Writing this from a quiet, no-frills campsite run by the Department of Conservation on the east coast of the South Island. No warden, just put your money in the box. Since the last posting, we have walked the Milford Track, cruised on Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, and seen lots of wildlife along the southern coast: sea lions, seals, penguins, and albatrosses. The Milford Track took us just over 3 days. It proved to be a fairly easy walk, because the wea...

We've arrived in the adventure capital of New Zealand, and no, we haven't been bungy jumping, but there is so much more to NZ than that. We have flown in a helicopter, landed and walked on Fox Glacier, kayaked amongst the penguins and seals in the Abel Tasman National Park and jet-boated near Queenstown. And that is before you mention the scenery. The scenery on the south island gets better and better the further south you go. Down the West Coast the coastline i...

Well, we've just sailed out of Wellington towards the South Island, so after 11 days in NZ, I have time during the crossing to summarise what we've done: Auckland: A sprawling, big city which lived up to expectations. The overriding memories will be of: feeling vertiginous going up the Sky Tower, possibly due to just having flown in, not helped by bungee jumpers flying past the window. Being woken up in the middle of the night at our hostel by someone ...

Well, we've just sailed out of Wellington towards the South Island, so after 11 days in NZ, I have time during the crossing to summarise what we've done: Auckland: A sprawling, big city which lived up to expectations. The overriding memories will be of: feeling vertiginous going up the Sky Tower, possibly due to just having flown in, not helped by bungee jumpers flying past the window. Being woken up in the middle of the night at our hostel by someone ...