We drove from Kaiteriteri in the Abel Tasman National Park to the glacier region, stopping en route to enjoy the ravishing Hokitika Gorge where milky blue water flows through a steep-sided ravine. The colour of the water derives from glacial flour and is truly spectacular. The glacier region is also awe inspiring. We stayed at Fox Village and in the evening went for a walk called the Minnehaha track through rain forest. In day time it is lovely but at night...

Following Roger's sky-diving feat in Taupo we made our way across the Tongariro Reserve and on to Wellington. On the way we passed 3 live volcanoes, one of which was used as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings and is pretty impressive, whilst another was partly covered in snow. The area is a ski area in winter and has that feel about it - we felt we ought to be drinking gluhwein! At Wellington I took the opportunity to get my hair done and managed to find the on...

We drove from the Coromondel Peninsula to Rotarua via the Waitomo Caves. These were billed as one of the top attractions in NZ and initially I was rather blasé about them - all the normal stalactite, stalagmite and column formations given names like "mother and child" "cathedral cave" and "church organ" but we finished the trip with a boat ride in the dark through the glow-worm cave which was stunning. The roof of the cave was covered by thousands of pupae (i...

From the Bay of Islands we drove to the Waipoua Forest where we saw an immense Kauri tree which is estimated to be about 2,000 years old, with a trunk which is 13.8 metres in girth. It was absolutely huge and you could see why it was the focus of many Maori myths. From there we drove to the Coromondel Peninsula where Aucklanders are supposed to pass their summers. It is indeed a beautiful area with a densely wooded interior coming down to white sandy beaches....

We had a somewhat eventful first night in the Campervan. I made the stupid mistake of letting Roger borrow the torch. I know that Alex will think I was out of my mind but he only needed it to locate a video. Anyway he used it for about 3 seconds but it took us a good three quarters of an hour afterwards to locate where he had put it down. We also took ages to assemble the bed on that first night (we have got better at it since) and somewhat optimistically a...