Today we left windy Wellington behind to catch the ferry to Picton, on the South Island. Tim had told me how scenic the journey is (and you would hope so as it takes four hours!) but unfortunately, our views were somewhat obscured by heavy rain and low clouds. It did clear up a little as we entered the Marlborough Sounds so we could at least go out on deck for the arrival into Picton. We are staying at Waikawa Bay Holiday Park for two nights, just 10 minutes awa...

Hello from a wet and windy Wellington! Yesterday we drove from New Plymouth to Wellington via Palmerston North (not much to see there). It should have been a 5 hour journey max but ended up being 7 hours thanks to roadworks about 20km north of Wellington. After going round in circles a few times (thanks to various one way systems), we finally found Gilmer Serviced Apartments, where we are staying in a studio for two nights. We are LOVING a little breather from th...

Despite Phil being a zombie for a while after our early wake up call this morning, we made it to North Egmont Visitor Centre to begin climbing Mt Taranaki at 9am. Thankfully, there wasn't a cloud in the sky! We had been warned that the volcano is too dangerous to climb in bad weather. After layering on the 50+ sun cream, we were well on our way up the first steep track towards the summit - known locally as "The Puffer". The volcano looked spectacular, albeit a l...

We've had a long drive across to Taranaki today, for which there wasn't really a direct route. We decided to give "The Forgotten World Highway" a miss for a less windy and wild route by going up north towards Te Kuiti and round the coast to New Plymouth. On Tom Hill's advice (Phil's good mate from Oxford who grew up there), we are staying just down the road at Oakura Beach campsite. Another lovely plot with a seaview! We stopped on the way at the Whitecliffs Wal...

So this morning's alarm hurt... had we even been asleep yet?! We arrived at basecamp bleary-eyed at 7.50am for the 8.15am shuttle bus to the start of the Tongariro Crossing - one of the world's greatest one day treks. When we visited the information centre in Taupo yesterday we discovered that due to the volcanic eruptions from the Te Maari craters of Mt Tongariro last August and November, the last half of the track has been closed and will be for the forseeabl...