Kaikoura, New Zealand

I'm now on the South Island, and my trusty little white Toyota has been replaced by a trusty medium-sized white Nissan. No definite plans right now, other than proceeding round the coastal areas of the whole island in an anti-clockwise direction and taking advantage of the fact that it's winter and a lot of the hostels are quiet (I had an 8-bed dorm to myself on Tuesday night) so I don't need to book in advance. The opposite was true in America: all the hostels were packed out, and so being spontaneous was a prohibitively expensive habit as it meant you ended up having to pay rack rate in a hotel.

Went out on Monday night - my room-mate Dan (who is from Leeds and who took a rather unfair amount of stick from me as a result) was heading off to Australia, having worked at the hostel for a few weeks doing the BBQ, so it was kind of a leaving do for him. Out came the Jagermeisters and, er, oh dear. Went out again on Tuesday night and played pool in a pub down the road from the hostel. Me and some weirdo stoner Kiwi guy played doubles with two girls, one Aussie and one Kiwi. Our first match was boys onto girls and obviously that was a bit one-sided (sorry ladies!).So for the next game it was me and Anna the Kiwi versus Neil the stoner and Carly the Aussie; the prize for the winners was choosing a song for the losers to sing on the karaoke. Anna & I triumphed, and thus did Neil & Carly find themselves singing 'I Can See Clearly Now', very badly indeed (and in Neil's case, stoned as he was, not entirely truthfully).

It's not all been drunken tomfoolery though. Having the hire car has given me the freedom to just drive around and stop wherever takes my fancy. It's worth doing just for the drive itself. On TuesdayI stopped at a place called Baylys Beach and that made a headlong impact straight into my Favourite Places On Earth - I didn't have my camera with me but you can look it up. Miles and miles of completely spotless beach, blue skies, blue sea, cliffs & dunes, &c. Technically you're allowed to drive on the sand but I had nightmarish visions of my hire car sinking in quicksand or being swept out to sea so I didn't take any chances on that score.

I spent Wednesday driving back to Auckland, and on Thursday morning I got my flight over to Christchurch and then drove up here to Kaikoura. See pictures. More in a few days.

Kaikoura

Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga