Reports from a variety of sources along the way meant that we were expecting something pretty special from NZ's South Island. On crossing the Cook Strait and into Queen Charlotte Sound passing impossibly pretty bays and inlets as the ferry headed towards Picton, we began to feel that we would not be disappointed. That was almost 5 weeks ago, and if anything, our experiences of this part of the world have surpassed expectations. The South Island is more rugge...

We opted to rent a campervan (good thing too) and have made good use of it, having travelled just less than 1000 miles so far in the North Island. We have seen some beautiful landscapes - stunning coastlines, green rolling hills and rugged snow capped Mountains. The terrain is similar to the extremes of the Lake district and the far North of Scotland (so Simon tells me) but much better because there are a lot less people around here. The similarities to the...

Arrived in Auckland on Tuesday. Should have been Monday but due to our crossing of the date line we lost a day. Pretty good though as we managed not to spend a single penny of our daily budget! Now that we are back to civilisation, we are catching up on chores and Lisa is of course shopping. That days money saving was gone within 2 hours of getting into town. Her definitions of 'want' and 'need' seem to be pretty much the same thing, or maybe I am just a tig...