This will be the last NZ entry as we fly out to Australia next week (to see Fran's cousin, Gilly; and to Brisbane to see Andy's cousins, Larry and Julie). We're currently enjoying a weekend off (!) in Christchurch - doing no real sightseeing and living it up in a studio flat (instead of our tent). Since our last blog we've done some more hiking, this time in the Aoraki Mountains (Mount Cook area). We climbed up 1km to just shy of 2,000m to stay the night in the ...

It's been 12 days since our last blog and we're now two-thirds down the South Island of NZ. We've been travelling with our friend, Doc, who's out from Ireland for a three-week holiday. It's been a bit of a whirlwind tour as he flies out of the country tomorrow, but we've spent two days in Abel Tasman National Park on the northern coast of this Island. The day sea kayaking was perfect - great sun, a few rough bits of water, seals and blue penguins. The second day ...

Following 50kms of wilderness 'tramping', we are today having a rest day at the foot of Mt Taranaki in the SW of the North Island. We're sharing a (relatively) luxurious cabin with Chiho, a Japanese friend we met on the trek. Unfortunately the weather isn't good today otherwise we'd probably be trying to make the summit of the nearby 2,500 metre Mt Taranaki (used for the filming of the Last Samurai to represent Mt Fuji). The hike saw us carrying our packs with f...

This is our eighth day on the road in NZ; the sun is shining again after a couple of cloudy days and an evening storm. We spent three days travelling up the east coast as far as Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands. There was quite of lot of Maori history to take in, including the Waitanga Treaty grounds where relations between the British and the Maoris turned a corner in 1840. We came back via the hilly west coast marvelling at the huge Kauri trees. The logging activ...

We landed in New Zealand four days ago, having lost a day due to the international dateline. We've been staying with Brendan and Nat in their lovely house near Mission Bay (Andy worked with Brendan at Save the Children.) We've done quite a bit of socialising since our arrival as we met Sarah & John for a drink last night (Fran worked with Sarah at the OU) and had dinner with Angela and her family the night before (a college friend of Andy's from his Sligo da...