Our first stop on the south island was Blenheim, which is a rather businesslike town in the heart of the Marlborough wine region. We stayed in a lovely site next to the river and stupidly allowed the owners to convince us that the best way to visit vineyards the following day was on a bike. We started the day with a run; we have formed a routine that involves me getting up early, taking myself out on a long run, then coming back to pick up Jodie once a goo...

Often a capital city does not represent the character of a country: the wealth, international communities and crime in London is a world away from rural Wiltshire or the North East; thank God Frenchmen are not all like Parisians, and made to measure capitals such as Brasilia and Canberra are rather sterile (from what I hear, having been to nether). Wellington, however is very much a good representation of NZ; very clean, nicely kept gardens, surrounded by water...

We had a day off the booze and drove south to Martinborough which is a small town in the south east of North Island. It is a neat little town, with lots of period houses and a road system laid out in the shape of a Union Flag. It is also another wine region so we were soon 'back on it' and the day ended very messily (which is why I was typing away in a picnic site beside a lake as my rather rough looking wife tried to sleep it off in the van). It was another we...

The 24th was another very very wet day, which was a real shame as we were in North Havelock to see Dame Kiwi te Kanwa and Dame Malvina Major perform at the Black Barn Vineyard. We had planned to get a picnic and spend sometime in the grounds before the concert, but in the end we stayed in the campsite to the last safe moment before getting soaked to the skin as we hurried the 3kms to the concert. Nice. The rain had cause a certain amount of chaos, which worked ...

From Rotorua, we went north east the East Cape and then south to Gisbourne. It is not a major tourist route as there are no major attractions, but the journey makes it worthwhile. Once we hit the coast we were passing beautiful bays, skirting hills and dropping into valleys for the next 300kms, and mostly we were on our own. On the first night we found ourselves in a very rustic campsite near the East Cape Lighthouse, which is the most easterly point in NZ. Bas...