It seemed a shame not to have a photo of sheep at least once in New Zealand. It really is true that there are more sheep than people. Another long drive got us to Christchurch, with a lunch stop at the Best View of Mount Cook TM - a turquoise-blue lake (almost like a filled chalk-quarry lake) with the snowy, craggy peak of Mount Cook reflected in it and towering above it - even with the hyperactive children yabbering behind us, it was pretty profound! Christch...

Queenstown, Queenstown, Queenstown - what an epic place. "Epic" because whilst we've been here that seems to have been a recurring word - epic scenery, epic fiords and lakes, epic drives...and epically stupid extreme "sports". Yes, the adventure bug bit me and not only did I deem it a good idea to take up Mum and Dad's belated Christmas present of throwing myself out of a plane (I was attached to a man and his parachute, but still, a ...

Quite possibly the Best Drive in the World Ever took us from Nelson down the coast to Fox Glacier - a long drive but an amazing one. The scenery was spectacular, wild coastline and driftwood strewn beaches on one side of the road and lush rainforest on the other, weird and wonderful rock formations and a transition from the beaches around Nelson into the mountains - snow and everything! We stopped en route at Dolomite Point, famous for the Pancake Rocks (which lo...

Getting over to South Island is, without a doubt, best done on the ferry. The 3 hour crossing took us from the bustle (or not) of the capital across the Cook Strait and into Marlborough Sounds - deep blue water flanked by stunning green hills, with tiny deserted beaches, some with single houses and a boat for transport, and mussel and crayfish farms. We were lucky enough that the weather held until we disembarked, and it was just stunning. So was the coastal roa...

The one thing that has to be said about Wellington is that it's hard to believe it's a capital city. In fact, it takes a bit of convincing to believe it's a city at all - big town perhaps. It's not just it's size - whilst it's not exactly big, it's not particularly small, and at least it has a fe skyscrapers and important-looking offices in the CBD to make it feel a bit moe city-ish - it's the fact that for the weekend we were ther...