Taupo hosted the annual summer festival today and the town was buzzing with crowds making their way to the gates from mid morning. Rich and Vicki had tickets but we had decided to spend the day exploring instead. Once again it was a day of wall to wall sunshine and we made our way to the Huka waterfalls which are absolutely spectacular with 220,00 litres of clear blue water cascading over the edge every second. We spent a very lazy afternoon on the beach in the...

Several people had told us of the mineral pools and springs in the area so we left the camp site bright and early and followed the signs to the local swimming spot. The temperatures were already rising when we arrived at the pools. Tourist attractions carry a price in NZ as everywhere but just occasionally you can find a little gem and this happened to be one of them. We took the walk through the grounds which had bubbling springs all around us and then booked ...

On our last evening in the South Island we walked from our campsite up to waterfalls and by the time we came back at around 10pm the glow worms were out, nestling in the ferns attached to the rocks. It was the first time we had seen glow worms and it was a magical experience. So pretty. This morning we were up bright and early to head down to the docks ready to board the Interislander ferry in good time for our three hour crossing. Fortunately the weather was f...

Our time in the South Island is coming to a close and it's hard to believe that we are half way through our total trip. We made a short journey of about 110k today to our final campsite just outside Picton where we will spend two nights before catching the ferry over to the North Island. We had planned to meet up with our friends Gordon and Karen here but unfortunately they have had to return to the UK due to a family emergency and our thoughts are with them to...

Today we visited the Abel Tasman National Park, we took the ferry from Kaiteriteri beach to Totaranui it makes about five stops each way. On the return we got off at Anchorage Bay where we spent an idyllic afternoon swimming in the Tasman Ocean, another superb location. The ferry picked us up four hours later for our return trip to Motueka. We finished off the day in the spa with a cocktail. All in all a great day.