Hi all, We travelled a few hundred kilometers up the road to Tongariro National Park. The scenery on the way was nice but not quite as spectactular as the Southern part of the South Island that we visited. We arrived late that evening and quickly visited the Infomation Centre to figure out what walks we could complete, there was loads. We camped out on the side of the road a couple of k's out of town (well, one hotel, one camping ground and a pub) and it was cold...

Hi all, Well, from Kaikoura we made our way up to Picton to catch the ferry to the North island. We slept in the countryside and checked in at 06.45 the next morning. I stared at Kate Hudson for two hours (some family movie) then read for the final hour of the crossing. I took an instant disliking to Wellington for some reson and I have no idea why. We parked up and visited a mssive Museum which was pretty impressive. After this we had a really good look around t...

Hi all, Well after a long drive and another night in the back of beyond we finally arrived in Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a small town which was an old whaling station. It had stunning scenery and a real sea side town feel. We explored town which took all of about 10 minutes we then started to go on a shower hunt. After a few enquiries we made the executive decision to pay and use a backpackers facilities for the whole day. It was just like the hotel out of the Shinin...

Hi, We arrived in Frans Josef after 6 hours of driving which apart from the views, was inanely boring due to the lack of radio coverage in New Zealand....! We were pretty lucky as there were only two spaces left on the full day glacier adventure (8 hours) which was cool. After some soup on the main road it was off to bed with the fingers crossed that we didn't get caught as we were right in town. It was an early start and to register and collect the gloves,...

Hi all, It was time to battle the huge mountain that looks down over Queenstown. Instead of taking the Gondola up it, the new hardy walking shoes came out and we made the steep 1 hour climb to the summit. Well worth the effort as when we arrived, we crossed a bridge where 'Luges' whizzed beneath us, a Helicopter came and landed on the big 'H' painted on the landing pad and the view over Lake Wakatipu was astounding. That was all in the first 3 mi...