The south .........

Arrived in Picton off the ferry very nice place not alot going on but we spend the night and leave in the morning. All i do have to say is that it can't half rain in Picton.

We take the 1.00pm trans scenic express trian, which can only be described as a cattle train, cows and chickens all over the place not to mention the thousands of sheep!
Despite the occasional whiff of s*** coming from the other passangers and thats just Dave, it has to be one of the most memorable train journeys, along the coast watching the waves out of one side and snow caped mountains on the other.

Christchurch again it likes to rain ......

Reason coming to Christchurch is to do Arthers Pass but we cant, none of our naked buss followers go that way, dream over!
Or not, in the bed next to us is a young man named Tom who likes to talk about w***ing and lunging quite alot (sorry mum). Tom is willing to drive us around the south island! Dream back on!

The 2200km journey will take us to Greymouth via Arthers Pass, down the west coast to Franz Josef, Fox Glacier, Haast, Wanaka, Timaru and back to Christchurch and will take us 1 week.
The next morning Van Dam is born with the help of t*** m'ghee and Gandalf.
We head out for Arthers Pass which is possibly the most awesome drive you could ever do taking you high into the mountains, giving great views of snowy mountain tops , lakes and rivers. The kind of lakes that when you take a pic you can turn it upside down and you wouldn't know the differance.
Arrived in Greymouth where we park up behind bargin booze for what may turn out to be a very memorable night. We hit the town looking for some good pubs with high expectations. So we end up in bed at half ten drinking a local bru called 'beer' which costs $6 it tastes like cats piss!
Turns out that night we weren't really prepared for the cold with our sleeping bags that say extreme cold 4, not good when the van is telling us -2. A trip to the supermarket for some thermals is on the cards.
Franz Josef, very nice place got one of them big glacier things there. So why not walk to it Dave suggests.
6 hours and 20 km later through rain forest, over rivers, rope bridges and signs that say do not enter Dave 'Bear Grylls' Mahon leads us to the foot of the Glacier. Some how i dont think Tom realised what he'd put himself in for, in jeans and pumps he still makes it and shows us he's not just a southern fairy.
We planned to make the next stop Haast but due to there being only 1 shop and 1 house we decide to carry on to Wanaka where we spend the next 3 nights next to the lake.
After 3 nights of partying we head back up the east cost to the party town of the south island Timaru(only joking), turns out Haast has more life than Timaru and we're back at the van even earlier, in bed for 10 not good when its -4. Turns out the way to handle the cold is to wear all your clothes, my bag has never been so light.

Back in Christchurch we make the most of a bed and not a van sofa and make plans for Queenstown and oz.