into the seaside village just after dark. We had no accommodation booked and had our fingers and toes crossed that we could find somewhere to stay. There are many places which close for the winter here. The first place we tried had no vacancy so we tried our luck at a quaint and highly recommended little hostel across the road in the centre of the village. Thankfully they had one double room available and it was lovely, just like a charming English B&B so we grabbed it.. not that we could be fussy anyhow! The small hostel is located in a beautiful old colonial house and inside has a cosy little lounge with roaring log fire and well equipped kitchen. It was so quaint and if Bi could have moved in permanently she would have! The hostel and the village has such a lovely feel to it and it hits you immediately. We settled into our room, then starving hungry we cooked ourselves a hearty meal. We finished off the evening with a cup of tea and slab of fruit cake which Bi very happily ate while sat in bed with her hot water bottle and a pile of the latest gossip magazines that she had found on the bookshelf!

We woke the next morning to the aroma of fresh coffee but also to the sound of pelting rain and blustering winds. Both the North and South Islands are currently receiving a battering from exceptionally bad weather at the moment, the north in particular. However, we were so happy in our hostel and to be somewhere so peaceful and relaxing that we didn't mind one bit staying in by the fire most of the day. In fact it was a lovely way to finish a rather non-stop 5 weeks of travelling around New Zealand. We made our breakfast then grabbed a couple of umbrellas and went out for a walk along the village's main street which is lined with little artisian shops, a deli, a couple of grocery stores, a pub and a few restauraunts and a few coffee shops. After touring the shops (Bi naturally doing this in much more detail than Ash) we walked along the shorefront and around the small harbour up to the old lighthouse. We returned to the harbourfront for a lunch of fish and chips which we sat and ate under shelter, shared our chips with some very friendly little birds. Ash had the local blue cod and we shared a big bag of Kumura chips (sweet potato chips) which are the local speciality. With the rain deeply set in, we walked back to the hostel. It was too wet to attempt any of the local walks on offer so we decided to stay cosy and warm and spend the rest of the day by the fire. The hostel was full today so we swapped travel stories with the other guests, played scrabble and Ash even made us an apple crumble. It was a really nice way to spend a rainy afternoon...we absolutely love this place and this village and could happily spend much more time here.

Mount Cook National Park

After a very comfortable and peaceful nights sleep at the farmhouse we were up early and in the kitchen with the other house guests and the owner cooking our breakfasts and making our lunches. With full stomachs and provisions for the day we jumped into the car and headed to Mount Cook National Park where New Zealand's highest mountain of the same name is situated. The journey took about an hour and with relatively clear weather we had good views of the snow capped mountains in the park... well, all except Mount Cook which was unfortunately still clouded over. On arrival into Mount Cook village we headed straight for the visitors centre to find out which of the many walks were open as some were closed due to heavy snowfall. The alpine village is a tiny place nestled in between the mountains and at this time of year it was exceptionally empty and quiet... just the way we like it! We picked two walks then parked the car and set off. The first walk was called The Red Tarns which took us up a windy, stepped path past the snow line to a viewpoint half-way up Mt Sebastopol. We had panoramic views over the village, the national park and it's beautiful mountains and it soon started to snow quite heavily which was lovely. There is something about snow that turns us both into big kids! We decided to stop a while and eat our lunch at the viewpoint before heading back down a rather icy path back to the village. Once back at the village we decided we wanted to stay out in the snow and so we went on a short walk called Governor's Bush which took us along a windy woodland path.

With the snow continuing to fall quite heavily we decided call it a day for walking and visit the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre which is located inside the Hermitage Hotel in Mount Cook village. The centre houses a collection of photos and relics, including a short film documenting the life of Sir Edmund Hillary and his conquest of Everest. There is also information and artifacts on other famous Kiwi mountaineers, all of whom regularly climbed and trained in Mount Cook National Park. Inside there was also a small planitarium and 3D Mount Cook National Park film which was all really very interesting and we managed to while away several hours quite easily.

By late afternoon we decided that we had better make the journey back to our hostel while there was still daylight. The snow was still falling heavily. Back at the hostel we cooked ourselves dinner with Fitzy the dog following our every move and playing all sorts of tricks to get some scraps. We then spent the evening sitting cosily by the fire with the owner watching a DVD of 'George and Mildred' (a 1970's English sitcom that Bi loved as a child).

Tomorrow we will slowly start making our way towards Christchurch which is were we will finish our New Zealand adventures.