Landed to Irish weather in Christchurch - raining cats & dogs. Same as Auckland. Got booked into a hostel and tried to go for a walk but the rain was torrential so used the Irish solution - went for a beer.
Had rang a number of companies trying to hire a campervan but to to avail. One company had said they may be able to put one together - sounds good? So rang the next day and yes they had one for hire at 1PM. got picked up and collected the Nissan Homy from the airport depot. The guys were hilarious and seemd more interested in having the crack than hiring a van.

Drove that night to Hamner Springs and while there were still a few showers the weather had improved. It was an area of hot springs and a major river with jet boating etc available.

With the weather stil uncertain drove through the Lewis Pass to Westport that night and parked near the beach. Went for a long walk down the beach to views of the setting sun and rainbows in the distance.

Scenery that day was quite specular along the Buller River and went back the next day for a run up river on a jet boat. This was a 10 seater boat based on a jet ski principle and went about 70 MPH. The route took us 22KM upstream and the driver told a lot about the history and deails about the area. Floods are common withriver levels rising up to 10m. Ater that it was wet and wild. From 70MPH to 0 in about 2 seconds with a spin. This went on as we went down the river and i ended up with bruised ribs as the spins wnet on and on. We all ended up soaked to the skin despite wet gear but the experience was brilliant.

Drove on that afternoon through Greymouth and on to franz Joseph near the glaciers. Still raining at times but had a super drive through some brilliant scenery.

parked out along the river and got a flat wheel - thats when trouble started . No spare wheel and everywhere closed that night. Got a bottle of repair kit and managed to get to a garage the following morning but had to drive to Fox for a repair (20Km) As we were there then went on a few walks up to Fox glacier and drove back to Franz Joseph that night.
Next day a six hour walk to the glacier proved to be a fantastic experience as the route went up over rocks and narrow paths to a lookout over the glacier. Tiered but in good form the drive to Haast was easy since after an hour or so we were in flat farming countryside most of the route.
went to bistrofor supper and as usual ate to much as it was a buffet.