Welcome back Gypsy! We have a Facebook group now too, if you are on fb and wanna join, send me a friend request and pm me. (Facebook.com/flyingduster)
We stayed at the raincliff youth camp, inland from Timaru ish. Awesome facilities there, and yeah, zeeeeero cellphone coverage anywhere even walkable easily so no temptation once settled in to even bother checking online. So good. Haha.