Ok. We have a confession to make...

You see, after all that we've seen here in NZ, we have to admit to becoming just a little bit complacent.  Not bored, you understand! Never that!  But, it is fair to say that once you've seen the fourteenth stunning vista hove into view as you sail along (well, in our case, rattle along) the winding roads here you do get just a little bit de-sensitized.   It's a shame, but, there really is so much of beauty here that it becomes somewhat the norm.   Views that, in England, would attract crowds of red-cheeked people from Dudley every bank-holiday weekend, are literally everywhere.

Now. There could be a few reasons for this. Maybe we're a little bit kooky because of the subtleties of Campervan Living ™. Maybe it's because, at time of writing, we've driven over 4,500km.   Either way, perhaps now is the time to let you in on a few of the joys we've been experiencing!   It's not all stunning views of waterfalls, you know... For example:

1.  Despite the fact that this is our honeymoon, the amount of sweet-lovin' going on is hampered by our camper.   Anne-Shirley is prone to cold and the temperature here in NZ has not been the hottest; at night the temperature can drop. As Mark turns out the light & rolls over for some pash, he is often faced with a bride wearing several layers of outdoor-clothing and a rather striking pink & purple bobble-hat.   The first time this happened, said hat had been put on in the night whilst he was asleep and, in the morning, it caused him something of a scare.   Anne-Shirley appeared to have been replaced by a minor character from Sesame Street.

2.   We don't always stay in powered campsites. As mentioned in a previous post, you can more or less camp anywhere here in NZ and – to save cash! - we often park up by the side of river-deep, mountain-high... sometimes for two or more nights in a row. This can lead to a heavy reliance on wet-wipes! Dishes need doing? Here's a wet-wipe! No shower this morning? Here's a wet-wipe!
Believe us, you're not really a married couple until you've cleaned your most intimate regions in front of your partner with a couple of wet-wipes in a confined space of a morning.   There's nowhere to hide in the back of a Jucy campervan!   This is what being in a relationship's all about! Still, at least our bottoms (and other bits!) are lemon-fresh with extra aloe vera & vitamin E.   It's not all bad!

Or, maybe it's just the amount of high-quality (!) packet-noodles we're eating but, whereas - at first - you're pulling the campervan over at every available opportunity to snap frantically at the scene in front of you liked a camera-happy Japanese tourist, now it's more of a brief oh-so-sedate look over at the snow-capped mountains and crystal-clear lake that are passing by your window before your eyes return to the pages of the latest Bill Bryson or the road ahead.
Now please, don't get us wrong - we're absolutely sure that once we leave NZ we'll miss it incredibly – we've both never been to a country like it.

A country that, just when you think you've seen it all; just when you're becoming blasé & a little too knowing, throws up not one, not two but three areas of unsurpassed beauty and wonder in quick succession.

Welcome to the west coast of NZ's south island: Glacier Country.

Nowhere else at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the ocean. New Zealand is the only place in the world where glaciers actually touch a rainforest... Fox & Franz Josef glaciers are simply breath-taking – like walking on to the virtual CGI set of The Day After Tomorrow except that these vast frozen rivers really are there in front of you.   They really are that big, that majestic, that much of a 'must see' that no photo that we've taken can ever come close to really conveying their ability to make your jaw hit the floor.

The third thing that made us stop after Fox and Franz? Well - we were on our way back across to Christchurch to stay with our new friends, Allen & Letitia (who we'd met previously at Denis' place just over a week earlier), and had taken Arthur's Pass as our route across the country when we spied some of the most interesting rock formations a little distance from the road.   They turned out to be Kura Tawhiti; giant weathered limestone creations that jut from the hillside.   Needless to say, we pulled over to have a look before heading on. Again, we don't really think the pictures do them justice but hopefully you'll get some idea of the scale of these outcrops!

And so, we arrived in Christchurch and spent a couple of days with Allen & Letitia. It really is testament to the friendly nature of this country that these two let us stay in their home having only met us just once before. They live right on the coast, and we were able to take some great walks along the seafront whilst we were there. The added bonus of home-cooked meals, garden-grown fresh vegetables, bedding, central heating, rum & cokes and episodes of Two and a Half Men on DVD made it really difficult to leave!

But, leave we did. After all, we had a ferry to catch to the north island & a plane just a few days away waiting to take us to Australia....