Had a lovely few days catching up with old friends in Paraparaumu then headed up through the middle of the North Island. We set out to do the Tongariro Crossing on a trail that varies from easy-going walkways to scrambling up steep, rocky inclines. The colours are amazing though and it's the perfect setting for LOTR - Peter Jackson obviously knows his NZ stuff (Mount Doom, Marion!).We followed this up with a lazy day in Taupo. Never would have thoght I'd ...

Collected my clown shoes, woolen socks, mittens (no string to keep them attached to my waterproof though).... what am I about to do? Climb Franz Josef Glacier of course!! Had a fantastic sunny day walking comedy-stylie in crampons, squirming through crevasses, ice climbing with pick-axes etc. It was absolutely stunning - blue ice (all the oxygen has been squashed out fellow science geeks) and brilliant blue skies combined for some spectacular photos.Moved on to t...

The comedy campervan journey continued west to the the fiordland coast.  There be dragon's in them hills.... Feels a little bit like stepping onto a LOTR set but maybe that's just because of Eszter's enthusiasm for tracking down location sites.  "Ring hunts" have taken us along the bumpiest, dustiest tracks in middle earth which was fine until we realised that the seals weren't as good as they looked (and they look pretty shodd...

Just a quick hello from sunny NZ. Will go back and fill in what I got up to in Australia when I have a little more time (travelling is quite hectic you know!?!) and post some of the comedy photos from Sydney too.So far have travelled from Christchurch via Lake Tekapo to Queenstown. I've met up with a Swiss friend, Eszter who I met whilst travelling through Vietnam, and we're journeying in style.... well if you call a clapped out old campervan sprayed with...

Well, I've finally come back to describe my time in Australia as promised long ago (well, back in February? seems like an eternity). Overall.... I LOVE Sydney. This probably comes as no surprise to people that know me well, but I could easily see myself living here for a while! My time here has been filled with a huge amount of fun. After the plasterer Morgan left, I had a bit of a liver recovery period. Not for long though - wine tasting at an amazing wine b...