Hello Frinton...Goodbye NZ We found Val and John's beautiful house quite easily and it was really nice to see a familiar Frinton face all the way out here. Their hospitality was amazing we enjoyed our own ensuite, fresh towels, lunch and dinner and breakfast laid out for us the next day-perfect! Val and I chatted late into the night and James and I managed to unpack Monique and repack our backpacks, you can probably imagine the mess we made in our room. We wi...

Poor Knight's Island James and I thought we were 'it' with our PADI logbooks from Colombia, Panama and Fiji until we realised we were onboard with a marine biologist, a woman who practically runs diving in the UK and a professional underwater photographer and diver explorer! It did put us in our place but also gave us hope that the dive was going to be good if all the big wigs were coming here. We got concerned when we saw all the pros with dry suits and we ha...

Taupo is a really nice town and our campsite was brilliant. We befriended a lovely guy from Canada and did some short walks around the area. James went into a thermal hot spring with a mini waterfall and we made use of the library wifi. The next day we had quite a long drive to Coromandel bay. The next day was one of the only rainy days we had in NZ but it didn't deter our explorations as we head first for hot water beach, only to find the tide was in and we ...

Mount Doom We caught the early morning ferry across to Wellington and drove around the posh suburbs as the weather was glorious again. We drove along the west coast and stopped off at a few beaches before setting up camp for the night. We headed to Whanganui and then drove the river road up to Tongariro National park. The river road had a nice walk, where we had to calmly stroll past a massive bull and avoid a lot of sheep poo. The views along the road were ...

Lewis, Abel and Nelson James and I left the next day feeling sad but Lewis Pass had some great views and we stopped at Mahuia springs for a soak to cheer ourselves up. We decided that Lewis Pass was our favourite of all the passes due to the beautiful views and the short but scenic walks available. We got to Abel Tasman and the next day we were off on our kayaking trip. The wind was quite strong so we had a tough job getting out of the bay. Luckily I am a su...