After a somewhat leisurely past week, it was now time to stop all this trekking and sightseeing nonsense and just get some miles under our belt. We had come stuck when putting our travel plan into action, as we'd definitely underestimated the actual size of New Zealand. As such, we had only given ourselves one and a half days to reach the port at Picton from our current destination of Queenstown; a distance of 550 miles (just under 900kms for you metric fans), w...

We were met with clear skies the next morning and as such, we were advised to take a side trip up Conical Hill, a tough little peak rising from Harris Saddle, the plateau which can expose walkers to the most extreme weather conditions. The extra climb can add a couple of hours onto what was already a five hour trek, but as we were promised even more spectacular views at the summit, we thought it to be a worthwhile addition. We filled our bellies with porridge an...

The eve of our Routeburn trek was spent undertaking the usual administration duties, as we like to call them. Even more so for Shaun now, as he's set up a business with a friend of his back in the UK. As he worked, I 'faffed', as Shaun calls it - although it's this obligatory planning and sorting that made these type of things happen for us in the first place! I guess we have a silent understanding of how we work separately and together, which has been finely tun...

The morning of our New Zealand road-trip dawned and we quickly vacated our makeshift garage-cum-bedroom in the first light to pick-up our van. We'd become quite accustomed to the camper-life during our previous three trips in Australia, so getting on the road again felt quite comforting - almost like going home. The turnaround at the Christchurch Apollo Camper depot went smooth enough. Granted, there was the usual queuing, paperwork filling and being fear-monger...

In the weeks leading up to our departure from Melbourne, something just didn't seem right. Despite the fact that we were close to embarking on the final - and possibly most interesting - chapter of our journey, we weren't filled with the same wonder, excitement and trepidation that we felt when leaving our 'native' Manchester in November 2011. In truth, neither Anne nor I really felt anything. Well, that is except for the gut-wrenching heartbreak for leaving a c...