The ancient Maori practice of synchronised tea-bagging. Designed to extract the maximum steepage when you have too much water and too few tea bags. If only there was another solution to having too much water!!!!! DW

Tea time at the Waihononu hut in the New Zealand National park where Leah is doing her first multi-day hike or tramp as the Kiwi's call it. Looks a little odd?!? Well some numpty (me) forgot to bring any mugs!! As everyone knows Leah is a prolific tea drinker so we had to improvise. Sadly the best we could do was an empty soup tin, and basic physics should have warned us that this was not an ideal receptacle for hot liquids. Thankfully Leah's ingenious soluti...

Dinner on our first night of the tramp, Me not looking so happy about the luminescent tomato soup. But after a hard day's walk I wasn't too fussy!! DW

Really Almost There It is fair to state that I was quite dubious about this hiking business. Not sure that I was that interested in spending all day in burning sun or driving rain to walk up hill for a view of a mountain, weather permitting anyway, to have to go down again without slipping over on the rocky paths. However, after the success of our one-day hike in Akaroa, I was persuaded to give the three-day Tongariro Northern Circuit a go. After the first hou...

LZ rocking the hiker look at the start of the Tongariro Northern circuit. Seven hours later and she wasn't quite so smiley. But she is a trouper and made it in style! Her joy at arrival was only slightly dampened by the lack of showers, and yet again she showed her mettle by doing it the Kiwi and bathing in the river. Well nearly, the presence of a nearby campsite meant it was Kiwi style plus bra and pants... And I thought she was half French!!! DW