Nic writes… After leaving a slightly rainy Queenstown and saying goodbye to my parents for the last time before they headed back to the UK, we drove north to the eastern side of the Southern Alps. When we visited the western side of the Southern Alps (to see the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers) the weather was miserable and we barely saw the mountains, so we had our fingers crossed. Luckily, the weather was beautiful, which made the glacial blue lakes and white m...

Richard writes... After an enjoyable flight from Brisbane (I watched Mockingjay part 1 and they handed out free lindt chocolates), we arrived in Auckland where we spent a few days relaxing in a very nice apartment and exploring the city with Nic's parents. Whilst in Auckland, we were on the edge of another cyclone (the one that devastated Vanuatu). This was the third country on our trip to greet us with a cyclone, but thankfully we were yet again a good distance...

Nic writes… Our last two weeks in Australia were lovely. We had a hired car, so no worrying about public transport (and petrol is cheap), accommodation was all booked in advance and the weather was almost perfect. We visited the Blue Mountains first, named as the gum trees supposedly give off a blue haze. Our journey out there took us via the Sydney Olympic Park. The Sydney Olympics in 2000 were the first Olympics that captured my attention (and I have been h...