We arrived in Auckland mid afternoon and decided to treat ourselves to a Mexican meal for New Years Eve. We then headed down to the harbour vaiduct area for a few drinks and to watch the fireworks from the Skytower. It was a really good night although Kim managed to stub her toe and while it was a very minor injury it bled hugely, shocking a passing clubber who tried to insist Kim went to A&E. Sense prevailed and we ignored him and the only lasting damage is ...

An easy hours drive from Taupo took us to Wai-o-Tapu, a geothermal park. We raced to get there for 10.15am, the time when the Lady Knox Geyser erupts on a daily basis. Wow, we thought, a natural phenomena with an inbuilt clock.... how does a geyser know when it's 10.15am?! Well we did feel a little foolish to find out it wasn't quite a natural event, rather that the eruption was coaxed with a bit of soap powder. Still it was impressive! The rest of the park was c...

From Picton we got the Blueridge ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington. On arrival in Wellington we headed straight to the Te Papa, national heritage museum (which was free - hooray!) The first exhibit in the museum stated 'nowhere in New Zealand is safe from natural disasters'...oh lovely...now you tell us...! We then read all about how to secure your house from volcanic ash, how to survive an earthquake and how to recognise a tsunami and actually experienc...

From Abel Tasman we headed for our Xmas destination...Nelson! We had decided to treat ourselves to a little luxury and had booked ourselves a cottage. After the hotel getting our booking wrong we finally got into our cottage and found that it was everything we had hoped for complete with 4 poster bed, spa bath, double shower, fireplace, a courtyard overlooking a stream, Sky TV, and a DVD player...bliss! We had scoured South Island for santa hats and finally foun...

We did the long drive up to Abel Tasman National Park and booked to do a cruise and walk. This involved cruising up the gorgeous coastline of the National Park and being dropped off halfway up to do a 2 hour walk. The weather was stunning and the walk was great though Kim did have a little whinge about the fact that the company had all its facts wrong... They said it was a steep but short uphill climb and the rest of the walk was downhill. WRONG! IT WAS 5KM UPHI...