2nd June to 10th June Wellington to Waitomo Caves It was dark and difficult to get our bearings and it took a while to find our campsite in the suburbs of Wellington. The campsite roadsigns took us round in circles for about half an hour in the town called Lower Hutt. We woke up late in the morning as the day was windy, cold and grey. We drove towards Wellington, which we could see on the other side of the natural harbour. It took around 10 minutes by car to d...

30th May - 2nd June 27 Nelson to Picton We drove back to Nelson and stopped overnight on the way to Picton to catch the ferry to the north island. Again, it was a very sunny day so we meandered into town, sat and had a coffee outside a café, which was a rare occasion here in NZ during winter. We'd decided that we would go and see Indiana Jones, the new movie, seen as though we'd seen all the old films. So, again we went and had fish and chips, trying the Blue ...

24th May - 29th May Abel Tasman Inland and Coastal Trek Day 1: Marahau 0m to Castle Rocks Hut, 720m -11.5km (5 hours)Day 2: Castle Rocks Hut to Awapoto Hut, 600m - 13km (5.5 hours)Day 3: Awapoto Hut to Whariwharangi Hut, 0m - 14km (5 hours)Day 4: Whariwharangi to Awaroa Hut, 0m - 13km (8 hours)Day 5: Awaroa Hut to Bark Bay, 0m - 11.5km (4 hours)Day 6: Bark Bay Hut to Marahau and Motueka - 21km (5 hours)Total distance walked: 84km (52 miles) There was no rush to...

13th May - 23rd May South Brighton to Motueka We arrived in South Brighton in the afternoon, after driving around in circles not finding the place for ages - they don't seem to like sign-posting places in NZ. South Brighton is situated on the north shore of Christchurch. It seemed to look like it would be a holiday spot, but as it turned out, it was basically Christchurch suburbia. We filled our day by going to the supermarket, then going into Christchurch to up...

5th - 12th May Wanaka to Mt. Hutt We left Queenstown and headed to Wanaka which was on Lake Wanaka with the snow capped mountains in the background. Arriving pretty early as it was only over the mountain pass, we had chance to look at the lake and find a good campsite. We found one which has free hot spa and sauna (even though you paid a bit extra for it) which sounded especially appealing as Vik was feeling quite poorly. We were planning to do a trek here (Ro...