Coldy Cavey Our first stop was Waitomo where the next day we were all (bar Nan) booked onto a black water caving trip thanks to Darren's research! We made our way out of Auckland and got onto the country roads pretty quickly. We stopped off at Hamilton for a spot of lunch and obviously, with Mum and Nan, a bit of shopping. As we had the whole day to get to Waitamo so took the coastal scenic route. Unfortunately the coastal road was not scenic for us at all. ...

Tourbus, secret santa and Mary P With one day left in Auckland with the whole group we had a 'free' day to amuse ourselves. It was just a relaxing day though we had secret santa in the afternoon so with a budget and our secret names we all went off exploring different parts of Auckland. Mum, Dad and Nan spent the day on the main high street of Auckland doing some shopping. Rob and Math had met up with Amanda and Elle the night before after a short separatio...

IT'S CHRISSSSSTMASSSSS!!! Christmas Eve After a frustrating delay with the infamous Jetstar we arrived in Auckland and 'The Rendevous' where we saw the familiar faces of Gail, Jenny and Math. It was so nice (and emotional) seeing them again. Rob and Chris had gone looking for us so we caught up with them just a few minutes later. Everyone looked really well and the conversation started flowing immediately. This was soon brought to a pause when, not much lat...

M&D in Queenstown Queenstown is beautiful and the weather here made up for the bad weather in Dunners, it was sunshine the whole time. Dad had left the best hotel until last with 'The Rees'. It is an amazing hotel with spectacular views across the lake and 'The Remarkables' mountain range. The spacious apartments had all the mod cons including, much to Mum's delight, a washing machine! It is only a 30 minute walk to the town but if you don't have the ene...

M&D in the Catlins Coast and Invercargill It was a long drive from Dunedin to Invercargill and again we stopped off at a few places along the gorgeous Catlins coast. The weather had picked up which was good as the wind was so strong along the southern coast we were nearly blown away. We visited some lovely beaches and took a few short scenic walks into the wilderness along the beautiful, rugged coastline. Our favourite spot had a huge rocky plateau with w...