The journey to Queenstown from Franz Josef was pretty hair-raising (good job Ray doesn't have any)! As we travelled higher into the Haast Pass, the torrential rain turned to heavy snowfall. Most vehicles were stopping to put snowchains on but as we were all-wheel drive we presumed we would be ok and we didn't have chains anyway. The snow ploughs were out and were working well to keep the road reasonably clear -as it's the only road in and out to the west coast su...

The Glaciers were one of the 'must sees' on this trip but yesterday we were all set to leave Franz Josef bitterly disappointed having not experienced the full front of a glacier. The area was having torrential rain and very low cloud and was expected to last until next Tuesday. Unfortunately time is short in New Zealand and we haven't got time to hang around. We made our way to the Franz Josef Glacier but could only view it from quite a distance as the rain was...

Due to 60 knot winds and 8-12 metre swells in the sea (slightly inclement weather) we did not manage to sail out of Wellington on Sunday. Thankfully we were able to check back into our lovely motel and hibernate for another night. Began to think it really was going to become our home!! However, we set sail at 9.00 am Monday as things had improved and have to say not as bad as we were expecting. I am not a particularly good sailor so we stayed on deck which was p...

As we drove into Wellington through the dock area (to book our ferry to the south island), immediate reaction was another city, but we have been pleasantly surprised. Once again the weather making all the difference; raining and cold yesterday, sunny and chilly today. Wellington is the capital city, housing parliament building (the politicians' offices being called the 'Beehive' - hope it's appropriate) and very compact so easily explored on foot. We took the c...

Although the weather was not good on our journey south from Rotorua, cold, wet and windy, the scenery was far from boring. We travelled over the central plateau, a volcanic area, at the centre of which is New Zeland's largest lake, Taupo, a vast water filled crater. The area is also renowned for skydiving, bungy jumping and jet boating, all of which are out of season - thank goodness. At the southern end of the lake is Tongariro National Park which contains thre...