25th January We are now in Rotorua and since the last update we have done a good few miles and had a lot of fun.We left Taupo in the rain with the prospect of good weather upon us as the cyclone which is creating the bad weather is headed south.Our next destination is Thames which is the gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula - a finger of land about 30 km wide and about 70 km long which has lush vegetation and lovely beaches as well as a reputation for creativity ...

21st JanuaryI'm writing this from the lap of absolute luxury... a cabin!!And not any old cabin I'll have you know, one with its own loo!I just don't know myself!!Isn't it funny how everything becomes relative, and what now constitutes a bit of luxury?!More of that later.Our time in wellington was great; we really loved the city, heading in there early on Saturday morning where we parked up and made for the museum of New Zealand (Te Papa which is Maori for 'our ho...

18th January I am writing this from the bowels of the Pride of Cherbourg (or the Kaitiki as it's been renamed). It's really weird - I have been on this ship before crossing the English Channel as I recognise the layout of the kids soft play area. We crossed to france when Rosie was about two for a holiday. Little did I know then that I would repeat the experience but crossing between two distinctly different land masses and about 7 years later! How ones life pan...

It's 15th January at the end of a wonderful day watching whales and dolphins - more about that later. We left Franz Josef three day ago and decided to head back to the east coast to find the good weather and avoid the bugs a bit more. Our route took us up the West coast past some Gold mining towns which briefly prospered and then faded to fairly deserted places with a few hundred residents. It's amazing how well kept the history of the towns are though. Even ...

This has been uploaded a couple of days after writing it. 12th Jan Well I'm sitting in the roof of the Bongo with Rosie and it's been a long day. I'll tell you about today later. The last couple of days saw us leave Queenstown and our river trip and head further South to the Fiordland National Park. Ideally we wanted to get right into the Fiords themselves to experience the Glacier created water ways and the splendour of the mountains which come right down ...