This blog doesn't just cover Auckland, it basically covers our journey from Queenstown down to Te Anau and Milford Sound and then back up the West Coast, the ferry crossing from Picton to Wellington and the final drive up to Auckalnd. We left Queenstown early on the Tuesday morning and drove south, heading to Milford Sound. Now Milford Sound is very close to Queenstown but unfortunaly there is a big pile of mountains in the way so you have to drive all the wa...

When we left Christchurch, we were warned by the hostel receptionist that Queenstown was incredibly busy and we would struggle finding cheap accommodation... if any at all. On the way we went to tourist information and spent a million hours trying to find something and ended up having to settle for apartments costing nearly 20 pounds a night! We got to Queenstown at about 10pm and were told that they would leave the key in our apartment door for us, when we got t...

We left Sydney for New Zealand at about 6pm and arrived in Christchurch at 11.30pm local time. We got our bags from the plane pretty quickly and got to immigration at  11.45pm. The immigration officers asked us briefly about the last country we had visited before Australia and how much time we had spent there. We answered all their questions and thought nothing of it! We got into the queue for customs and exiles and declared our spices and tea that we brough...