Stage two of my travels started in Te Anua by befriending a Manchester traveller Theresa. She not only put me onto a superb Milford Sound cruise deal ($99 including coach pick-up from Te Anua and cruise) but we hit it off as well. Sharing a bottle of wine and block of chocolate that night cemented a friendship that saw us travelling together for the next five days. The cruise deal was excellent, considering it would have cost me around $70 to drive the 117 km ...

My holiday got off to a dubious start. In fact, I wasn't sure if I didn't need to delay it a day after spending the day/night before departure in bed, wracked with fever chills while sweating and freaking out with weird dreams. While tired, I decided getting away may be a good distraction so Sunday, I set out for Hokitika on the West Coast. I took my time, listening to my trashy novel on MP3, covering quite a bit of ground already seen from previous jaunts to ...

Two nights in the Marlborough Sounds when the sun is shining is enough to have felt like you have had a holiday. I was invited to go with Kat, her boyfriend Mark and two of their friends Hannah and Herbie to Mark's bach (holiday house) at Raehiti in the Kenepuru Sounds. It's about 40 mins by boat or 2.5 hours by road - luckily Mark has a boat! We arrived in the late afternoon and spent the Friday night chilling at the bach with a few drinks, a quick quad bike ri...