We'd enjoyed Christchurch and were a bit reluctant to leave, but we had to because there is so much ahead of us to see. We'd had a glimpse of the Banks Peninsula from the top of the Gondola and it did look enticing. Our drive there was over narrow, steep climbing roads with lots of intrepid cyclists and wonderful views over land and sea. From the top of the saddle overlooking Akaroa harbour - very like a Scottish sea loch but actually a flooded volcanic crater (a...

We touched down in New Zealand - our 17th country and 13th totally new country - at 11 pm on 29 February.We'd booked a room ahead at the Hotel So right in the centre of town and it turned out to be really handy, not to mention very unique.It was also good value, possibly because we didn't have a window, but it did have every mod con and more to hand.It had a large wall-mounted flat screen TV at the foot of the bed which showed 'mood scenes' of New Zealand to wake...

When we were in the Philippines being kept awake by the karaoke we'd looked back at our second trip to SE Asia and came to the conclusion that we didn't get as much out of it as we should have - mainly because we hadn't properly researched and planned it.We also looked at our onward journey to New Zealand and South America and came to the conclusion that the latter especially is so huge that it really needs to be thoroughly planned in advance if we are going to e...

A night stop over in a lovely area we passed through over a year ago. E+M

We had a very uneventful Air Asia flight, thank goodness, from Kuala Lumpur and a smooth touchdown at Gold Coast Airport at Coolangata in Queensland a little bit later than scheduled.As we were arriving in that neck of the woods we had contacted Kath and Col whom we, and Tam, had met six months ago in Alice Springs. We'd suggested a quick cup of coffee as we passed by Pottsville, but they insisted we should stay the night.It was very generous of them and we were ...