Once we had left Queenstown our journey continued over to Doubtful Sound where we boarded the Nautilus for an overnight cruise. We saw a whale , heard a blue penguin ( no it was not telling rude jokes! they just hide in the bushes). We also heard a kiwi which is a nocturnal bird and therefore seldom seen. The sandflies were extremely annoying as it was a very calm day. We sailed out into the roaring 40's of the Tasman sea before returning to the shelter of the so...

Here we are overlooking the "Remarkables" so called because they turn a remarkable colour in the setting sun. Queenstown is the home of the first Bungy Jump and where our son Daniel made his leap into the unknown. Neither of us are going to copy this adventure. Yesterday we enjoyed a jet boat ride for an hour up river from Haast. In the evening we enjoyed the stunning views over Queenstown and surrounding mountains from the Skyline restaurant. Today we...

We have now reached Greymouth where rainfall is measured in metres not millimetres. We enjoyed our trip down from Auckland with an overnight stay in Rotorua where we met an "old geyser". The golf course has hazards of hot bubbling mud pools and the town has a sulphurous odour. We took a float plane to get a better view of the geology and it was stunning. After Rotorua we moved on to Napier, where we were taken on a tour of the Art Deco features of the...

We have now arrived in Auckland after 4 days in LA. Whilst in LA we took a tour of Hollywood and also went to Santa Monica where route 66 finishes. We were also in LA for Obama's inauguration which meant we had to watch the TV while we were eating breakfast. We have lost the 23rd of January due to travelling overnight from LA and then crossing the international dateline. The first thing that struck us about NZ is how clean it seems the air and the road side ve...