New Zealand - Christchurch to Dunedin

Where to start?
What a beautiful country. Mind you it helps that as yet we have seen only 1 nights rain. We arrived in Christchurch on 14.3.08 late afternoon & booked into our hotel at the airport for the night before picking up our camper van the next day.
On Saturday after picking up the van we spent the day in the City just taking in some of the sites.
Sunday we decided to take the van out for a spin and went to the Banks Peninsular which is just to the south east of Christchurch to Akaroa which is the oldest town in NZ. It is also the one place that the French landed to try to colonise the country not realising that the English were already there. The English, being the good guys that we are, allowed them to stay and this can be seen today as some of the streets & shops have French names.
Monday we went on the Christchurch gondola which looks out over Lyttelton harbour & Banks Peninsular. The top of the ride is situated on the rim of an extinct volcano so, of course we had to have a walk round it. The whole of the peninsular was formed by a volcano which apparently erupted for 1.5 million years.
Being St.Patricks day we ventured to the nearest pub in the evening. It seems that all kiwis have Irish ancestors judging by the numbers there. Just like England!
Tuesday was one of Pat’s must do days. The Trans Alpine Scenic rail ride from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast. It was spectacular. From the dead flat Canterbury Plains up into the foothills of the Southern Alps over rivers & gorges into the mountains themselves. The only thing missing was snow. That will come no doubt.
Wednesday we just toured round in the van as far south as Geraldine & Timaru and back to Christchurch. We would have done more but, not for the first time, managed to lose ourselves trying to get out of the City.
Thursday we upped sticks from Christchurch to head for our next stop at Omarama. On the way we made an unscheduled stop at Rakaia Gorge where there was a jet boat just about to leave so we jumped on for a thrilling 45 minutes or so doing 360 deg. spins & coming so close to the rocks you thought you could touch them. From there we progressed on to Fairlie, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki & Twizel to our destination. Both lakes are an amazing blue colour caused by the refraction of the suns rays off of rock sediment suspended in the lakes.
Omarama is very small-just a few buildings at the junction of 2 highways but it’s claim to fame is gliding & it has held the world gliding championships.
Friday we set off for Dunedin via Lochs Benmore & Aviemore. Stopped off at Duntroon to see Maori cave paintings & Elephant Rocks (see picture) & continued on to Oamaru with its historic buildings & Moeraki to see the Boulders (see picture). Then on to Dunedin where we are staying for Easter.