Goodbye New Zealand And so after two months in this fine country, we wave goodbye and part on good terms. We've had some good times, we've had some times we thought were ok at the time but looking back were also good times and we have had some very good times. But like a lover who you thought was good but then found out had a few unnamed sexually transmitted diseases, it is time to go our separate ways. Not that I am saying that New Zealand is rife with STDs or ...

Dear Simone and Jamie Thank you for buying us Staying in a s***hole for our wedding gift. We had hoped that we didn't need to use it and we had survived this far but unfortunately failed at the last hurdle in New Zealand. Let me tell you about the Happy Apple hostel in Motueka. We might have got a bit lazy by the time we picked this place because I think we based it purely on that fact that it had a good name. That would explain why we ended up in a twin room ...

Dear The Grimseys Six years ago when I was living in Wellington, I won a bet with a woman in a nightclub. She didn't believe that there was a small town on the west coast of the South Island called Barrytown and in Barrytown you could go and spend your day making your own knife. The prize for winning the bet was free coffee if I was to ever go to the coffee shop she owned in Te Aro Valley. At the time and still to this day, I have never liked coffee so it was ...

Dear Jim and Alan Thank you for buying us the funky cinema in Wanaka as a wedding present. It was a really fun way to watch a movie. Cinema Paradiso is a unique cinema experience. The theatre is made up of a jumble of sofas, old reclining chairs, a converted VW Beetle and other assortments of things to sit down on, all of which lend themselves to a more relaxed, enjoyable cinema experience. Added to this, it is the sort of place that actively encouraged the pu...

GOING ALONE So I have just finished the Routeburn trek. A three day hike through some of the most beautiful scenary in the South Island. When Donna and I were planning our honeymoon trip, we thought that after four months spending every day together, we might like to have a little time apart. So I picked the Routeburn track, an old Maori path through the Southern Alps and one of New Zealand's 'eight great walks' while Donna decided to spend three days in ...