We drove out of Queenstown toward Cromwell. It was a lovely day again and an easy drive through the vineyards of Central Otago. A short 45 mins later and we were in Bannockburn - home of some of the best Pinot noir producers in New Zealand. Unfortunately two of the wineries I wanted to visit I (Felton Rd and Terra Sancta) were both closed as they had both sold all their wine (a good problem to have) but Mt Difficulty was open so we walked up and did a lovely tast...

We woke in our lovely house in Waitomo, packed and had an easy drive up to Auckland airport. A uneventful flight down to Queenstown. We were blessed with a beautiful clear day as we flew over the southern ranges mountains - in particular Mt Cook. We landed and marvelled at the beautiful mountains either side of Queenstown. We caught a taxi into town to our apartment on Adelaide St. It's a great place with a lovely view of the water. We dropped our bags and then...

We woke to the blissful silence and a still warm fire in the slow burning fireplace. It was a glorious sunrise with mists in the valleys. We had a delicious breakfast of farm fresh eggs and bread made by our host - Sam. We then met Sam to feed the alpacas. They are skittish animals but with some feed we were able to coax them to eat from our hands - they have lovely soft eyes and are peaceful animals. We drove down into Taupo to the eye-site tourist informati...

We arrived back in Auckland at the ferry terminal downtown and Spencer and I went off to get the hire car. A bit of schlepping later and we were in our new commodore SV6 and fanging it down Highway 1 south. We made good time and arrived at the small seaside town of Thames for lunch. We found a suitably dodgy bakery (custard tart of course) and refuelled. Leigh took over driving and we drove up the western side of the peninsula. What an amazing road! - not a st...

It was a rainy afternoon when we arrived. Late in the afternoon I walked up to the town of Oneroa (5 min walk) to buy some groceries for dinner. It was getting less rainy so we all walked up to the Oyster Inn for a pre- dinner snack and drink. What a great place - Leigh and I sipped on some yummy Waiheke island wine and slurped some oysters (bluff and rock oysters) - they were delicious! The kids has some homemade lemonade and we chatted to the locals. The island...