Call me a wimp but there was no way on earth I was going to jump off the Kawarau Bridge (site of the original bungy) with a giant elastic band around my ankles! Only a 43 metre drop. The Nevis Bungy (suspended from a cable car) is a stomach churning 134 metres. Watching from the viewing platform was good enough for me. Queenstown has much more to offer than just adrenaline sports. By now we were well into our walking so headed to the Queenstown Hill Track fo...

More glorious scenery! This time the back drop was Lake Wanaka. Also more walks. To start with a fairly gentle climb to the top of Mt Iron. This was followed the next day by the more dramatic Rob Roy Valley Track. In fairness this was also an easy walk but there was much more to see including waterfalls and glaciers. A walk in NZ wouldn't be complete without the odd swingbridge or two to cross. I hate these things!!

After the 11 hour flight we jumped on to a Shinkansen (Bullet) train for the six hour trip to Fukuoka to meet up Ben's friends, John and Carley. They had kindly agreed to put us up for a few days and introduce us to the Japanese way of life. Temperatures were in the low 30's so things off to a good start. Tourist attractions are on the low side, however, in one afternoon we managed to squeeze in the Fukuoka Dome, Sea Hawk Hotel and Viewing Tower. Somehow we man...

First of all a quick history lesson - the world's second atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 at 11.02am destroying a large part of the city and killing approx. 75,000 people. We headed straight for the Hypocentre Park, which has a memorial to mark the spot where the bomb exploded, and the nearby Peace Park. The Atomic Bomb Museum has pictures and actual footage of the bombing. Not surprisingly there is a big anti-nuclear movement in Japan and th...

History lesson number two! The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 killing over 125,000 people. [The original target was Germany]. Again we headed straight for the A-Bomb memorial site and museum. Pictures taken after the bombing show a number of buildings survived including the Gembaku Dome, which is known as the A-Bomb Dome. The Peace Park and museum are much bigger than in Nagasaki. There is a large water memorial to signify the desper...