We quickly established that New Zealand is the country of extremes when we were warmly welcomed with the notorious blow-you-off-your-feet winds in Christchurch.
Despite being the south island's largest city, Christchurch is still recovering from the devastating 2011 earthquake. While the town still looks broken (the famous cathedral is still half crumbled and only accessible to pigeons) its people certainly aren't, and we were both struck by how lovely everybody was.
But, after picking up our slightly retro white Nissan, it was time to hit the open road.
Driving the meandering roads through New Zealand's towering terrain was a massive highlight - with frequent stop offs to gape at shimmering blue lakes, snow-capped mountains, or hidden-away beach coves.
Our first stop was Lake Tekapo, known as one of the best spots in the world for star gazing.
Blessed with scorching sunshine and blue skies (the beautiful weather seemed to follow us around after the windy start) we ambled around the sprawling lake before the main event at 2am when we headed down to the quaint lakeside church to star gaze.
I can't put into words just how magnificent it was. But what struck me more than anything was a realisation that our whole world is such a small piece of the puzzle - one I could only still start to grasp as it lay on a twinkling carpet of purple-twinged sky above.
Back on the road, we stopped at possibly the bluest lake we saw (and there were lots of contenders) at Lake Pukaki, and a beautiful lavender farm buried in the mountainous terrain (with lavender ice cream!), before arriving at Mount Cook.
It's a super-serious climb to scale the peak, but we did a great three-hour walk around the Hooker Valley of the mountain, ending in a small and near freezing-cold lake that was floating with bizarrely-shaped remnants of a melting ice glazier.
Eager to see as much of the island as possible in just two weeks, we drove a chunk of the east coast down to Dunedin after a stop off at the pretty Oamaru for some local cheese and our first sight of sea lions lazing on the beach.
Dunedin was a pretty city with lots of historic buildings, such as the spectacular railway station. The city also has the world's so-called steepest street (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) which was a more peculiar attraction.
From Dunedin we travelled along the south coast through the magnificent Catlins region. The drive peppered with stop after stop of nature's finest work - from the stunning rock formations peeking out from Nugget Point, to the colossus Cathedral Cove caves.
We stopped at Curio Bay for the night, allowing us to properly explore the fossils of its ancient forest (apparently 180 million year olds), known as the petrified forest.
We were also lucky enough to see a solitary yellow-eyed penguin, an endangered breed that is unique to New Zealand, and two Hector Dolphins - the smallest and rarest marine dolphins in the world - splashing around and riding waves together in the bay.
Our next stop, now on the west coast, was the lake town of Te Anau, our base for visiting the fiords of Milford Sound. The drive from Te Anau was spectacular, with the picture perfect reflection from Mirror Lake, the enchanted moss-covered trees in Lake Gunn nature walk, and the huge stone formations at the Chasm.
Then at Milford Sound we took a boat tour through the fiords out to the Tasman Sea, getting up close to the towering peaks and waterfalls.
Queenstown, the island's adventure capital, was next up, after a short stop at possibly the most beautiful cricket ground in the world (totally unplanned, it turned out the England under-19s were playing as we were driving past).
We decided to have a go at the outdoor luging in Queenstown (there is SO much on offer, but we were saving ourselves for a future skydive).
After catching the cable car up to the top of a mountain, a pretty good experience in itself with incredible views of the city, we hopped in the toboggan-like vehicles to hurtle down the bendy track.
We also sampled a must-eat Ferg Burger (it was super tasty, although the queue took nearly an hour!), and watched the bungee jumpers from the pretty Kawarau Bridge.
Another unplanned adventure saw us glamping - nearby in Kingston as Queenstown was so full up - which was pretty fun, and actually much nicer than a few hostels we've stayed at.
Working our way up the coast we arrived at beautiful Lake Wanaka - basically a more tranquil Queenstown.
We got to the quirky Puzzling World - it has the world's first 3D maze, along with other bizarre illusion things - and also visited a great independent cinema called Cinema Paradiso (with great cookies recommended by our friend Sophie). We saw a film called Three Billboards which was fantastic, go see it!
Lake Wanaka also has a random lonely tree in the lake, which makes for really beautiful pictures.
We next hit the east coast - glacier land, with Fox and then Franz Joseph glaciers. The latter is much more spectacular and sparkles ice blue under the sunlight. Quite a sight.
On our way up to the top of the south island we also visited the Pancake Rocks - basically layered rock formations that look abit like pancakes. Scientists are actually still not 100% sure how the rocks even ended up like this, which I found pretty cool.
We also wound away a few hours watching the lounging seals on the rocks at Cape Foulmouth before reaching the top of the south island - Abel Tasman National Park.
We checked into a great backpackers (Kanuka Ridge Abel Tasman Backpackers) and after help from the owner Stu arranged for a boat to drop us down the coast, before we hiked 24kms back alongside golden beaches and ice-cold water pools.
It was a great send off for our whirlwind two weeks catching the incredible nature of New Zealand's south island. It's truly blown us away (and not just with the wind) Next up; the north.
