Moving south to Wanaka

We've moved steadily south, motoring an easy 200 - 250km each day, following the hills at the western fringe of the Canterbury Plains. We decided against a visit to Christchurch as the city is still showing the very raw scars of the 2011 earthquake and instead stayed at some very remote DOC camps. 

One was next to Mount Thomas so we climbed it in the afternoon and descended though trees humming to the sound of millions of wasps - not Di's favourite insect!

The view across towards Christchurch

Mountains to the west

A weird, turbulent cloud formation as we descended - 2 hours later the wind arrived with a bang

Since then we've headed inland to central Otago and arrived yesterday in Wanaka where there's a beautiful blue lake, impressive hills all around and lots of ways to spend money for an adrenaline rush - bungy-jumping, sky-diving, jet-boating, gliding; you name an extreme sport and there's an organisation here selling it!