You can do just about any activity imaginable in New Zealand. The campsite where I'm writing this blog, for example, has leaflets advertising diving, surfing (including kite and sand), skydiving, kayaking, golf, dolphin cruises, sailing, natural history trips, rock climbing, quad biking, horse trekking, caving, helicopter or light aeroplane flights, ten-pin bowling, paintball and lazer combat. And that's without all the cultural and arts and craft activities. Jus...

A bit late with the photo of the week for week 4. Have we really been away a month? New Zealand is famous for many things but one, which gets the naturalists (as opposed to the naturists) really excited, is its flora and fauna. Breaking away from Australia 85 million years ago, before mammals had developed, New Zealand has evolved a set of unique animals and plants. The UK has 2 species that occur nowhere else. New Zealand has 80,000. Over 80% of the all the ani...

The smell of rotten eggs hits us as soon as we open the camper van door. That and the steam escaping from the ground are signs that we've arrived in New Zealand's volcanic heartland. New Zealand sits astride a major fault in the earth's crust where the Pacific continental plate is sliding under the Australian one. That accounts for the earthquakes that regularly occur and in the centre of North Island, around Rotarua and Lake Taupo, generates some intense geo-...

It's funny sometimes, isn't it, how you get a song in your head that seems to have come from nowhere. For the last couple of days I've had one by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters running through my brain: 'You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative And latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between.' It appeared in 'The Singing Detective' by Dennis Potter and has, apparently, recently been covered by Paul McCartney on his ...

That was how the site manager greeted us when we booked into the Wellington Motorhome Park, just after getting off the ferry from Picton. And you can see what he means. The park is situated on the waterfront, right in the middle of the City. It's a bit like camping on the Quayside in Newcastle. It's little more than a glorified car park equipped with electricity hook-ups and a shower block. But it's very convenient. 5 minutes and we can be standing on Wellingto...